Mensho Tokyo Ramen Melbourne — Restaurant in Melbourne

As someone that eats a lot of ramen, I was pretty excited when I found out Mensho had opened, particularly given its reputation garnered from its Michelin Star. During winter, getting a seat was impossible without a three hour wait, but I managed to steal one after waiting just half an hour tonight and this is my experience.

The front curtain for the restaurant is clean - a very important indication of a Japanese restaurant that prides itself on its service and experience. However, therein is probably the first issue.

Ramen culture in Japan is rather straightforward - ramen is meant to be served and eaten quickly, and so ramen shops are actually some of the more profitable because of their ability to turnover customers. My experience of waiting in line peering into the restaurant and seeing people chat to partners and friends while taking a mouthful of ramen every 5 minutes was rather frustrating henceforth - outside is a long queue for hungry customers, and yet against the grain of ramen shops in Japan, this award winning chain doesn’t really understand the concept of turning customers over.

Eventually I get inside, and I get a seat in the bar right in front of the cooks. This is a great part of the experience of eating at Mensho - at other ramen restaurants in Melbourne, the relationship between the customers and the ramen they eat is often set behind a wall that leads to a kitchen, but at Mensho, you’re able to peer over and see the chefs adding in the various aroma oils, tare seasonings and flavour emulsifiers that makes ramen such a special dish to eat. The bar was clean, and notable was the missing tray of condiments which customers usually are allowed to add by hand in ramen restaurants. I’m split on this - customers should be able to customise their ramen to their tastes, but chefs should also be allowed to trust in their bowl’s quality, such that condiments are deemed unnecessary. I value the sanctity of my bowl of ramen, so respecting the chef’s opinion is the way I lean.

A look at the menu might thrill the average ‘food connoisseur’ who doesn’t know what ramen is and just wants some noodles with toppings in a soup, but for the average ramen enjoyer it’s a bit disappointing. Generally, ramen places have a signature tonkotsu, shoyu or shio ramen to fall back on as a yardstick for how good their ramen is, but it wasn’t lunchtime (when Mensho actually feature such classics) so I had to go with something more exotic, which seems to be what Mensho thinks is the appeal of their restaurant. I like spicy food, so I decided on the spicy lamb ramen.

It took 10 minutes for my bowl of ramen to arrive - which is very long by the standards of even the busiest Tokyo ramen restaurants. Viewing the kitchen, there seemed to just be a lack of urgency - 4 cooks were working rather slow paced, as if they might be making their own dinners at home. One of the unique selling point of ramen is that it’s quick to make - 10 minutes is not such a case.

The broth was orange and clearly heavy - it barely constituted a liquid. On top of the noodles and broth were a mountain of toppings, including some crispy crackling of some sort, an excessive amount of garlic, chilli paste, sprint onions, cilantro and lamb mince. I think this is the biggest downside of the bowl I had - ramen is meant to be signified by the relationship between the noodles and broth, and I actually enjoyed that relationship when I got to experience it! The noodles were crinkly (ramen noodles vary between crinkly and straight, the first absorbs broth better, the second is easier to slurp) which matched the richness of the broth, and even as someone who enjoys thinner noodles, I had to appreciate the complementary nature of the noodles with the broth. My issue was two-fold - the richness of the broth was so saturated with toppings that every ladle-ful was harder to enjoy, and the noodle-to-broth ratio was poor - I ran out of noodles halfway through the broth, and with no option to buy extra noodles, I just got to drink broth for...

We lined up at 3:30pm on a Wednesday and luckily we did as we were the first in line soon after the line started to grow massively so a hot tip, get there early or you will be waiting (not that waiting was an issue we don’t mind at all) Once we’re we’re seated inside we got to order from a QR code, for this level of ramen prices were good and didn’t feel over priced with the quality of the food. We order their Toripaitan Ramen which came quickly and was presented beautifully, looks can be deceiving though as the ramen bowl looked small but was actually jam packed with noodles and ingredients, everything was cooked nicely and the noodles were an amazing texture that the broth just soaked up and made everything so enjoyable, the meat inside was delicious and so tasty I wish there was more! the broth it self was almost gravy like texture which happens to be the thickest broth of Ramen I have had which also makes it so filling! We then tried their Garlic blaze ramen which like above was presented nicely and lots of care taken to make sure all ingredients inside were cooked perfectly, once again the broth was thick which made us once again fill up so quickly. We then went ahead and tried a 3rd Ramen and got their Spicy Lamb Ramen, which was delicious, we were so full but didn’t wanna let ourselves down so we shared this bowl and did not regret it, surprisingly it went down so smoothly. The broth was thick once again and and had a beautiful kick of spice along with hints of curry flavour, i do wish there was more meat in this one. For sides we tried their Karaage which was cooked great and seasoned perfectly I recommend trying this side out. A side that you can skip however would be Enoki Chips, we felt it wasn’t up to par with the rest of the food and won’t be missed.

Overall coming from a Japan holiday a few months ago we were so happy and pleased we were able to eat some delicious Ramen that we found in Melbourne.

Thank you for the Team at Mensho Tokyo the service was great and so was the food! We will be returning and waiting in line...

Had high expectations for this place and was my first time visiting since it opened. We waited about 30ish minutes for lunch on a PH which was okay. They have upstairs seating but the vibe is completely different (in a not good way) from that of the ground level. It’s quite cramped upstairs as well (x2 tables of 4, x1 table of 2, and two bar style areas fitting 10 ppl). We placed our order via the QR code although there was an additional card surcharge (on top of the 15% PH surcharge) even though they don’t accept cash?

We ordered the Shoyu ramen w/ egg ($31), the Toripaitan Ramen w/ egg and Karaage (~43 for the two items). The ramen tasted good and can’t go wrong with the Karaage (although unsure why the eggplant is part of the dish).

My disappointment was after I started eating the Shoyu ramen, I realised my pork chashu was missing. I notified the staff and showed a pic taken at the start, and they said they mistakenly made the Vegan version. They offered to either remake or refund, but I was okay with just getting the pork on the side in this instance (probably should’ve gotten the refund tbh).

Service was also quite mid for the price point, they don’t know who ordered what ramen (even though each table has its own # / code) and first brought me someone else’s order and was quite adamant that was my ramen, until I showed the email receipt. There was quite a long wait between when my ramen arrived and my friend’s, easily ~15mins (this happened to the table next to us too, by the time the girl got her ramen, the guy was at least halfway through finishing his). You would think to increase turnover when they don’t take reservations, they would ensure everyone at the table is served at the same time.

Overall, the food was good, but the service and ambience and everything else really takes away from the experience and I believe there are similar and possibly better ramen places to go to...