Ramen-kan Japanese Restaurant, Sydney

Ramen-kan. Funnily enough, this stylish Japanese noodle restaurant is located on the same strip as Wagaya and Cold Rock - but without an address or a friendly guide, you might never find it.

To enter Ramen-kan, you must SUSPEND YOUR DISBELIEF as you walk into a dingy tin-box lift, press the button for Level 2, and wait for it to slowly grind its way up.

If you make it this far, you will be pleasantly surprised by a prettily-furnished, medium-sized restaurant with polished wooden tabletops and real sheaves of dried wheat hanging from the walls.

The Crab and Corn Ramen comes in a large bowl and is hearty and flavoursome. Like the ramen at Ichiban Boshi, it comes with generous amounts of shallots, fried onions and sesame seeds thrown on top.

Chicken Teriyaki Dinner Bento Box

The chicken was very good - just the right balance between the slightly sticky sweetness and the crispy crunch that teriyaki should have. Typically, the bento box came with a compartment of Japanese short grain rice. This rice is easy to overcook, and it is the mark of a good rice-cooker (and therefore, of course, a good restaurant) when the rice comes out perfectly done! Tick, tick.

I didn't get to try the salad but my mum said it needed more dressing (although my mum always likes her food super-flavoursome... I'm always hearing 'you need to add more salt/oyster sauce/garlic to those veggies lah!' when I'm cooking). The spring rolls were delicious though, nice and crunchy.

Omu-soba (Omelette with Soba noodles)

I love both omurice and soba noodles, so when I noticed omu-soba on the menu, I had to try it! The soba noodles didn't disappoint - they were firm and just a bit chewy the way soba noodles should be :).

Close-up of Omu-soba!

Be warned however - the serving portion for this dish is fairly generous, so get ready to chew chew chew your way through this dish if you order it! Respite from the (delicious) soba comes in the form of the large omelette, which had a smattering of herbs on top, but it was interesting because it was actually very thin... probably the thinnest omelette I've ever had! Those Japanese chefs in the kitchen out back must have been very skilled with their skillets! Oh and this dish also comes with miso soup to help you slurp down those noodles :)

Anyway, as much as I complain about its dodgy street store front and dingy lift, Ramen-kan is probably one of my favourite city restaurants. I love how special you feel once you're inside, like you've discovered your own secret Japanese ramen shop (which you kinda have)

And there's even free entertainment! You can even look out the windows over to McDonalds on the other side and see the pigeons ambushing little kids and their French Fries, hehehe

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Ichiban Boshi I - The Phantom Katsu Don
Ichiban Boshi II - Attack of the Curry
Ichiban Boshi III - Revenge of the Ramen