After our visit to Fukuryu ramen, my colleague and I continued to search for the best ramen in the Melbourne CBD. I was told that Hakata Gensuke ramen restaurant is the new hit for ramen. Could it be the best ramen in Melbourne? Therefore, we quickly checked it out on the following week.
Hakata Gensuke is a new ramen restaurant that opened in August this year. It is situated on Russell street, closer to the junction of Bourke street. The design of the restaurant looks similar to those ramen restaurants in Japan where there are not too many seats. The red shop is very inviting and you certainly would not miss it when there's a crowd waiting outside of the restaurant. There was a queue when we arrived at 12:15pm! And on the next day when I passed by the area, I saw a queue too at 2pm! It must be very popular as there seems to be always a queue.
At the front of the restaurant, there are some posters and a newspaper cutting about the founder of the restaurant. In addition, there was a TV showing the chef and how the ramen is made and prepared. Apparently, he has won some awards over the years.
We were given a menu and an order form each when we waited for our turn. There are only 4 types of ramen to choose from which makes decision making easier. Besides that, there are options for the texture of the noodle (soft/normal/hard/very hard), taste (light/normal) and spring onions which is brilliant. You could customised your ramen by adding the extra toppings too. However, I was told that the marinated egg is not part of the standard bowl of ramen. What?! An egg is essential for an egg-cerlent meal. Hmm. Well, I had to pay $2 more for an egg then.
I ordered the signature tonkotsu ramen which cost $13 with normal noodle texture as well as normal taste and topped it with a priceless egg ($2). We also ordered a plate of dumplings and karaage chicken for sharing which cost $5 each.
We were seated probably after 10-15mins of waiting in the queue which wasn't that bad. The whole kitchen crew shouted "irrashaimase" when we stepped into the restaurant. Wow, they were so energetic!
The food was served pretty quickly. The tonkotsu ramen looked really good. The broth looked authentic. However, there's only one stingy slice of char siew, a bit of ear cloud fungus and spring onions that came in the standard bowl of ramen aside from the extra egg that I have added. Other than that, the broth tasted fabulous! It's very close to the ramen you get in Japan. In terms of the noodles, I found that the normal texture wasn't al dente and it was a bit soft probably after soaking in the soup. I would certainly try the hard or very hard texture on my next visits.
The karaage chicken was great too. It was well marinated. The chicken was crispy on the skin and the meat was juicy. Other than the price, which is a bit pricey for 4 small pieces of chicken, they are perfect.
Our dumplings arrived shortly after the ramen and karaage chicken. To be honest, it is the smallest dumpling I have ever had and I'm thinking maybe it is also in the running for the title of the smallest dumpling in the world. Lol. Taste wise, it's not bad but it's not something that I would brag about. It's quite pricey to pay $5 for 5 dumplings where the size is the same as my pinky. (Don't be deceived by the picture above! :P)
Overall, I reckon the ramen at Hakata Gensuke is quite authentic and it's indeed the best ramen one can find in Melbourne so far. However, it's a bit pricey from my perspective.
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