onsider yourself warned. Ramen is surprisingly addictive and now there is a new place in the city for ramen junkies to get their fix. Kokoro Ramen has opened at the top end of Lonsdale Street and is serving up house made egg noodles with a choice of ramen broths. The richest form of ramen broth is tonkotsu and Kokoro offers three different types. The broth is made by boiling pork bones for 10 hours to give it a creamy, salty sticky consistency that’s full of flavour.

But it's not all about the broth. The noodles are also pretty special at Kokoro too, and are made in-house using a noodle machine imported from Japan (which reportedly cost over $45,000). Now that’s some dedication to noodle production.

Noodle lovers can customise their bowls by selecting their broth and adding toppings, or opt for the menu recommendations like the deep-fried soft shelled crab with the Tokyo chicken and a seafood stock base.

“In Japan people eat noodles at lunch, it is very popular there and every 10 steps you find a different noodle shop,” says Kokoro Ramen manager Tamura Fujio. “In Sydney there are now some real Japanese ramen shops, but not in Melbourne and we wanted to start an original Japanese style noodle shop here.”

That’s something we can get into.

Kokoro Ramen
157–159 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
(03) 9650 1215

Hours
Mon to Sat 11am–late