Kokoro Ramen, on Lonsdale Street in the CBD (next door to Nihonshu Shochu & Sake Bar, serves up house made egg noodles with a choice of ramen broths. Generally, the richest broth is tonkotsu, made by boiling pork bones for 10 hours, – which gives it a creamy, salty and sticky consistency that’s full of flavour – and Kokoro offers three different types.

But it's not all about the broth: the noodles at Kokoro are made in-house using a noodle machine imported from Japan that reportedly cost over $45,000! Now that’s some serious 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.

Kokoro Ramen manager Tamura Fujio says, "In Japan people eat noodles at lunch, it is very popular there and every 10 steps you find a different noodle shop", he wanted to try and replicate that by setting up a Japanese style noodle shop. We think he's done a pretty good job.