The Hot List is the definitive guide to Sydney’s most essential food and drink experiences, updated weekly. Learn more.

This week’s Hot List activity

• Added: Menya Monaka
• Most trending restaurant: Olympus
• Most trending bar: Letra House
• Most trending cafe: Myra's Kitchen

Cafe Monaka is just over five years old, but it’s well and truly become a part of the fabric of Mona Vale. Husband-and-wife co-owners Fuminori Bun Fukuda (known as Bun) and Eriko Fukuda thought Mona Vale could benefit from a cafe that blended Aussie brunch favourites with traditional Japanese dishes and teas. They were right. Now, on any given morning, the cafe is full of locals and folks from farther afield, visiting for a coffee or a real-deal Japanese breakfast.

Stay in the know with our free newsletter. The latest restaurants, must-see exhibitions, style trends, travel spots and more – curated by those who know.

SIGN UP

The Fukuda family seems to have a talent for knowing what Mona Vale needs before it knows it needs it. And right now, they think it’s missing two things: ramen and late-night dining. That’s why they’ve opened Menya Monaka, which is a noodle house by day, and an izakaya by night.

Growing up in Japan, Menya Monaka’s owner Fuminori “Bun” Fukuda trained at his friend’s ramen shop. After moving to Australian and cooking in kitchens throughout northern Sydney (including Pilu, Waqu and Moby Dick), he eventually opened his own spot Cafe Monaka, in 2019. But he always wanted to come back to his ramen origins. At Menya Monaka there’s a variety of broths and toppings on offer – including a classic tonktosu and a vegan tan tan. Plus all of the usual ramen shop sides – shout-out to the excellent gyoza – that you know and love. The noodles are a particular highlight: they’re all made in-house, out back in the dedicated noodle room.

Mona Vale is one of the most stunning suburbs in Sydney during the day, but it tends to go to bed quite early. The Fukudas hope that Menya Monaka can be part of the small – but growing – cluster of restaurants and bars in the area staying open a little later than normal. In the evenings it becomes a saké bar and izakaya. There’s a great roster of cocktails, and you can enjoy those with a variety of small snacks plates such as miso eggplant and ramen noodle pretzels. For something more substantial, you can also go for a larger protein like a Wagyu sirloin.

Thanks to their proximity to most of Sydney’s main Japanese schools, lower North Shore suburbs like Crows Nest and Northbridge have boasted comparatively large Japanese populations – and all the great ramen shops and sushi spots that come with it – for decades now. But great Japanese is a bit harder to find the further you get towards the Northern Beaches.

When the Fukudas opened Cafe Monaka, they did it for the locals, and were surprised to find that people from the rest of the Sydney were visiting on weekends to try their food. Lightning might just strike again. Menya Monaka’s opening is more than just a good thing for Mona Vale – it’s exciting for all of us.

broadsheet.com.au/hotlist/sydney