Chaco Ramen — Restaurant in Sydney

Stooping to get under low hanging noren, we sink into the intimate sub-basement space dubbed Chaco Bar. Dominated by a long communal table overhung with fabric bunting, the room is dimly lit and buzzing with a convivial hum. With the neat precision of origami, we’re soon folded into a corner table under a quirky thematic mural, peering at the chalkboard specials through the gaps between other diners’ heads.

The tiny restaurant works on a timetable that oscillates between ramen and yakitori. Being a Friday night, we’re here to eat stuff on sticks, like tender Aged Wagyu Tongue ($14) glistening and charred with anchovy butter, punching umami like nobody’s business. Owner and chef, Keita Abe, walks a meandering line between modern Japanese dishes that reflect his time at restaurants like Toko and Mamasan, and more homely bowls of curry rice. Miso Eggplant ($17) kicks the Japanese standard up to eleven using a well-caramelised disc of foie gras under a crown of yuzu jam.

Uni Wagyu ($26) takes thinly cut marbled beef carpaccio style with lobes of glistening orange sea urchin alternating with dabs of Tasmanian truffle under an egg yolk and snowy Parmesan Reggiano. My dining companion thinks it’s expensive, so I plan to conduct a clandestine affair with it in private - just me and umami - because this Japanese surf and turf makes me want to lick the plate. He’s won over by Curry Rice ($16) served here under roasted bone marrow presented in the shin, then scraped to enrich your waiting curry rice.

Painted in sepia tones and candlelight, my memories of this dinner don't reflect a non-stop hit parade. While Grilled Wagyu Tail Falling off the Part ($23) does leave the bone easily, the flavour is boring, rescued only by the mustard smear adorning the side of the plate. Eating soft, cooked tomatoes in the accompanying salad weirds my palate out, though I relish the slippery texture of the Chawanmushi ($12). The little pot of warm savoury custard pleases with scallop and mountain potato intensified with truffle.

With the daily Sashimi ($29/2 people) selection, we give the sake list a workout. Tatanokawa ($20/120ml), a junmai daiginjo from the Yamagata Prefecture is soft, round and gentle against octopus slices served with ponzu and leek. The chilled junmai Dry God of Turtle ($16/120ml) gives you a gentle, yeasty step up in intensity, which proves perfect against two slices of tuna overlaid with egg yolk and soy.

In the little bowl, you'll find Alfonsino treated with bottarga and seaweed, which responds quite well to Black Bull ($13/120ml) that offers up richness and umami. As we move through smoky ocean trout paired with beetroot, the only sashimi bite I’m not keen on is the oyster that swims awkwardly in my mouth in a burst of wasabi cream. I end the night sipping a room temperature glass of Lulu ‘Bentenmusume’ ($15/120ml) that’s pretty and grassy with subtle hints of Vegemite - a perfect companion drink to this tiny,...

Funny story: I never used to like ramen. We would sometimes go to cheap ramen bars in the city after school finished, but I didn't quite understand the fuss around it. That was until I travelled to Japan for the first time in 2016. I remember that very first sip of a real, proper tonkotsu broth. The soup was so perfectly smooth. The noodles had the perfect bite. The flavour.. Oooohhh 😩. It was at one of the Ichirans in Japan and I was just bewildered at how good it was compared to anything I had previously tried back at home. The love of Japanese ramen was instantaneous. A quality bowl of ramen is as good a spoonful as any soup you'll taste, and I was adamant on trying as much ramen as I could while in Japan. That's not to say you can't find good ramen in Sydney. You definitely can! It was just that at the time, I was looking for it in the wrong places. With a better understanding of ramen now, I've always loved the occasional search for delicious tonkotsu. I frequented Ippudo and Manpuku for a while there in my university years. Now, Chaco Ramen is a place to go to as well, if I'm ever around Darlinghurst. My go-to bowl here is the Fat Soy, which has that classic deep porky flavour. It's served with melt-in-mouth chashu, ajitama egg, thinly sliced black fungus and lots of spring onion. I always look at the soup first. The thousands of tiny fat bubbles on the surface and the creamy colour from the slow simmering breakdown of pork bones - that's the good stuff. That's how you know it'll be good before you even take a sip! They do a yuzu Hokkaido scallop ramen too here with a fish and prawn wonton inside. It reminds me of Afuri Ramen in Tokyo, just missing the char of blowtorched pork chashu. I do think that charred pork would compliment the yuzu taste really well if someone ever introduces it in Aus! There's an awesome Facebook group of ramen enthusiasts called 'Ramen Gang' too. Check it out if you love your ramen. There are some proper ramen-heads in there, who are much more capable of dissecting a good ramen than I am! 📍 Chaco Ramen,...

I have been to Chaco Bar for dinner, it was a few years ago now, I remember liking the Yakitori and small dishes but the restaurant is everything I dislike about Sydney restaurants. First of all, long wait for a table, a small narrow place with a sharing table which packed with too many people and my elbows were literally rubbing against a stranger's next to me. Small potions of food that wasn't even enough for one person but we were expected to share... And the Yakitori? $5/skewer but it wasn't even big enough to fit in a mouthful! Extremely loud noise which I can't even hear my dining companion speaks. Need I go on?

However this visit I wanted to try their Ramen as I have been hearing about how fantastic they were. I must say that I was disappointed with the flavour. I had the Fat Soy without fat. Love that they offer no fat / less fat / normal / extra fat options for the pork, however, my chashu pork still came with a thin layer of fat.

The ramen tasted good but not special. I would describe the flavour as bold and rough without refinements. The chashu pork was a generous thick cut but its flavour bland and not remarkable. The broth was clean and simple without layers of complex flavours like many other places. The noodle was tasty with a nice bouncy feel. I can understand why many people like it but it's not for me.

Chaco Bar's ramen wan't bad but it just wan't as good as I expected. For better ramen I would recommend Rara Ramen in Redfern (yummy light broth and delicious chashu!), Work & Noodle Bar in Potts Point (Dashi Tonkatsu), Gogyo in Surry Hills or Ryo's in Crows Nest. There are a few more to name but you get...