Kuroneko Ramen Noodle Bar — Restaurant in Sydney

So normally the third photo should be that of an empty bowl; I make it a point of mine to always finish ramen broth in respect to the chef who take hours to meticulously ensure that it is properly made and well balanced.

That is not the case for me today.

My partner and I ordered tonkotsu ramen, miso ramen and 2 beers because ramen without beer is pretty much missing the point, haha! But the first thing I noticed was the ajitsuke tamago. The yolk was mysteriously solid, almost a bit hard boiled. This was a bit unusual since most Ajitsuke tamago tends to be more on the soft-boiled side. But I presume that might be the restaurant style, so I moved on to the broth.

"Salty" was the very first thing that sprung to mind as I had my taste of the miso broth, not "savoury" or "umami". I almost wondered if I had ordered a shoyu ramen instead because I could hardly taste the familiar miso flavour which I wanted. The broth was quite full bodied and quite in line with most miso ramen I've had, but this one was really, really salty. Almost to the point I was thankful to have ramen noodles in the broth to soften the saltiness. I initially wondered if it might've been a different type of miso used, such as miso from Nagoya, but it has a more richer flavour than just simply salty. It's difficult to justify how a broth of this colour could lack miso flavour and be so salty. That was why I could not push myself to finish the broth.

The noodles themselves were not very outstanding, and I apologise if they were hand-made noodles, but they were quite unremarkably normal. Sadly the corn and sliced spring onions were not of too much help, and their light sweetness and tender pungentness paled in comparison to the sharp saltiness of the broth.

The char siu (pork slices) were fairly decent. They had nice texture, and relatively juicy, though I do wish it had a bit of a marinate. Though in hindsight, maybe it might not be necessary since the broth is already pretty salty.

I tried my partner's tonkotsu broth twice, once first to just give it my first impression, and a second time to confirm if I really tasted it correctly. The tonkotsu broth was quite bland, it has just very slight creaminess, but not the typical mouth coating richness and slightly sweet pork flavours of a good tonkotsu broth. Instead I got a slightly bitter pungent after taste which may suggest that the pork bones may not have been soaked prior to use for the broth. Some describe this as a "smell", and I have definitely had my fair share of this experience in Singapore when I've had some pork dishes. My partner though was not as critical as I was in the food, so he managed to mostly finish his meal.

Service wise, I felt that the floor crew was quite sparse as it looked like only 2 were on the floor for so many tables in the restaurant. It could not be helped that we were not greeted at the door, but we were still given respectable service when we were seated. The interior decor was brightly lit, warm, rife with activity from other store patrons, definitely gives me a bit of a feel of being in a ramen store back in Japan. The only thing missing was slurping of noodles.

Overall, I feel that giving this place 3 stars is justified as I definitely had better ramen in Sydney that's very close to standards in Japan.. and as someone who does use miso a fair bit in my cooking, it's just a bit surprising to me how miso ramen would taste a bit more like shoyu ramen. In fairness, the ramen is not in anyway inedible, and I have had the privilege to be spoilt with good ramen in Japan, so my mark might be pretty high to begin with. This is decent ramen, but it's not memorable or exceptional.

I might return again if I happen to be in the area and am hankering for ramen, but it's a bit hard for me to recommend it to friends who may want an authentic ramen experience...

We were in the area and looked for a quick meal after taking the kids to the park. Having not been to a Ramen shop for some time, we thought we’d try this place out seeing it has reputable rating from a decent amount of reviewers. Upon dining, I was very confused with the rating against the food we ate, I thought there may have been two of these ramen shops in the same area and we had gone to the wrong one, unfortunately I was wrong. Let’s start off with the atmosphere, it did not feel like a Japanese restaurant, it was quite dull and doesn’t set the mood for a nice experience. The staff were..also dull. Not much presence from them. Once we ordered our food (Ramen, teriyaki-don, gyoza and karaage chicken), the server brought over plastic bowls for our kids, I usually wipe the bowls down, glad I do this as the tissue actually wiped off dark dust.Very unpleasant to be brought this for children, that definitely compressed the experience a bit more.

I’ll break down the food experience plate by plate; Ramen - broth was too clear and bland. Ramen broth should be a little thick and foggy, this was not it. Flavour was a let down. Too salty. Teriyaki-don (rice) - too much sauce, too salty Karaage Chicken - over fried which dried out most parts of each piece of chicken. Soft shell Sushi roll - presentation looked ok, but a couple of the pieces had no soft shell in it, seems they skipped parts of the roll before cutting it. Dipping sauce was served in a take away container, which is odd. Gyoza - my partner said it tasted odd, it definitely was not fresh. Towards the end, we noticed the trolley next to the kitchen walkway had dishes of already pan-fried gyoza plated and ready to serve (see photo for reference). This confirmed it for us, not fresh and it was not crispy on the bottom. Dipping sauce also served in a take away contain, odd again.

I’ve been to a vast number of Ramen shops, and this one is sub par. Very disappointing. Now going back to what I initially mentioned at the start regarding the rating, now it makes perfect sense after reading some other recent reviews - change of ownership/management. Quality has dropped, short cuts taken.

Not recommended, not...

Went for quick lunch. There was only one other table there but the service was very quick. Staff were polite and friendly. The food however...

Tonkotsu Ramen (0/5): Severely below average, lacked flavour and depth, and came out with warm soup. Pork in the soup seemed overcooked and was bland. Noodles were very mediocre and tasted like supermarket packet noodles. Didn't want to finish it.

Karaage (1/5): Karaage looked quite nice and was served with mayonaise and lemon. However, it was overcooked and dry inside. There were also cuts through the middle of each piece, I assume to check for doneness which puts the competency of the chefs to question. Are they checking because they had they served raw chicken before? Funnily enough, even though the chicken was overcooked and had cuts through the middle, there was still soggy raw breading in the chicken.

Tempura Prawn Roll (0/5): Tasted like it was made by a 5 year old. Rice was sticky and unflavoured. Rice to prawn/cucumber ratio was way off. Best part was the tobiko ontop of the roll that the chefs couldn't ruin.

Honestly, service was fine but the food was horrible. You can get a better ramen experience from instant ramen and food-court japanese will easily beat the sides. I spent $53 on a meal for 2 that I wouldn't have paid $5 for.

Edit: Response to reply. No motivation for the post other than that it was spoken of highly by an aquaintance and also by other reviewers but the food we received was far below expectations. Whilst harsh, I believe all the comments I made were accurate and are meant to help others from being disappointed as we were. We try not to waste "food" and as such finished the meal that we'd paid over $50 for. However you'll be able to see from the footage that the ramen broth in either of our bowls is unfinished - a result of its mediority.

Thank you for the kind wishes and you can be assured we have had many better dining experiences...