Crescent Ramen Bar, Sydney

Japanese hostess bar or ramen noodle house? Why not both? Club Crescent's evening gentlemen's club turns into a ramen house by day  - surely a stroke of commercial genius. We bet you've walked past this basement bar and never noticed it before, a discreet set of stairs between the Hilton Hotel and the old Gowings building opposite the QVB. Now it's one of the most talked about ramen joints on Instagram.


Crescent Ramen lounge area

Club Crescent still operates as a Japanese hostess bar, kicking in at 9pm each night. That explains the bar area set-up with numerous lounge chairs and low-set tables for drinks. A couple of private rooms with oversized lounges look a little worn and tired. They're also devoid of tables. It's worth arriving early to score one of the counter seats around the L-shaped bar.


Monthly ramen specials

The menu includes seven varieties of ramen with two monthly specials. You'll need to order and pay upfront at the bar. There's a 50 cent discount if you pay by cash. Take your numbered order holder back to your table and staff will deliver your ramen with surprising efficiency.


Miso chicken and pork stock ramen $16.50

The standard ramen base here uses a mixed of both chicken and pork stock. The resultant hybrid is a pleasing and flavoursome broth, the rich chicken stock emboldened with an undertone of porky unctuousness.

Order the miso ramen and the soup takes on a more savoury and earthy nuance. A good sprinkle of sesame seeds add a toasty nuttiness.The standard noodles served are thick and chewy, the ideal width for carrying the weightier soup. A handful of bean sprouts provide a palate-cleansing crunch.


Bonito chicken and pork stock ramen $16.50

Bonito ramen means a third protein added to the stock, enhancing the flavour profile with a smoky umami accent. Chef Tsuyoshi Shishido appears to acknowledge its weightiness by adding a good handful of raw sweet onions to the mix.


Spicy salt yuzu ramen $15.50

Spicy salt yuzu ramen is a monthly special I can't resist. It's not noticeably zingy with yuzu citrus, but there's definitely a good whack of chilli. It's also one of the few ramen bowls to be served with a sail of nori seaweed (salt shrimp ramen, anchovy ramen and the tsukemen dipping noodles are the others).


Gooey yolked ajitama seasoned boiled egg

The noodles are cooked to the right amount of chewiness, and the pork is tender and fatty but it's the ajitama seasoned egg that steals the show. One bite and the yolk threatens to spill forth like a river of sunshine.

Crescent Ramen is still officially a pop-up but they have extended their original Monday to Friday lunch trading hours to include Saturday lunch and early. They'll be open from 12pm to 8pm on Saturdays. At 9pm it switches back to Club Crescent mode. Ahem.


Entrance to Crescent Ramen Bar on George Street




Crescent Ramen Bar
Basement 468-472 George St, Sydney
Tel: +61 (020

Opening hours
Monday to Friday 11.30am-2.30pm (last order 2pm)
Sat 12pm-8pm (last order 7.30pm)
Closed Sunday


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Gogyo Ramen, Surry Hills

Is it ever too hot for ramen? According to the bustling dining room at Gogyo, Sydneysiders say no. Gogyo, the younger wilder sister to international ramen juggernaut Ippudo, opened in Surry Hills in late December 2017. It's the first outlet to open in Australia, joining branches in Kyoto, Tokyo, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Hong Kong.


Kogashi miso ramen $18

Gogyo's specialty is kogashi-style ramen, a buttery charred broth that requires lard to be heated in a wok to an eyebrow-singing 300 degrees Celsius. We order the kogashi miso ramen, but you can order the kogashi shoyu (soy sauce) variation too.


Kogashi miso with charred miso broth, chicken broth, half umami egg,
pork belly chashu and medium thin noodles

The slick of oil across the surface of the ramen is an indication of its richness. Its smokiness is more on the nutty side, like brown butter pushed to the edge than say, the smokiness you associate with woodfire. There's a mouth-filling buttery richness to the soup, coating each noodle strand with defiance.

