Taro's Ramen — Restaurant in Brisbane City

With my wallet currently housing this establishment's fifth loyalty card & having ingested in excess of a hundred bowls of ramen goodness, this review is clearly long overdue. Straight off the bat yes, Taro's is at an elevated price point compared to other venues for their base bowl but I believe what constitutes the ingredients justifies the extra coin outlay. This is merely a personal viewpoint & I acknowledge it may discourage some from venturing here. The case supporting this notion are for those who wish to upsize with additional toppings as you are gravitating towards the $25 mark for a bowl even before side dishes are considered.

The integral components of broth & noodles have to be on point, it essentially dictates the heart of ramen. Irrespective of the quality of toppings & other additions, mediocrity in the aforementioned broth & noods department will consign the bowl itself to just that - mediocre.

Fortunately, TA & his team churn out bowls of delectable goodness with adept consistency.

The complimentary condiments of various oils, takana, pickled ginger & grated sesame seeds serve to not only enhance the flavour profile of your meal but I find it a source of tasty snacking while awaiting.

The monthly specials offer a change to the palette from the regular offerings & it is kudos to Taro for utilising this avenue towards experimentation & continually seeking facets in improving his craft.

Over the timespan of happily filling my belly, if I had to highlight my most memorable three bowls, it would entail the following :-

Hokkaido Scallop Special - Six plump & perfectly seared beauties with a layer of crab oil on top of the tonkotsu broth. Firm, thin noods with nori, menma, black garlic oil & shallots complements this concoction which I have been craving its return ever since it graced the menu.

Next is the Golden Shio Ramen - Pork & chicken stock including vegetables added for a sweetness component. Flat, hand crinkled noods are blended with yuzu & the broth perfumed with chicken/mackerel infused oil. Fermented & desalted menma, ajitama egg, smoked chicken, collarbutt pork + shallots & lemon zest round out this top notch flavour capital.

Spanner Crab Ramen rounds off my list - Soup was two-fold where creamy tonkotsu met crabilicious stock. A layer of pungent crab head oil & garlic kissed the surface of the broth. Accompanying sidekicks were a salad of crab, shaved fennel, tobikko & lemon acting as a palette cleanser. The other consisted of crushed tomato with crab head where beautiful produce originated from Fraser Island.

The best ramen consumed has hailed from Japan, it is just next-level phenom over there. Closer to home here in Brissy, Taro has cemented itself as my standout & catalyst of food...

3.5/5 star for Brisbane City Taro's Izakaya and ramen.

We're long time diners of Taro's ramen (the stones corner store in particular). When we heard Taro's was launching an Izakaya menu we had to try it.

The ramen options and quality is on par with the other Taro's store. Great flavour and quality, can't go wrong with any of the ramen choices.

The Izakaya dishes however were mostly a let down. Most the dishes were lacking flavour or not well balanced.

Special of the day: Rare tuna steak w garlic miso butter sauce (pictured). The tuna was good quality, however the sauce was missing that flavour hit. We could only taste the butter and a slight tanginess, no hint of miso or garlic at all.

Mini Wagyu steak was great, the Wagyu was high quality and melts in your mouth. Served with salt and shallots it allowed the Wagyu to shine whilst being well seasoned.

Nikomi tofu is silken tofu served with a miso pork stew. Not a bad dish just didn't offer anything special. Pork miso stew didn't have a big flavour hit.

Charsiu rice bowl had charsiu chunks, shallots, pickles and rice served with a small side of chilli oil sauce. This dish was too dry and bland, the sauce had no spice kick at all. There's not enough sauce to elevate the plain rice and cold charsiu chunks.

Kaarage chicken was marinated and cooked well. Lots of flavour and chicken was juicy, I'd recommend this as your side dish. Comes with kewpie mayo and a lemon wedge.

There is no warm welcome from staff as you enter the store, there's not even a staff member at the counter all the time. You often have to wait for staff to stop what they're doing to serve you at the counter, the whole vibe of the restaurant is not welcoming and off putting.

Overall if you want ramen you won't go wrong with any of it options from Taro's, however this can be experienced at other locations where you don't need to pay for parking. The Izakaya menu unfortunately did not meet our expectations due to the lack of flavour and balance Taro's is so...

I love ramen and this is the best ramen I’ve had in Brisbane. I had the red tonkotsu, and my friend the shio. I like my noodles harder so this was perfect. I don’t normally drink broth but I drank heaps from my bowl, there was no MSG and it didn’t leave me thirsty! The red tonkotsu isn’t spicy at all, so if you want a spicy one go for fire. Beyond the food quality, their customer service is fantastic. I visited at 540pm on a Tuesday, was greeted by everyone who saw me always with a smile. When I mentioned in passing that I was celebrating my friend’s birthday, the waitstaff immediately offered her ice cream on the house 😍 she was delighted! I got to try some too 😇 I’ve had really bad matcha ice cream, and generally not a fan of matcha but this one was perfect in texture and taste. I also liked the black sesame, we could taste the ground seeds in it. I’m going back again for sure. Well done team 🙌🏼

UPDATE - I came back a second time to celebrate another friend’s birthday and this time, they added extra ingredients to her bowl of ramen! I tried the fire tonkotsu ramen and it hits the spot perfectly. I can’t take too much spice but this one is...