Ryo's Noodles - Crows Nest - Sydney, Australia

Ryo's Noodles

It has taken many years to get here and after three trips, I have finally made it to Ryo's Noodles. On the first instance, we drove around in circles, mind you, it was pitch black at night, and failed to find Ryo's due to the lack of signage. Fast forward a few years, we go back once again, and to our dismay it's closed for the holiday season. Just my luck. On this third occasion, we caught public transport there, Miss Booklover insisting we catch the train, unfortunately, it had some problems resulting in delays. Fret not, we end up catching the M20 bus straight to Crows Nest despite some initial hiccups, and after a few minutes of walking we finally arrive at an opened Ryo's Noodles!

 

My anticipation and expectations in the lead up to this has gone beyond any other restaurant I've ever wanted to go to, having read so many positive reviews and hearing so many great things about the ramen here. Miss Booklover had previously come here once, raving about how delicious it was and how she absolutely loved the ramen here.

 

 

Upon walking in, I noticed how quiet the place was. Not in terms of the amount of people but the noise of the place. It actually felt a bit awkward talking cause I felt as though everyone could hear what we were saying. The restaurant became full after we got there which was around the 6pm mark, and as we left there was only one group of three waiting. I guess we were lucky that day as I hear queues can go metres long.

 

 

The interior reminded me of a quintessential, no-frills, Japanese kind of place that serves authentic food, fuss free. Minimal décor with it's Japanese menu scattered throughout the walls and a number of wooden tables. I hear the place only seats approximately 20 people.

 

The 'Tonkatsu Ramen (Pork Soup) - Spicy ($13.50)' is our preferred ramen. It is a ramen in spicy hot flavoured soup with roast pork, a full egg and shallots. The stock is relatively thick but not as thick as the one at Gumshara. I like how it is packed with flavour and hits the spot. They are generous with their fatty and melt in your mouth pork slices. I find the noodles a bit too soft for my liking. It isn't 'al dente' as I like my egg noodles, as its missing that chew and bite factor. If you don't like bean sprouts in your ramen, then you will definitely like this ramen.

The 'Gyozas ($7.00)' come as five pan fried dumplings with pork and cabbage I believe. It was fried to perfection and was still sweet and juicy. It tasted excellent with soya sauce.

I was so full after downing a whole bowl of ramen and 4 gyozas. Greedy me. Miss Booklover had trouble finishing her ramen so she insisted I eat more of the gyozas, given her small appetite.

She also ordered a 'Grape Fanta ($3.50)' which I haven't seen sold anywhere else, but I hear it is available in Asian supermarkets. I didn't try it myself but she says it tastes like cough medicine. Didn't sound appealing to me.

 

I personally wouldn't say it is the best ramen in Sydney as I've had better. It was good but not great. Even though many have exclaimed it is the best ramen they have ever tasted, I did not find the wow factor about it. I guess everyone has different preferences as to how they like their ramen. Miss Booklover likes it so much she even said we should go once a month. A bit far and inconvenient to get to though. I would like to try some other items and I know I will be definitely be back in the near future.

Where?
125 Falcon St
Crowns Nest NSW 2065
Australia

Phone no. 02 9955 0225

Opening Hours
Open Everyday Except Wednesday
Lunch - 12:00pm - 2:00pm
Dinner - 5:00pm - 9:00pm

Website
NA
 

PappaRich - Chatswood - Sydney, Australia.

PappaRich Malaysian Delights

*Credit to M for allowing to use her Iphone to take pictures as mine was out of battery

Lets just say we over ordered for a group of 4 girls as we usually do. As my friend said 'we're a bunch of greedy girls' and we sure are. As you can see from the picture above, the food couldn't fit on the table and was hanging over the sides.

Everything on the menu looked so delectable with the shiny and colourful pictures attracting us to order more. We ordered one main each and two mains to share.

We arrived at around 6pm and there was a decent queue not like what we've heard or read where waiting times could extend up to one hour! But about 5 to 10 minutes later, a long queue formed outside the restaurant.  They do not take bookings so be prepared to wait if you arrive during peak hour.

The 'Roti Canai with Curry Chicken' was superb. The roti was freshly made, crispy and buttery like how it should be. Highly addictive but given this was eaten last we struggled to finish it and left most of the chicken aside and half a roti. The poor chicken.

The 'Pappa Char Kuay Teow' had prawns, egg, chives, bean sprouts and fish cake slices. The noodles were thinner that usual and wasn't like the traditional thick noodles we were use to seeing. Once again this was wok fried to perfection but our lack of stomach capacity meant that we failed to finish it but was very close to.

'Pappa Wat Tan Hor (Combination Noodles)' was similar to the char kway teow but had that extra egg gravy sauce. Didn't try but my friend seemed to have enjoyed it thoroughly.

The much awaited dish... well what I was craving for and wanted to try from here. The 'Pappa Chicken Rice' was my absolute favourite. Everything about it was cooked well and there were no negatives. My two friends couldn't agree more and polished off their plates except for their bean sprouts as they don't like sprouts.

The rice had just the right amount of chicken stock and garlic flavouring. It wasn't gluggy and soft like what I've experienced at a lot of places.

Chicken was moist and still  juicy even though it was the breast part. Would have preferred the drumstick but it was still good. That soya sauce at the bottom of the chicken was to die for.

The bean sprouts were just bean sprouts if that makes any sense. Cooked for a few seconds and it still had that crunch to it.

Dark soy sauce and chill dipping sauce. The chilli sauce was so spicy. I have a high tolerance to chilli and found myself coughing as some of the minced chilli got stuck down my throat. So beware those that do not eat chilli!

Oh and the soup was refreshing but not as memorable as the other components.

We also ordered a drink each but I forgot to take a picture but you can see from the top picture. The 'Soya Milk Grass Jelly' and 'Soya Milk Jelly' were pretty similar. The latter had cream and a drizzle of caramel on top. The soya milk appeared to have been blended with ice. The 'Barley' drink was not liked by my friend who has never tried barely before and said it had an 'interesting' taste.

 The 'Lemon Tea with Honey' looked picture perfect with the two slices of lemon.

All this food for under 100 bucks! A bargain considering the portion size and quality of the food.

I don't know what others have had as I've read some not so good reviews but we sure enjoyed ourselves and would definitely visit again. Too bad there isn't a store in the city or I'll be there a lot.

The wait is definitely worth it as this is Malaysian food at its finest in Sydney.

Where?
1/63A Archer St
Chatswood NSW 2067
Australia

Phone no. 02 9411 3207

Opening Hours
11.00am to 9.00pm Monday to Wednesday
11.00am to 10.00pm Thursday to Friday
10.00am to 10.00pm Saturday
10.00am to 9.00pm Sunday

Website
http://papparich.net.au/