Hakata-Maru Ramen

I loved the prawn and vegetable tonkatsu ramen, but you have taken it off your menu. Please put it back on. The flavour of the soup was wonderful, and the restaurant is one of the cleanest I have seen in a food court.

Hakata is one of about ten or so food stalls in a spacious, clean common eating space with plenty of seats and tables, no matter how crowded it seems.
The people at the counter and in the kitchen are a well oiled machine that creates tasty, flavorful bowls of ramen and side dishes. They work quickly and efficiently to cook the noodles just right, create that right balance in the broth and add the right amount of toppings to round out that ramen. If you are in the mood for some juicy chicken inside with a sharp crispy shell on the outside, I cannot endorse the fried chicken enough. Get it! Price is very reasonable for what you get, as low as under $ 10 to under $ 20 depending how you want to take your ramen.

This place is my favorite among all the ramen restaurants I’ve eaten in Sydney. Their tonkotsu broth is so good. Have tried White tonkotsu, red tonkotsu, chasu ramen and kakuni ramen.

I prefer the handmade noodle of Ikkuyu (don’t hesitate to get one free noodle), but I have to say the froth here is a little bit better, 9.8 for garlic oil ramen with 3 pieces of chashu no egg, anyway it’s economic and tasty. Now I got two choices on my ramen list.

Ramen Ramen Ramen once you start on it your hooked and it’s one of those food’s that everyone debates about. Which type of noodles go best, broth’s consistency and flavourings. Like some things in life, everyone has their own favourites and opinions which makes things interesting.
Hakata-​Maru Ramen in my opinion is definitely fighting with some of the Ramen establishments in Sydney in it’s own right. The offerings are probably the most reasonable priced you will find. The dishes come in at under $ 10 for a choice of Red, white or Black Tonkotsu Ramen. The White being the original flavour, red is Spicy miso mix and the Black is garlic sauce option.
I decided to go for the Red Tonkotsu. The dish was the right level of spiciness and had plenty of noodles and pork meat served with it. At the counter you can load the dish with extra sesame seeds, garlic, extra chilli and some spiced pickles. I opted to get an extra egg and mushroom so for less that $ 13 your getting a pretty good feed in my opinion. Option for extra noodles is $ 1 so all in all you can have a lot of food for less than $ 15 with extras which is the starting price in a lot of other places.
I will agree with other tellers that the eggs are served fully cooked which is probably something they should look into changing but other then that I was pleased with this place and would definitely go back again as service was practically instant from when I ordered.

What is it with Sydneyians and ramen? We just can’t get enough of it. From legendary to pretty alright, to ‘maybe I don’t really like ramen’…I’m thrilled we have our own Hakata Maru, the one thing I miss about Brissy (and Harajuku gyoza, which we also have now yay).
Now don’t get me wrong, they’re no Gumshara. But these are still real deal tonkatsu broth that is well rounded in their flavours and taste just as good, if not better, than the fancy Westfield/​chain ramen joints. All for under $ 10 a bowl ($ 14 if you want the extra egg and meat, which you do) plus $ 1 for top-​up noodles… I say yes please!

Can you believe people in Kyushu eat like this all the time? I chose the tonkotsu with red miso ramen with a fried pork Katsu on the side but the original white or black garlic oil are good too. Noting the equipment in the kitchen is for making real soup on site from pork bones i side-​eyed the chefs putting my order together fresh. Do i feel guilty watching on as people work so hard and with such care? No!
i get my tray and grab heaps of condiments: pickles spicy stuff and white sesames. They dont have drinks here so i got a bottle of fresh squeezed juice from over the hall. This soup is so fine i would never pollute the experience with soft drinks.
Mix it and push the egg and seaweed into the soup before you get into it. The noodles arent too many, tempting customers to take a dollar up and yell Kaedama! (another ball)
I look for a knife to cut my fried pork, its enormous. My Japanese associate gives me the look. I take it to mean, ‘arent you a man? Just bite it’. Ok here goes, and i am samurai!

