Review

Gogyo Ramen - Surry Hills

Ramen is one of our favourite dishes and I was delighted to spend our last night before the baby arrived going out somewhere new and special. The stand out feature of Gogyo is their signature burnt/charred ramen soup flavour. If you are fortunate enough to be seated at the bar which overlooks the kitchen, you can watch the chef's precisely scorch the sauce and meticulously combine it to create one of the best Ramen's in Sydney* (see footnote).

The charring of the ramen base creates an incredible flavour.

The charring of the ramen base creates an incredible flavour.

Gogyo is a new ramen/japanese restaurant in Surry Hills that is associated with the Ippudo-franchise (owned by the same people). The main difference is that Gogyo is a unique franchise with only 3 current locations (Japan, Hong Kong, and now Sydney).

Walking in you immediately feel that this place is special, and that theory soon becomes fact when you are sampling the incredibly high quality of their dishes.

 

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Menu (As of 07.02.2018);

Click to view full sized image.


Wagyu Sukiyaki Spring Roll ($5.00 each)

Fried spring roll, filled with wagyu sukiyaki - served with peri peri mayo.

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I picked this dish based off an instagram post by @kananeophilia that pleaded with people to try this and shared that she loved it more than their ramen. Since I was already assuming their ramen was going to be something special, I ordered this as my entree and WOW! They've managed to perfectly capture sukiyaki in a spring roll. The flavour is knock out. 

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You'll have to excuse the secondary post-bite photo, I was pretty taken aback with how good it was. My wife, who only wanted 'just a bit' ended up claiming an entire half of it. We both agreed that left to our own devices we could have ordered 4 of them. 


Gogyo Original Gyoza ($14.00)

I doubt there will ever be a time we visit a Japanese restaurant and don't order Gyoza. We love Gyoza (and dumplings in general) and Gogyo's version is quite good. In my unofficial gyoza scoring system - these would come up as a 8.0 / 10. They were what I would call a typical Japanese style of Gyoza. The detractors were two things, the price - which is expensive for any serving of dumpling and the lack of the 'I must order another serving of these they are THAT GOOD'.   


Gogyo Tonkotsu ($17.00)

Silky pork broth, half umami egg, bamboo shoots, pork belly chashu

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My wife ordered the Tonkotsu and was really impressed by it. The risk with Tonkotsu is that some places make it really fatty. Gogyo's version was really delicate, and brought back instant memories of feasting on ramen in Japan. We asked for some chilli oil to add in, which was easily obtained.


Kogashi Shoyu ($18.00)

Charred shoyu base, original chicken broth, half umami egg, pork belly chashu

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This was the ramen I picked. I knew that I had to pick one of the signature charred ramens - and I decided on Shoyu because I figured it would be more salty. Can I start off by saying the flavour that comes from the charring process is amazing. It gives a subtle smokey richness to the dish, that is complimented perfectly with the rest of the ingredients. I lapped up the soup with glee - and vowed that we would come back to Gogyo just to experience this again. 


PRO:

  • Charred ramen is a stand out. It's really reminiscent of Japan-quality ramen.
  • Menu has a great array of delicious sounding items. I really love it when I struggle to order something because there are a lot of great sounding options (it means I have to come back!).
  • Once seated, very attentive and friendly waitstaff.
  • Will be coming back here, and bringing our ramen-loving friends who have been to Japan.

CON:

  • Really poor greeting / wait for a table on arrival. When we arrived there was an utter and complete lack of staff greeting or system for asking for a table. We stood at the little desk for about 6 solid minutes, trying to get someone's attention before I had to resort to stop one of the waitstaff to ask how we could get a table / queue.
  • Could not sample everything we wanted to in one sitting.
  • Didn't get a chance to try their epic looking Karaage Chicken (@jphunky)

OVERALL:

A fantastic meal, great atmosphere, and a menu that we need to come back to explore. We'll be back and we'll be bringing along some friends that love ramen.


Details:

Address: 52-54 Albion St, Surry Hills NSW 2010

Opening Hours:

  • Mon-Thur, 12:00-15:00 / 17:30-22:00.
  • Fri, 12:00-15:00 / 17:30-22:30.
  • Sat 11:30-15:00 / 17:30-22:30.
  • Sun 11:30-15:00 / 17:00-20:30 

Phone: (02) 9212 0003

Map:

 

*Footnote - thoughts about "The best ramen in Sydney".

Driving home from Gogyo I was having a heated discussion with my wife about how there is no way to fairly or definitely name any restaurant's ramen "the best in Sydney". Ramen is so wonderfully varied, so different from place to place. In my mind I have trouble even ranking the ones in my top 5, and in their own way are amazing

Therefore, from this point onwards I pledge that I'll never tout a ramen restaurant as 'the best' - but rather call it 'one of the best' if I feel it sits as a contender for that title. 

(Gogyo's ramen ranks in that grouping!).

SML Cafe - North Willoughby

Picking the first restaurant or Cafe to review for my site was actually a no brainer for me. SML Cafe has fast become my favourite cafe in the North Shore. 

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Tucked away near the fringe of Chatswood is the home to what I'm easy to describe as the best Bacon & Egg roll in Sydney. Some may call it more of a burger than a roll, but whatever you do - please sample it and get back to me (either as a comment, or a tweet @benjamin_lewis)


The Bacon & Egg roll (w/ Italian Sausage) - $12.00 (+$4.00 w/ sausage)

Bacon, egg, jack cheese, aioli, smoky bbq sauce, and hash brown - with the option to add in an italian sausage patty. 

As I said, I think this is the best variant of a Bacon & Egg roll that Sydney currently has to offer. You'll have to forgive me making big claims like this - but in my opinion, it ticks all the boxes. Bacon, Egg, Cheese, Hash Brown, all on bun that you can actually hold and enjoy without it falling to pieces.

All I can say is that I think everyone needs to experience this - if it wasn't for my diet, I would eat this far too often.


The Nourish Bowl - $20.00

Brown rice, wakame, edamame, kim chi, wasabi sesame crusted avocado, soft boiled egg, miso baked cauliflower.

The nourish bowl is my wife's go to food item at SML. It's a great mix of delicious ingredients. I don't think she's ever ordered anything different when we go.


Exceptional Coffee

One of the other things that is fantastic about SML is their coffee.  

Passing judgement on coffee in Sydney is a divisive issue. All I can say, and it'll be a metric I'll stick to, is how much I enjoyed the coffee.

SML's coffee-focused baristas pour what I can say is one of my top coffees. I have been known to drive out. 

 

 

 


Menu

Cira Sept 2017 (note: that 'Pork Katsu Sandwich' has been replaced by 'Chicken Kaarage Burger' in Dec 2017).

Drinks menu - Cira Sept 2017


PROS:

  • Outstanding Bacon & Egg Roll.
  • Some of the best coffee in Sydney.
  • Very friendly staff.

CONS:

  • Limited seating
  • Muffins may have sold out before you get there.
  • Bacon & Egg Roll is not technically on my diet.

OVERALL:

There is a reason I picked SML Cafe as my launching review on this blog - it's my #1 pick and recommendation. I'm extremely happy to visit any time, and welcome any opportunity to introduce it to people. 


Details

Address: 36 Macmahon St, North Willoughby NSW 2068

Hours: 6am-3pm, every day.

Phone: n/a

Site: https://www.instagram.com/smlcups/

 

If you visit SML, let me know what you thought of it!