If you’ve walked along George Street in the last couple of months, chances are you’ve clocked the impossibly long queues snaking down Temperance Lane. What’s causing the buzz? The second Australian outpost of Michelin-recommended global ramen chain Mensho Tokyo that – dare I say – is more Melbourne than Melbourne’s store.

When Broadsheet ventures down the alleyway, the ramen house is a hive of activity. Every seat is filled. Every table turned over with efficiency. Ingredient explainers line the walls of the stairway up to the dining space, breadcrumbing the path to that first spoonful of rich, umami-packed broth.

This is what chef Tomoharu Shono loves. A restaurant full of people sitting down to bowls that reflect the city they’re dining in. “I really enjoy the connections between people from the purveyors, the farmers, the vendors,” Shono tells Broadsheet via a translator. “I like seeing the process, from seeing the products to seeing customer’s reactions.”

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Mensho’s menus include dishes dedicated to each specific location. Exclusive to Sydney is the dinner-only lobster bisque ramen, made using an entire lobster per bowl. It was inspired by Shono’s first trip to Sydney, where he zipped straight from the airport to the Fish Market. The bisque, made from lobster and shrimp, is combined with chicken stock and shio koji, delivering an incredibly rich, deeply flavoured broth.

The dinner menu offers another six steaming bowls, including the Mensho signature, tori paitan. Chicken, vegetables and kelp are simmered for six hours before the soup is refrigerated for a further 24 to enhance the flavours. The final product is a creamy white broth carrying thick, chewy house-made noodles, an array of char siu, crispy enoki chips and a gloriously gooey egg.

The duck matcha ramen is a favourite, too. It’s carefully plated to emulate the traditional seigaiha pattern, which symbolises waves of good fortune and wellbeing. Whatever your flavour, each bowl at Mensho is made with Shono’s “farm to bowl” ethos.

Beside the bar, a machine churns local wheat, rye and quinoa to be made into noodles. The texture of the noodles is dictated by temperature and humidity, as well as the time spent mixing it all together. The longer it’s mixed, the more the gluten strengthens and the chewier the noodles become. The team in each Mensho outpost adjusts how much water goes into the noodles according to the climate and type of broth.

While Sydney is the latest of Mensho’s expansions, it won’t be the last. Shono and his team have stores set to open in Vietnam, Singapore and the US later this year. Since having his San Francisco venue listed in the Michelin guide, Shono’s focus is on upholding the quality of his stores, keeping his regular customers coming back. “I really enjoy doing it,” he says. “It’s my life.”

Mensho Tokyo Sydney
2 Temperance Lane, Sydney
(02) 9313 5281

Hours:
Tue to Sun midday–3pm, 5pm–10pm

mensho.com.au
@menshosydney