Bones Ramen, Rushcutters Bay

Bones Ramen is a new micro ramen shop on Bayswater Road in Rushcutters Bay. This tiny space has a amount of tables, both inside and out and and it's walk-ins only. Along with the small space there is also a tidy little 8 item menu featuring four types of snacks and four types of ramen.

It was a quick 1 hour lunch carved out amongst a busy week for both Laura and I. Luckily the menu at Bones Ramen is short and sweet so as soon as we walk in and get a table we get to work ordering. Service is friendly and there's a small wine list painted on a wall. Food-wise there's a snack menu and then a menu of four types of ramen and some additional toppings if you want to add these onto your ramen. We order one of everything on the menu except for the vegetarian ramen. Soft drinks are on the basic side and so we just go with water.

Bones is by head chef is Jacob Riwaka of Rising Sun Workshop and Cornersmith and restaurateur Michael Mu Sung, who also has Farmhouse across the road. During COVID Farmhouse started selling takeaway ramen testing out the market.

The food comes out quickly. The Nuka pickles are lacto fermented in rice bran (lacto fermenting is the traditional way of pickling using just salt eg sauerkraut). I would love a bit more salt and punch but they have a nice crispness to them. There's cucumber, two types of radish and Thai eggplant pickles.

The cold potato salad resembles a celeriac remoulade or Kinpira Gobo and is made up of shredded potato, smoked chilli and a mayonnaise based sauce and half a soy egg. We both like the novelty of this potato salad and it's a favourite of Laura's.

The fried chicken is their version of chicken karaage made using Bannockburn chicken thigh. It's juicy and very moreish-I'm pretty sure I ate most of this dunking it in the addictive yuzu mayonnaise.

The prawn toast is another of their spins on a classic. It's an enormous Spencer Gulf prawn with mousseline wrapped around white bread and deep fried and served split in half . "Do you want the head or tail?" I ask her hoping that she'll let me have the head. "I think you'd make better use of the head," she says. The toast is piping hot, crunchy and delicious and the head is so full of flavour. I actually love this dipped in the yuzu mayonnaise from the fried chicken.

It's onto the ramen! All of the ramen noodles are bought in from a wholesaler but Bones make the stocks themselves. The pork shoyu has pork chashu, soy egg, watercress and menu. They explain that the soy broth is made using a tare with Yamaki Jozo Shoyu Sauce. It's a change from the heavier Tonkotsu broths that seem to have taken Sydney by storm and suits the warmer weather although I prefer the seafood ramen.

My favourite ramen is the niboshi seafood ramen traditionally made with sardines. It's a clean broth that transports me back to Japan. This is pure and clean and tastes just of seafood. If you're trying the others I would start with this one as it is the most subtle but I love the prawn dumpling and scallop silk (thinly rolled scallops that looks like shaved fennel but taste of scallops) with shallots, nori and menma (bamboo shoots). I love the prawn dumpling so much that I wish you could order an additional one as an extra.

One of the ramens I really wanted to try was the chicken broth ramen made with the feet and other collagen rich parts of the chicken in a version of pork tonkotsu but this isn't on the current menu. The chicken ramen is instead a Mazemen which is a dry, soupless ramen noodle. The chicken alfredo comes in the form of cheese, miso and chicken chashu with soy egg, menma, roast tomato and smoked chilli. The chicken chashu comes as super tender chunks off chicken meat and you mix the whole thing up so that it is seasoned with the melted cheese and roast tomato.

So tell me Dear Reader, how often do you eat ramen? Do you have a favourite type of ramen?

This meal was independently paid for.

Bones Ramen

4/51-57 Bayswater Rd, Rushcutters Bay NSW 2011

Wednesday to Saturday12–2:30pm, 5–9pm

Sunday 12–2:30pm, 5–8pm

Monday & Tuesday closed