Monday, October 6, 2014

Ippudo at Central Park, Ultimo

Ah winter days are over, and that means the days of hot bowls of ramen are coming to a close... But my adamant love for ramen demands that I squeeze it in as much as I can before the weather gets much too hot to handle steaming hot ramen! Australian summers, you are just much too brutal. I was kindly invited by Sana on behalf of Ippudo to try out their newly opened branch in Central Park Sydney - definitely a convenient location for you USYD and UTS students. She was an absolutely delight to speak to and went over the menu with us, sadly informing us that the pork buns are not currently available on the menu. Ah well, there are other items to try!

L to R: Iced oolong tea, $4.00 / Homemade lemon lime & bitters, $5.00
Warm days mean cool drinks! I was glad to taste an unsweetened iced oolong tea and lemon lime bitters are always a refreshing drink to have on standby at any restaurant really.

Seared salmon sushi, $13.00
Salmon has got to my favourite fish. And when it's seared, there's just this delicious smoky flavour that's hard to beat. Naturally, this dish had to be ordered! Plus our curiosity over the mentai mayo really got us. It turned out to be a very welcome addition indeed, adding a lovely creamy zing to the palette. And we all know that avocado and salmon is a classic combination. Fatty salmon and more healthy fats from avocado? Don't mind if I do!


Extras plate
 Since we ordered the ramen specials, both came with its own plate of extras including a soy egg, bean sprouts, seaweed, bamboo shoots, black fungus, chopped spring onion and extra chashu (win!).

Miso tonkotsu special, $25.00
I absolutley love corn in my ramen because it adds that little burst of sweetness that goes really well with the tonkotsu broth. I found that the addition of miso to the tonkotsu broth made this one quite incredibly salty. Whilst still tasty, it was a tad much after a while but at least we had our oolong tea and lemon lime bitters! The noodles were cooked with just enough bounce - the perfect texture :D

Shiromaru special, $23.00
The original tonkotsu broth was less sodium based than the miso tonkotsu version and I preferred this one a lot more. As before, there was nothing to fault with the way the noodles were cooked and along with all those toppings, I was one happy ramen eater. I would recommend you put the egg in the soup to warm up a bit as it does come cold on the extras plate. What I did like was that the yolk inside was still soft and definitely not overcooked!

Blue Mountains, $13.00
And of course one cannot finish dinner without dessert. Though Gingerbreadmanne and I were incredibly full, we couldn't go past this green tea sundae. Who can resist green tea icecream, red beans, mandarins, oranges, apricots and coconut jelly? The icecream was so smooth and creamy and despite our initial thoughts of only having a few spoonfuls, we managed to polish off the entire thing (no ragrats, not even one letter).

At this stage, we were incredibly full and so very, very content with all that was eaten. Service here was incredibly efficient and the staff were nothing short of friendly with all the Japanese greetings - love that subtle touch of authenticity to add to the dining experience! You can find our more about Ippudo Central Park here.

Crystal Noir and friend dined as guests of Ippudo Central Park courtesy of Motoyama Sana of SD Marketing. Opinions however, are entirely her own.

Ippudo
Lower Ground, Central Park
28 Broadway Chippendale, NSW, 2008

Opening Hours
Monday - Wednesday: 11:00am - 10:00pm
Thursday - Saturday: 11:00am - 11:00pm
Sunday: 11:00am - 9:00pm

Ippudo Sydney on Urbanspoon

10 comments:

  1. We seem to be having enough up and down days to make a trip to Ippudo totally viable. And this location is really close to us too! :D

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    1. Definitely! Even today could count as ramen weather :P

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  2. Wow, they are some VERY expensive bowls of ramen. I wonder how successful they will be with the UTS students given it's so close to Chinatown and cheap ramen. And bummer about the pork buns - why would they ditch those, they are sooo good.

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    1. It does come with a lot of extras on the side! But definitely on the expensive side and probably not very budget friendly with the students. I agree - they are so tasty! Hopefully they'll be back on the menu soon :)

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  3. Ooh I haven't had the desserts before - so now I know exactly which one to get when I go :D
    Delicious photos!

    Cheers
    Choc Chip Uru

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    1. I'm a sucker for anything matcha so it was an easy decision from the get go! :P

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  4. Dear Sherrie,

    I enjoyed the seared salmon but Mysaucepan found the miso ramen very salty as well.

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    1. It was, wasn't it? The corn did help but I was very thankful for the oolong tea and lemon lime bitters!

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