Mr NQN were in the city for a preview of a Vivid event and were looking for somewhere to eat. Enter Mansho Ramen. This Michelin starred ramen is some of the best priced Michelin food you can eat and it’s all located down a hidden alleyway in the city. So what is a must order at Mensho and what is the ramen like?
Before we walked into Dark Spectrum Mr NQN told me that he was excited to be back at home to eat dinner in an hour’s time because he finds going out tiring but when we finished walking through the Dark Spectrum light show, he had an idea. “There’s a place around the corner from my work with a massive queue every day, I have no idea what it is though,” he said.
He joins the end of the queue while I head up the front to see what it is all about. The queue is for Mensho Ramen which has been open for 1 month since the 25th of April 2024 and the queue, while long, moves quickly. While in the queue they give you a little token and a copy of the menu so that you know what to order. The woman handling the queue is super friendly and even asks if we need any recommendations. She recommends ordering a creamy ramen as well as a clear one. Oh and apologies for the quality of the images, they were taken on my phone.
Within 30 minutes we are headed down Temperance Lane and are shown to our table inside the 48 seater restaurant. Ordering and paying is all done via QR code and food is freshly cooked and arrives at the table within 10 minutes. Our order totalled $131 including tip which isn’t bad for dinner out in Sydney although the ramen is pricier than a lot of places (also because we ordered the lobster ramen). Vegans are also well catered for with their own separate section of ramen and sides.
The first dish to arrive is the Kurozu Karaage chicken which is a spin on karaage chicken served with a sweet and sour honey and black vinegar dipping sauce on the side. The chicken itself doesn’t have as much of the ginger soy flavour of other karaage chicken but it is crunchy and hot and the honey vinegar sauce is sticky and delicious.
The side dish that had a lot of buzz are the enoki chips. It’s a huge bunch of enoki mushrooms fried until shrivelled and crispy and piled high into a mound of chips and served with the juiciest lemon wedge and togarashi seasoning.
While we were in the queue I was tossing up whether to order the sushi. There are only two varieties: wagyu nigiri and the aburi wagyu nigiri. I mean is it a good idea to get sushi at a ramen specialist? It was also at the bottom of the menu almost as an afterthought. But I’m here to say that if you love sushi then you have to get the sushi here! We ordered the aburi wagyu and I wish we had ordered more. The nigiri are slightly bigger than normal, the wagyu melts in the mouth and the sushi rice is warm and fresh. Half a dozen of these please.
After we finish our entrees the ramen comes out as if it were planned. The first is the lobster ramen with a creamy lobster bisque base with asparagus, kinoko menma, sumac, spinach, Japanese scallops and a whole perfectly grilled lobster tail split in two. There’s also a little cloud of foam too. This is rich as lobster bisque is, and the more savoury option of the two ramen that we ordered. I like this with some of the OG chilli oil although the quantity of oil given is a little small and I could have used double the quantity. The ramen itself is thicker than usual and perfectly al dente and it stays that way even when you get towards the bottom of the bowl thanks to the thicker texture of the ramen. I really enjoy the chewiness of the noodles and that is has a bit more weight to it especially with a robustly creamy soup.
Toripaitan means “creamy chicken soup” in Japanese and the broth is a creamy tonkotsu style broth made with chicken instead of pork . The result is a creamy but less intense ramen soup that is a real pleasure to sip. There are four types of chashu in Mensho’s signature Toripaitan along with konoko menma, spinach, truffle paste, enoki chips, ajitama egg and green onion. All of the chashu’s are very different from each other and I really enjoy sampling all of them (you can also order a chashu tasting platter). The chocolate wagyu chaushu is darker in colour and ringed in spices, the pork chashu looks like a classic pink chashu while the duck chashu has a layer of fat on one side and the chicken chashu is white. The chocolate wagyu is exceptionally good and well worth ordering separately just so you can appreciate the flavour of this unique chashu. As for the rest of the ingredients and broth, I really enjoy this slightly sweeter broth a bit more than the lobster bisque soup. Although there is truffle paste, there is little to no truffle aroma in this so that’s the only disappointment in this delicious bowl of ramen.
As Mr NQN had the signature ramen first he accidentally gobbled up all of the wagyu chocolate chashu not realising that there were 4 kinds (I had mentioned it but it’s quite loud in there) so I quickly order up a single serve of wagyu chocolate chaushu. It is given this name because chocolate from a South Australian factory is repurposed into the cattle’s feed. And I finish every slice slowly appreciating the texture in each bite. The woman at the front was right though, we should have gone with a clear and a creamy broth, especially in the restaurant where it is warm.
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried Mensho ramen? Do you ever happen upon a queue and join it?
This meal was independently paid for.
Mensho
2 Temperance Ln, Sydney NSW 2000
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 12–3 pm, 5–10 pm
Closed Mondays
Phone: (02) 9313 5281
https://www.mensho.com.au/
Published on 2024-05-30 by Lorraine Elliott.
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