Like any self-respecting ramen house, noodles are taken seriously here. Four types of noodle, of varying width and hydrolysis (water content), are matched to specific ramen bowls. That means flat medium-thin noodles with low hydrolysis for the kogashi miso, kogashi shoyu and gogyo tonkotsu; wavy medium noodles with medium hydrolysis for the tori (chicken) shoyu and chilli shoyu; thin soba noodles with medium hydrolysis for the shio (salt) soba and flat medium whole wheat noodles with medium hydrolysis for the veggie soba.


Tonkotsu classic ramen $17
Silky pork broth, half umami egg, bamboo shoots, pork belly chashu and
medium thin noodles

The tonkotsu classic ramen is not to be underestimated either. There's an umami heartiness to this broth, spiced up with a tingle of chilli. The accompaniments - fatty tender slices of pork belly chashu, a gooey boiled egg, pickled bamboo shoots and a generous huddle of chewy noodles - hold their own.


Freshly cooked ramen noodles

It goes without saying that the best seats in this ramen house are at the kitchen counter. It's here that you score a front seat to all the ramen-prepping action, although I was secretly disappointed there was no shaking of ramen basket water all over the floor like they do in Japan. OH&S. Go figure.


Adding ramen fixings

What do you get is a non-stop performance of diligence and precision.


Arranging the pork belly chashu

The kitchen functions like a well-oiled, and quiet, machine.


Cucumber stick $3.50

Before our ramen, we'd started with snacks in the main dining room, where the lighting was much more... romantic. Admittedly I'd scoffed at the idea of a $3.50 cucumber stick, but it turns out to be tastier than I expect. The whole cucumber has been quick pickled so it hasn't lost its crispness, then rolled in sesame seeds for added crunch.


Crackling piggy roll $6

The crackling piggy roll is everything you'd want in a soft and yielding milk bun, with purple cabbage providing a cleansing foil to the sticky slab of pork belly.


Wagyu sukiyaki spring roll $5.50

The wagyu sukiyaki spring roll is another surprise, eating more like a wagyu meat pie with its filling of tender and saucy sliced beef.


Fried rock potato $11

When we finally score a seat at the coveted counter (patience comes to those who wait. And those who keep tabs on exactly which seats are being vacated and when), we continue our snackfest with a order of fried rock potato. Do you love crunchy roast potatoes? You'll love these.

If you can imagine a bowl full of golden potato bits, the kind where the crunch to innards ratio is almost equal, then this could be your dream come true. I know it was for me. And if you're the kind who rejoices in chips with mayo, then the generous puddle of garlic aioli has you sorted.

Codfish saikyo miso $28

We also order the codfish saikyo miso, marinated in sake, mirin and miso before being cooked on the robata grill. The result is a buttery and delicate fillet that flakes apart with the barest of nudges. The flavour is mild miso with a gently caramelised sweetness.


Red bean taiyaki with sobacha ice cream $11

We finish with red bean taiyaki, cute fish pancakes cooked to order in a special taiyaki machine. It's served piping hot in a paper bag just like you'd get at a traditional street stall in Tokyo. You can get a Nutella filling instead but the traditional red bean paste is smooth and not-too-sweet.


Sobacha ice cream

The taiyaki ice cream comes with a scoop of sobacha ice cream on the side. Sobacha means buckwheat tea, its flavour translating to a muted nutty tea flavour. I detect a floral backnote but others say it definitely reminds them of soba noodles.

In any case, Gogyo for the charred ramen. And the fried rock potatoes too. Try the sobacha ice cream for kicks.






Gogyo
52-54 Albion Street, Surry Hills, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9212 0003

Opening hours
Monday to Friday 12pm-3pm, 5.30pm-10pm
Saturday 11.30am-3pm, 5.30pm-10pm
Sunday 11.30am-3pm, 5pm-8.30pm


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Rising Sun Workshop, Newtown

Prison bento? I bet they don't get these at Litchfield Penitentiary. Instead you'll find it part of the breakfast line-up at Rising Sun Workshop, finally opening up on bigger - and permanent - premises on what was once a Mitre 10 shop. Its original pop-up, only a few blocks away, first introduced Sydneysiders to the symbiosis between ramen and a motorcycle workshop. The new digs boast a much bigger space, an expanded menu and a proper kitchen for head chef Nick Smith.


