Ramen at Chaco Bar, Darlinghurst

It takes fifteen kilos of chicken meat, bones, necks and whole carcasses to make the ramen stock each day at Chaco Bar. Everything gets tumbled into Chef Keita Abe's 70-litre stock pot, a new kitchen purchase that has effectively doubled the number of ramen bowls he can produce each day. The old 35-litre pot could make about 35 bowls of ramen. Now he can push out about 70, ensuring that Sydney noodle-holics will no longer miss out on the city's latest ramen offering.


Chef Keita Abe's grandfather painted on the dining room wall

Chaco Bar has already won over Sydneysiders with its smoky yakitori skewers since opening in August last year. Ramen, or cha-co-men, as Chef Abe likes to call it, is a new lunch service offering available Wednesday to Saturday only. The first bowl goes out at midday. They keep serving until 3pm unless it runs out earlier.

Daytime dining means you get to actually see the entire dining room, a contrast to dinner service when it's all flickering tea lights and shadows.

Fish salt ramen $13

There are just two types of ramen on the menu: the Fish Salt or the Fat Soy. Both start with a base of chicken stock, then either fish stock or soy is added to create each variation.

Standard toppings on each include cha shu fatty roast pork, bean sprouts and a sheet of seasoned nori seaweed. The fish salt ramen comes with plump and silky wontons filled with a huddle of prawn and John Dory. Shredded leeks add a sense of brightness to each slurp of soup.


Black fungus extra topping $2

You can add on a host of extras including seasoned egg ($3), bamboo shoots ($2) and umeboshi pickled plums ($1). A tangle of black fungus ($2) provides crunch against the chewy noodles and lighter style chicken and fish stock soup.


Fat soy ramen $13

You're either a fish salt fan or a fat soy fanatic. You can guess which camp I belong to. The fat soy ramen is just as decadent as the fish salt is restrained. It's everything that's right with this world: a rich and fatty soup, thick slices of wobbly soft pork belly and half a soft boiled egg, soaked in soy for extra flavour.


Choose your pork back fat intensity

You're in control of how much pork back fat you want added to your soup. The scale runs from no fat to extra fat. Go hard or go home, I say!


Cha shu pork with extra pork back fat in the fat soy ramen

Extra fat rewards you with a soup so dense with goodness, it's practically opaque. There's a sweet and porky intensity to the soup, coating your tongue and the sides of your throat as it slides its way down.


Ramen noodles in the Fat Soy

The noodles do well to stand up to the porky onslaught. The fresh noodles are cooked until just al dente, the crinkly ropes satisfyingly dense and chewy.


Steamed rice with pickled mustard greens $4

The fat soy ramen should defeat even the hungriest of appetites but the bowl of steamed rice with pickled mustard greens provides a welcome palate cleanser.


Fresh ramen noodles in the kitchen

Chef Keita Abe lets me into the kitchen for a behind-the-scenes tour. The tiny space - once the site of Jazz City Diner - is tidy and well organised. Even the cloak of steam can't hide his grin as he plunges each basket of noodles into the boiling water. He's in his happy place. And so am I.


The new 70 litre stock pot used for making the ramen stock


Chef Keita Abe draining the cooked ramen noodles 


Ladling stock into bowls


Transferring the ramen noodles into bowls


Adding the toppings on the ramen


Cha-co-men ramen on the pass


Dining chairs and tables 





Chaco Bar (Facebook page)
238 Crown Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9007 8352

Lunch ramen
Wednesday to Saturday 12pm-3pm or until sold out (cash only)

Dinner yakitori 
Monday to Saturday 6pm-10.30pm


Related Grab Your Fork posts:
Chaco Bar yakitori (September 2014)