Japanese lunch in Sydney

It has always been a never ending journey to find good (and well priced) lunchtime ramen in Sydney. Each time you find a place it seems to get over-popular or over-priced – usually both.

Many years ago the (ever changing) crew from work started doing Japanese meals at lunch. First there was a tiny hole in the wall place on the corner of Thomas and Hay St which looked like a salmonella death trap but actually made some lovely bento boxes. Then we got addicted to Michitaro in the Capitol Centre until it changed hands and the prices went up. Dan still goes there hoping in vain that it will have improved – but it hasn’t and the ‘special sauce’ just gets weirder and weirder. We tried Ramen Kan but it was too expensive. Then to Musashi which is fantastic but is in that ‘special parties only’ price range. Then there were long treks into the CBD to Ichi Ban Boshi which now is just too expensive and requires a 2 hour long lunch break to deal with the queues.

For a while Japanese has been off the lunch agenda – the paucity of options just making it not worthwhile. The ramen was well priced and the best I’ve had in Sydney – so rich and tasty, no water rubbish, and melt-in-the-mouth pork. The northern Chinese place next door had a huge queue but fortunately we managed to get in within 20 minutes – and that was a Friday night. But last night after the designers market a group of us went to Menya which is just up the road. Wow . . . what a find.

I think we have found a new lunch joint . . .