Upstairs dining area

Ground floor seating lets you sneak a look at everything going on in the motorcycle workshop area while basking in the buzz around the coffee machine and in the kitchen. Upstairs a high-ceilinged dining area yields plenty of communal table seating. Tables are large enough so you don't need to sit at the next person's elbow, but create a pleasing sense of energy whether you're dining in a group or on your own.


Prison bento $15
Rolled egg, pickles, miso soup, sesame stalks, silken tofu, yoghurt and rice

The cafe sticks with three menus: breakfast daily from 8am-11am, lunch daily from 11am-4pm and dinners from Thursday to Saturday from 6pm-10pm.

At lunchtime you'll find the same ramen ramen from the original pop-up, a poetic trio of The Dark, The Light and The Monk. Smith has also thrown in a couple of banh mi (grilled kurobuta belly or black pepper tofu). There's always a vegetarian version of each dish.


Rolled egg and steamed rice with umeboshi pickled plum

Breakfast offers a quirky mishmash of Asian influences. The prison bento is a cheeky reference to its presentation on metal food trays, commonly found in prisons but also used in Indian cuisine to present multi-dish thalis. The compartmentalised recesses are perfect for keeping individual curries separated from your rice and pappadums.


Housemade pickles

Smith assembles a multi-textured vegetarian journey, not too far removed from a traditional Japanese breakfast. That means a collection of silken tofu, cooked vegetables, crunchy pickles, a rolled omelette called tamago, a splodge of yoghurt and steamed rice. Even the miso soup comes in a metal cup. Protein seekers can add grilled fish for an extra five dollars.


Breakfast ramen $15
Buttered toast broth, bacon, egg and tomato

Breakfast ramen is one of the those things that you wonder why noone has ever thought of before. Smith infuses the ramen broth with actual pieces of buttered toast, then ladles it into bowls of ramen with bacon, egg and grilled tomato. It doesn't get more East meets West than this.


Ramen noodles

Crinkly noodles are cooked to a toothsome chew, the bacon is crispy, the fried egg has a gooey yolk, there's a sweet acidity from the tomato, and yes, you really can taste buttered toast in the broth. I relished this much more than I thought I would. It works terrifically well.

Next time I'm definitely headed for the Hokkaido milk buns. The version with mushroom, egg and cheese is said to be mindblowingly good.


Flat white with Single Origin Roasters beans

I love that you can have ramen and a really great coffee here. Chief barista, Daniel Cesarano, worked at both Single Origin Roasters and Melbourne's Seven Seeds, and pumps out coffee that is sweet and robust.


Dark chocolate and ginger cookies

Dimity Genaus makes all the treats you'll find in the sweets cabinet. It's a glass cabinet filled with temptation.


Breton Bun $5.50


The Breton Bun is like a kouign amann pastry laden with cinnamon sugar. The flaky caramelised scroll unravels to reveal crisp layers of pastry. Add the crunch of cinnamon sugar and you've got one helluva addictive indulgence.


Sticky date banana loaf $8
with creme fraiche and granola dust

And the sticky date banana loaf is like some crazy tasty hybrid of sticky date pudding and banana cake. A generous dollop of creme fraiche helps allay any overriding sense of sweetness, but the favourite part of this ensemble is that granola dust. It's like crack. I have no idea what's in it, but I need more.



Grab Your Fork on 
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry podcast

Rising Sun Workshop was actually the location of my interview recording for The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry podcast. Lee Tran Lam has been food blogging since 2007 and broadcasting her podcast since 2012. As a regular listener of her podcast, it was an unexpected honour - and rather surreal experience - to be on as a guest and answer the rota of questions I almost know off by heart!

To listen to the podcast, check out Lee Tran's post.


Grab Your Fork's 
food photography tips for Good Food

I was also interviewed by Good Food on my tips for great food photography. I even like that the haters have already left their mark in the comments section! Check out the article (and witty and insightful comments) here.






Rising Sun Workshop
1C Whateley Street, Newtown, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9550 3891

Opening hours:
Breakfast daily 8am-11am
Lunch daily 11am-4pm
Dinner Thursday to Saturday 6pm-10pm


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