MSG: The Melbourne Social Guide

Ladies & Gentlemen, welcome to our first food battle. Contender number one is Ramen, the delicious Japanese dish. More information on the rules can be found here. Here’s a choice bit of history about ramen from our old friend wikipedia:

Ramen (ラーメン) is a Japanese noodle dish that originated in China. It is served in a meat- or fish-based broth, often flavored with soy sauce or miso, and uses toppings such as sliced pork (チャーシュー, chāshū^?), dried seaweed (海苔, nori^?), kamaboko, green onions and even corn. Almost every locality in Japan has its own variation of ramen, from the tonkotsu ramen of Kyūshū to the miso ramen of Hokkaidō.

Melbourne has a multitude of Japanese restaurants and many of them serve ramen so we’ve set out to taste some of the top contenders for Melbourne’s best ramen. For more information on how the battle works, read this earlier post.

The contenders for Heat 1 are:

1. Ajisen Ramen
2. Meshiya
3. Momotaro Rahmen

1. Ajisen Ramen

130 Bourke St
Melbourne VIC 3000
(03) 9662 1100

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Jess and I have a history at Ajisen. We frequented the place a lot when we were both in Hong Kong at the beginning of 2005 (yes that’s over five years ago) and made it a point to visit the Bourke Street store now and then after our return to Melbourne.  A nice HK anecdote:  I usually have very high tolerance for chilli but I met my match in the HK branch of Ajisen’s spicy ramen. I’m pretty sure my face went as red as a tomato and there may have been tears.

I’ve always considered Ajisen to be somehow inferior to proper ramen joints and only really went there out of nostalgia, but I now must admit that I stand corrected. Despite the lack of authenticity (be wary of Chinese staff at Japanese restaurants) and the global-chain-like nature of the company, Ajisen actually makes a mean bowl of ramen. The spicy ramen is my usual and is a good value dish, containing a number of vegetables (cabbage, carrot, fungus, spring onion), tea egg and spicy mince meat in a shoyu broth. There are plenty of veggies, in fact one of my main gripes with the dish is the predominance of cabbage. I’m not a huge fan of cabbage at the best of times, it’s a bland, flavourless vegetable when boiled, but Ajisen takes it to a new level that I think can accurately be described as padding. Ie. pad the dish with lots of cabbage so people think they got value for money. I don’t see why they need to do this, there’s plenty of other stuff in the ramen and I usually leave half the cabbage uneaten. One thing I appreciate about Ajisen’s ramen is that they use tea eggs instead of regular boiled eggs, I love tea eggs, think they go great in ramen and appreciate the nice touch.

The place doesn’t feel too cramped or claustrophobic like many other Asian restaurants that serve similarly priced food (see Meshiya below) and even though the predominance of backless furniture is annoying (a pet hate), it’s still not an uncomfortable place to eat a meal. The staff are usually prompt and there is enough of them (thank God), and their cartoon mascot is dead cute.

Ramen rating: 7/10

Everything else rating: 7/10

2. Meshiya

200 Lonsdale St
Melbourne VIC 3000
(03) 9654 6242

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Meshiya is a small but busy restaurant on the Lonsdale Street side of Melbourne’s QV complex. Asian international students (many probably living in the apartment blocks upstairs) and office workers (probably from sensis and BHP) are the customers are here, and are both usually a decent weathervane for good cheap Asian food.

I ordered the tonkatsu ramen in a shoyu broth. The broth was pretty good, I’m a big fan of sesame seeds in shoyu ramen, however I felt there was a little too much MSG in it. I wasn’t happy with the tonkatsu at all, it was far too soggy and the noodles tasted a touch overcooked. In fact, it tasted like they had been soaking in the broth for like half an hour before being served to us. Having said that, the dish wasn’t too bad for the price and, if pressed, I would probably go back to eat here.

The place  is tiny and does itself no favours with its layout being long and thin rather than square. This makes it very difficult to get the attention of serving staff (as usual, Meshiya is severely understaffed) and gives the place a cramped and claustrophobic feeling.

Ramen rating: 6/10

Everything else rating: 4/10

3. Momotaro Rahmen (seeded)

392 Bridge Rd

Richmond VIC 3121

(03) 9421 1661

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Momotaro comes seeded due to a number of recommendations I have heard and read from other food bloggers, friends and a generally good reputation including a brief write-up in The Age. It’s Richmond location makes it slightly less than convenient but I was eager to try the ramen at this much vaunted noodle joint.

I’ll begin by telling you straight up that I was very disappointed. While the staff all seemed to be Japanese, I fail to understand how Japanese people (with presumably Japanese palates) can serve up such average ramen. Perhaps I’m completely wrong here, maybe the ramen here is actually awesome and I’m completely nuts but I’m going to go with it.

I ordered the tonkotsu ramen, a ramen quite different to the usual shoyu ramen which comes in a soy broth. Tonkotsu is based on a broth of pork bone and collagen. The dish also came with a slice chashu. Everything about Momotaro screams a frugal miserliness. You get one small slice of chashu which is a poor quality cut (the most disappointing thing), the vegetables are non-existent (my friend with who ordered the highly vaunted negi miso ramen, a vegetable based dish complained of the same) with bean sprouts dominating. You have to pay $2-3 extra for extra toppings (presumably, one more slice of crappy chashu? yay) and the egg wasn’t boiled properly and wasn’t a tea egg.  Granted, the noodles were good, but the broth was also a let down. Not enough flavour.

In addition, it’s order-at-the-counter service, the place is tiny, the chairs are uncomfortable and the ventilation was so poor that at 6.30pm on a regular day with the door open we were all sweating like prostitutes in church and gasping for breath. Basically, a real letdown. I have no idea why everyone seems to love this place so much, maybe it was an off day and maybe I’ll give it another chance but frankly, I’d rather go to a Chinese-run place that serves better ramen than a supposedly authentic Japanese place.

Ramen rating: 6/10

Everything else rating: 3/10

The Winner of Heat 1: AJISEN RAMEN

At the end of the day, out of these three places, Ajisen is the place I’d go to if I have the choice. The ramen just tastes better, even if it isn’t as authentic.

Stay tuned for Heat 2!