The story of Fitzroy’s Ramen Ako’s feels like it was lifted straight from a Japanese drama.

Owner Sho Iijima moved from Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan to Melbourne in 2008 for university. Before long, he found himself missing the comfort of the traditional chicken soup his mother, Ako Iijima, would make when he was a kid – especially when he was sick. Sho asked his mother for her recipe, started making her chicken soup and shared it with uni friends who he says, “surprisingly love it”.

By the time Covid hit in 2020, he was working at the Melbourne office of a Japanese trading house. Lockdowns prompted him to rethink his career. “Working for big companies, after a while you don’t feel there’s any purpose,” Sho told Broadsheet. But making ramen made him feel grounded and connected. So, after 10 years at his desk job and “a few years of deep consideration”, he decided to open his own ramen shop.

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After briefly working part-time at a CBD ramen shop to learn the ropes, Sho is now living a Japanese salaryman’s dream – working solo in the kitchen of his own 31-seat shop and serving a limited 80 to 100 bowls a day.

The menu is minimal, with a few snacks and just three types of ramen. There’s the signature chintan (clear) chicken broth and paitan (thickened chicken) broth. Both use a salt-based seasoning and are served topped with nori, spring onion, torched pork shoulder chashu, half a marinated egg, crunchy bamboo shoots and a touch of chicken oil.

“While [pork-based] tonkotsu ramen once dominated the mainstream, I believe that chicken is now taking centre stage, with many of the top ramen restaurants in Japan serving chicken-based ramen,” Sho says.

The vegan bowl (also adapted from Ako’s recipe) uses a shiitake and brown mushroom broth and is topped with mushroom paste and torched fried tofu “chashu”. Plus, an off-menu spicy fourth bowl can be created by mixing in the house-made chilli oil paste – a combination of Sichuan pepper, miso, chilli powder and chilli oil.

Sho uses an imported machine to make all the noodles for the shop. The 1.25-millimetre-thick low-hydration noodles are made from Australian wheat, salt and kansui (alkaline water). Side dishes include edamame, spring rolls, gyoza and karaage. Sapporo is on tap, and single-serve bottles of saké from Niigata round out the drinks list.

Ramen Ako, named for Sho’s mother, has her fingerprints everywhere. You’ll see it most prominently when you polish off the bowl of ramen and see Ako’s calligraphy with a heart drawn at the bottom.

Ramen Ako’s
368 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
No Phone

Hours:
Tue to Sun 11.30am–2.30pm; 5.30pm–9pm

@ramenakosfitzroy