First Look: At Tokyo Ramen Chain Kikanbo’s First Melbourne Shop, the Lines Form Instantly

For more than a decade, Kikanbo has been a go-to for spice-loving ramen fans in Japan. This week, the Tokyo-born brand, known for its fiery bowls of miso ramen layered with numbing sansho pepper, slabs of chashu pork and lava-red chilli oil, finally touched down on La Trobe Street.

“The queues kind of started immediately,” says Gilbert Kam, who brought the ramen shop to Australia with the help of founder and ramen master Masakazu “Masa” Miura.

The process started two years ago, when Kam discovered Kikanbo on Youtube. “I reached out to Masakazu [about opening in Australia] via email and he was receptive.” After multiple trips back and forth to Tokyo, Mirura and the team agreed to expand to Melbourne. “It’s been a collaborative process. I sent my kitchen team over to Tokyo over a year ago to train with the ramen chefs in Tokyo,” says Kam.

“Everything here follows the Tokyo recipes,” says Miura, who flew over with some of his team to train staff and ensure the broths have the same depth of flavour as in Japan. At the Japanese branches, the noodles are made in a factory, but here they’re made fresh in-store every morning. Miura says the team has worked to re-create the Tokyo noodles as closely as possible, even though the ingredients and machinery in Australia are different.

The menu centres on Kikanbo’s signature spicy miso ramen, made with a deeply savoury pork-and-chicken broth, multiple types of regional miso and house-made chilli powder. Diners choose levels of both kara (spice) and shibi (numbing pepper) on a scale from zero to “oni” (demon).

Continuing the demonic theme, the name Kikanbo translates as “demon’s iron club”, and the Tokyo shop is inspired by oni demons from Japanese folklore, with multiple grimacing oni masks hanging throughout the venue. The Melbourne team has replicated the devilish decor and atmosphere of the original Tokyo store closely, right down to the sound of taiko drums, which scores the serving of each bowl.

“It’s one of those places where people already knew what to expect – they’d been to the Tokyo store or heard about it through friends. So we’ve just tried to re-create that same intensity and theatre here,” says Kam.

The bowls themselves are big and bold. The meat lover version features a 150-gram slab of pork belly, baby corn (meant to represent the demon club), bean sprouts and coriander. But the star is the broth. “It’s not just spicy for the sake of it,” Kam says. “You’ve got depth from the miso, the collagen from the broth, the hit of pepper and then the heat from the chilli. You can really taste the layers.” A vegetarian option is also available, alongside tsukemen (dipping noodles), pork-filled bao buns, and karaage.

While the bulk of the menu mirrors the original, one local addition stands out: a wagyu ramen made with top-grade Victorian beef. “It’s something you won’t find in Japan,” says Miura, “but it felt important to honour the quality of produce we’ve discovered here.”

Kikanbo officially opens today on Lonsdale Street, with the team working hard to re-create the intensity and warmth of the Tokyo experience – taiko drum soundtrack and all.

Kikanbo
5/260 La Trobe Street, Melbourne
0433 430 493

Hours:
Mon to Sat midday–9pm
Sun 1pm–8pm

@kikanbo_melb