Menya

Well, after a painfully long absence (why is Sunday always so busy?), I decided that it had been far too long since I had tasted non-instant ramen. School holidays have begun, so we were no longer bound by the weekend. This also meant that we didn't have to worry about the shops that were closed on Sundays.
The last time we were in Swanston Street, we set our sights on Menya. It looked like a good little place, tucked away in an alleyway leading into Melbourne Central, but it was tremendously busy at the time, so we decided to come next time. 'Next time' was yesterday. Determined, we hopped on the train and headed towards Menya. It was quite early still, but already the place was filled with hungry people morphing into non-hungry people. Interestingly, I only saw Ramen dishes and Rice dishes for sale. No soba, udon or side-dishes, just the happiness of ramen and rice. Already encouraged at the range of ramen Menya had to offer (most places have five at the most, there must have been at least ten different types of ramen), I was interested to note that the dishes were named after their toppings, and not their soup. Being unadventurous, I went with the good ol' Pork ramen, while my sister went for gyoza ramen, which was pretty much the house soup with dumplings.
A short wait later, and we found ourselves sitting in front of two rather tasty looking bowls of ramen. Wasting no time, I attacked my ramen, starting with the large chunks of pork that were floating on top of the soup. They were tasty, and tender enough for me to break apart with my chopsticks. There was some menma too, which I normally don't care for. I tried it anyway, and was surprised to find it rather tasty. Overall, I was feeling rather good about this ramen when I started on the noodles. There wasn't a huge amount of them, but it was certainly sufficient. They were quite good, with a lot of flavour, and an adequate texture. I finished them rather quickly, and started on my soup. My plan was to only drink a few spoonfuls, so I could get a good idea of the taste. It needed some soy-sauce, but after I added that, I couldn't really help but drink more than half of it! It was a pay-in-advance sort of thing, so once we were finished, someone came and took our bowls away (impressively quickly, I might add, given how busy it was), and we left.
But the fun didn't stop there. Next door was a place called "Harajuku". Harajuku is an area around a station in Tokyo of the same name. It's quite an awesome place, filled with cosplayers. Anyway, this was a crepe store. Not french crepes, but Japanese crepes. If you've never had one, it's a humungous, thin crepe, folded into a cone shape and filled with all sorts of goodies. My sister's had nutella and almonds, and mine (which I dubbed the 'suicide crepe') had strawberries, vanilla ice-cream, vanilla custard, and cream. People tend to think I don't have much of a sweet tooth, since I don't particularly like chocolate, but this sure proved them wrong!
Anyway, if you happen to be in Melbourne Central, head over to Harajuku and get yourself some crepe!

But onto the cold, objective side of things...

Information:

• Restaurant Name: Menya
  
• Restaurant Location: One of the little laneways leading out of Melbourne Central and onto Swanston St
  
• Ramen Ordered: Pork Ramen
  
• Price: About $8.50
  

Scoring:

• Atmosphere: 9/10

Awesome. A tiny little store in an alleyway. The only way it could be closer to Japanese ramen places would be if everything was in japanese, and you had to figure it out for yourself!

• Presentation: 9/10

Simple, but lovely. I thought the bowl looked balanced as a whole, and the entire picture was one of authenticity. The pork looked a little...meaty. But I guess that's sort of the point.

• Toppings: 9/10

The pork was some of the best pork I have ever eaten, ramen or no, and the menma was good enough for even me to eat it all. Did I mention that I love spring onions?
I did think that they used a little too much of the actual spring onion though. It gets a little tough and flavourless as you venture further and further away from the white root part.

• Noodles: 7/10

A good amount, nice flavour and adequate texture. Nothing outstanding though. These were probably the weakpoint of the entire bowl.

• Soup Base: 8/10

Very tasty to begin with. After I added some soy-sauce, though, it became supremely excellent. If only they'd added it to begin with...

• Overall Quality: 8/10

Despite its weak spots, I found this a very enjoyable bowl of ramen. After I was finished, I had a nice taste in my mouth, and a hole in my stomach had been filled. I left feeling happily satisfied.

• Value: 9/10

Very nice ramen, and for a very nice price. Easily worth $8.50.

• Total: 59/70

I have no major quips about Menya. The place itself is great, and the ramen is delicious. Probably the best bowl of ramen I've had since I was in Shin-Yokohama. Easily worth traveling across town for. And there were crepes next door! If you're in the city, I strongly recommend that you head over to Melbourne Central and seek out Menya.

PS: There was a long wall of stylised graffiti opposite Menya, which is very similar to the wall done by CAT in 'The World Ends With You', an excellent game by Square Enix, the makers of Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy. Just thought I'd add that, since it was a little extra thing that made me happy.

