Kenzan
+613 9663 7737
Kenzan does a damn fine bowl of ramen, in this case Yasai Ramen with vegetables and tofu. A sublimely rich miso stock was the salty sea that supported silken wakame kelp, sliced spring onion, slender slivers of bean shoot, tender bean sprouts, carrot shards, kernals of corn, a boiled egg, small blocks of tofu and a tangle of wheat noodles.
This wonderfully busy little laneway restaurant suffers from good patronage though. So if you want a lunchtime feed on a weekday, I suggest getting there early to nab a seat before the office crowd (12 noon should do it). It is also not a place to laze over a long lunch either - you are there for a good Japanese feed, and quickly.
Kenzan is also one of the few places to do kickarse onigiri and handrolls. And due to ingenious wrapping/packaging that requires one to have an engineering degree to work out, your nori stays fantasically crisp around the well executed rice and fillings.
You may want to read Madame Anna’s, or my trusty lunchtime companion of the day, impression of Kenzan here. We both think it rocks.




December 14th, 2006 at 9:46 pm
Wa-hoo, I got linkage! Ahem. Sorry bout that.
Yah, Kenzan is great and, since I’m on my lonesome today for food (sniff) I might head that way, have the Niku Udon again. Bliss. I’ll update my blog to link to this post
January 1st, 2007 at 7:14 am
seeing as how it’s not the cheapest rolls in town, i think it’s important to note that GPO’s kenzan has the best spread at lunch time (1130am-1pm). thereafter, they more or less stop making their rolls for the day and you get only whatever’s left by the lunch hour crowd.
terribly busy from 1pm onwards, make sure you find a seat before you buy your food, otherwise you’d find yourself doing lunch new york style (i.e. eating at some random street bench).
small note: smoking’s permited after 3pm.
January 1st, 2007 at 11:09 pm
Hey solvent_d. Great point about finding a seat before you buy your food. I always get there not long after midday, and there is a good choice of seats then. By the time I’m done - people are waiting for me to vacate!
And yes, they are not cheap. But I reckon they are one of the better ones for having crunchy nori