A bowl of noodles can hold different meanings, whether it’s a comforting reminder of home, a discovery of new flavours, or simply a damn good meal. Here are five new spots in the city serving noodles from Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia and Taiwan.
Yamamoto Udon
Shop 12/108 Bourke Street, Melbourne
While Yamamoto serves the popular thick Sanuki udon, its standout offering is himokawa udon – a silky flat noodle that’s notoriously labour-intensive to make.
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SIGN UPOrder your noodle of choice in a dashi broth or with a dipping sauce. For hot udon, choose from mapo tofu, Wagyu beef curry or pork belly curry, while serves of cold udon get the shop’s original dipping sauce. But if you’re after the himokawa udon, it’s best to get in early – the shop sells just 60 orders of these specialty noodles per day.
Bakmi Lim Noodle Project
After opening his first shop in Adelaide in 2016, owner David Lim has brought Bakmi Lim Noodle Project to Melbourne. The new QV shop specialises in customisable bowls of Indonesia’s bakmi wheat noodles. Bakmi Lim’s hearty noodles are the richer kind, made with egg.
Choose from four noodle types, including spinach bakmi, rice noodles, and thin egg noodles, topped with chicken and mushrooms, char siu, braised pork, or tofu and mushrooms. Each bowl comes with choy sum and a crispy wonton skin, or you can opt to have your protein served over chicken rice.
Ahma
Inspired by Taiwanese markets, 48-seater Ahma has a stall-like counter where you can order an array of Taiwanese street food. Owner Spring Chee, who is also behind Tokyo Motto and Big Comma draws on recipes passed down from her grandmother.
Thick cuts of beef shin are simmered in a bone-and-vegetable broth for over eight hours to make the signature braised beef noodle soup. And you can expect deep fried chicken (coated in a batter made from tapioca flour, steamed pork blood and glutinous rice cakes served on a skewer, and two kinds of mochi – black sesame and peanut – coated in brown sugar and ginger syrup for dessert.
Jom
378 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Jom, the swankier sibling to Kmart Centre's Jom Corner, serves Malaysian favourites with a focus on kon loh noodles . These dry egg noodles are coated in soy sauce, lard and shallot oil, and paired with boiled chicken dumplings, with crispy fried wontons as an optional side.
You can also try the noodles with steamed or fried chicken – a nod to Hainanese chicken rice – or go for something soupy, like a seafood or chicken curry laksa, and wanton noodle soup.
Kakilang Char Koay Teow
Kakilang, which specialises in Malaysian char kway teow, opened its first shop on St Kilda Road back in 2023. After relocating that shop to Balwyn, the team opened a new CBD store at the end of 2024. Here you can dress up the Malaysian staple stir-fry with extra ingredients like blood cockles, duck egg, extra-large prawns and razor clams. You can even opt for a mix of flat and yellow (egg-based) noodles, rather than the typical flat rice noodles. There’s also char mee – made with just yellow noodles – with the same optional add-ons. Plus, you’ll find dishes including asam laksa, a spicy and sour fish soup with thick rice noodles. To drink, there’s Malaysian kopi (coffee) and pulled tea known as teh tarik.