Itami Japanese Cuisine

Well, yesterday was Sunday, but I couldn't go out and get myself some of the tastiest noodles in the world, because it was my sister's birthday. What was I to do?
It's at this point that time travel comes in handy. Also known as forethought. Two days earlier (I'm definitely the organised one), I was taken to Southland Shopping Center, in Cheltenham.
Now, I go to Southland pretty often, considering I don't leave the house much. I suppose you could consider it the place that I go with my friends, if we're not inside playing Halo 3. Anyway, in the culinary center of the place, there is this little Japanese place, called "Itami Japanese Cuisine". I go there probably two times in five that I'm there, and I always get the same thing - Tonkatsu Ramen. Why? Because it's pretty good. Nothing like what I had in Japan, but it was the absolute first real Ramen that I ever had, so I have quite a bit of connection to the place.
Aaanyway, it was Friday night, and southland was abuzz with late-night shoppers. My parents went to do some shopping, leaving my sister and I to grab a bite to eat. It was then that the then-present-Lachlan decided that it might be nice to do future-Lachlan a favour and grade the good ol' Itami Ramen, so that there was something to put on the blog next week. Whipping out my notepad and pen (yes, I carry around a notebook and pen. Is there something wrong with that?), I quickly sketched up a table of scores, and prepared to jot down a few comments. Up until then, I'd happily wolfed down my Ramen without much thought into the objective quality of it. That day was different.
So I went up to get my Ramen, and as usual, asked for my Tonkatsu Ramen. Something that's always slightly frustrated me about Itami is the fact that if you ask for Tonkatsu Ramen, they'll confirm that you chose the right thing by asking "Number 9, yes?". It's slightly annoying, because it sort of ruins the whole "Japanese restaurant" thing. At least have a little menu on the counter or something and point to what the customer asks for...at least that way you can keep things in Japanese if they want to. =/
Anyway, five minutes later, I was heading over to a table with a tray holding two steaming-hot bowls of Tonkatsu Ramen. Oddly, this time the bowls were clear...they were usually white. It looks better in white, I think, but since they're in a busy shopping center, I suppose they don't really have much choice in terms of the cutlery.
Digging into the Tonkatsu, which was wet, but still crispy, hot and tasty, I was reminded just why I keep coming back. Unfortunately, after the Tonkatsu, there really isn't much left to eat (the snow-peas go down fast), except the bean shoots and seaweed, which you pretty much eat with the noodles. Not that I'm upset about that, the noodles are quite nice, and pretty plentiful. The soup is very salty, but carries the subtle flavour of Tonkatsu. It is, however, quite watery and weak, and lacks a certain substance that would make it truly great.

But that's me ranting about my Ramen, here are some more concrete figures...

Information:

• Restaurant Name: Itami Japanese Cuisine
  
• Restaurant Location: Southland Shopping Center food-court, Cheltenham
  
• Ramen Ordered: Tonkatsu Ramen
  
• Price: $8.50
  

Scoring:

• Atmosphere: 4/10

In reality, it would be tricky for them to get much in the location that they are in - they can't have any music, or decorate the walls, because it's too noisy and big, and the walls don't belong to them. It would have been nice if there was a little more authenticity in the way they talked about the food though. I came for Ramen, #9.

• Presentation: 6/10

The bowl is too crowded, and a lack of colour coupled with a slightly disconcerting brown colour bring it down further. The clear bowl certainly didn't help, also. Some bright vegetables, like carrot or broccoli would be good, as well as either a wider bowl or less Tonkatsu. In reality, I'd rather it look cramped than give up some of that Tonkatsu-y goodness.

• Toppings: 8/10

Well, the centerpiece, the Tonkatsu, is awesome, but other than that, there's a general lack of toppings. The snow-peas help, but they were fleeting at best. There could be a few less bean shoots, but other than that, it's all pretty solid in the Toppings area.

• Noodles: 8/10

Numerous and tasty. The texture is pretty good, and they have their own flavour, while still reflecting the taste of the soup. They lack a little something that I thought the ones that I had in Tokyo possessed, however.

• Soup Base: 8/10

It tastes good, and I'm not afraid that I'll die from the MSG if I drink a little of it. Could use some more sustenance though, as it seems a little bit thin.

• Overall Quality: 8/10

I like it. That's pretty much the whole story. I come back to Itami because I like the Ramen. It could certainly be better, but when you look at the rest of the food court, while there certainly is lots of good food to choose from, this Ramen is probably my favorite thing.

• Value: 8/10

For $10 with a coke, it's definitely more expensive than say a burger at McDonald's, or some KFC, but for what you get, I'd definitely say it's worth it. It was $7.50 - a dollar cheaper, until last year, and that was when it was really worth it. Sigh...good times.

• Total: 50/70

Far from the Perfect Ramen, I do very much enjoy Itami Japanese Cuisine, they have a lot of awesome-looking things there...in fact, next time, I might try the Yakisoba. But as for the Ramen, it's tasty, the noodles, soup-base and toppings are all very tasty, and if you're shopping or watching a movie (or attending the Nintendo DS Connection Tour), then there certainly isn't a better place to go for lunch. If you're in Southland, or you see an Itami on the street, I'd check it out.