Four star Ramen! The best food u can find in the Haymarket Foodcort! Recommend the Red one! Not too spicy! Why not five star? Meat or vegetable r not enough ;(

One of the best ramen places in the city with probably the best value. They started with a small menu and have been progressively adding new dishes.
The ramen menu has White, Soup Red Soup and Black Soup with White soup being my favourite. Make sure you get the chicken wings, it’s prepared in a unique way where all you need to do is to twist the bone and the wings become boneless.
It’s not as grand as the global chain Ippudo, but the preparation is the same. All the bowls are kept hot with hot water before it’s served with the delicious ramen!

I lived in Fukuoka (the home of Hakata ramen) for two years and this place is the closest you’ll get to the real McCoy.
All Japanese staff and it shows in the flavour of the broth — the distinguishing element of Hakata ramen. The ramen and sides are super cheap and pretty generous considering the low prices.
You could almost forget you’re in a food court… almost!

YEEEEEES!!! For food court ramen, this place is one of the best if not THE BEST!
I ordered the Red (Spicy) Ramen w/​a side of Rice Pork Don. Everything came out so quickly. Like I seriously just sat down and they called my order for pick-​up! A little confused and slightly concerned about how quickly my meal was prepared, I reluctantly stuffed my face with one of the best broths I’ve had to date. Egg was slightly overcooked, as other Unilocalers have mentioned, but everything else was absolutely fresh and delicious!
I removed a star for the portion size. For $ 2 more, I could get a much larger bowl of ramen elsewhere.

I somehow managed to find this gem in the Market City food court. The prices for ramen here are very affordable for Sydney. There are three offerings for the ramen: White (original), Red, and Black. I opted to get the original which I believe starts at $ 7.80. Extras apply for any additional toppings and any side dishes of course.
The broth was excellent and light. I was a bit disappointed however with the boiled egg as it seemed overcooked and was very soft. After finishing my noodle soup I probably should have got some toppings with the noodle soup, even still it was very tasty so I really can’t complain.
I may come back here depending on how I feel, but yeah it was definitely good enough for the price.

Having tried Ramen all over Sydney and abroad, I do rate Hakata as it is tasty and competively priced. This is by no imagination a large bowl of Ramen but it is a perfect light lunch or snack. The tonkotsu broth is not overly thick or salty which adds to my comment of this being a light lunch or snack.
It is located towards the entrance of the market city food court which is the most spacious and cleanest of the Chinatown food courts. I imagine seating could be a battle during meal times?

Seems like a new ramen shop is opening every other month or so in Sydney nowadays… enter Hakata-​Maru Ramen. There aren’t too many Hakata style ramen places in Sydney, the most famous would be Ippudo at Westfield. I can’t say that I’m the biggest fan of Hakata style ramen, so take this review with a grain of salt, but I can say it’s pretty tasty.
Found in the Level 3 Market City food court, this place isn’t too hard to find, and the service is pretty good. There are three types of ramen broth to choose from:
White — original ($ 7.80)
Red — original + spicy miso ($ 8.80)
Black — original + garlic oil ($ 8.80)
Be warned, these options only give you one piece of chashu.
You can order a Chashu ramen ($ 10.80) with 4 pieces of chashu and add Red or Black for $ 1 more.
After you order you can add three sides: sesame seeds, red ginger, and spicy takana.
I’d say that Hakata-​Maru is a poor man’s Ippudo… literally. It tastes very similar, it’s much cheaper, but it’s not as good. The noodles are slimmer like Ippudo, but you can’t choose how they’re cooked, but they came out al dente. If Ippudo was an Acura, Hakata-​Maru would be a Honda. If Ippudo was a Lexus, Hakata-​Maru would be a Toyota and so forth.
Good:
–The broth is really really good.
–Unrelated to the ramen but their Hakata-​Maru wings are really good and unique that they only have one bone which you can twist off.
–Very affordable
–Poor man’s Ippudo
Bad:
–Egg was overcooked, wasn’t runny at all and almost fully cooked.
–Chashu was dry and overcooked, there wasn’t any fat on the pieces either. Not sure if this was unintentional or not, but easily the worst chashu I’ve had in Sydney.
Come for the great broth and chicken wings, but don’t expect too much from the egg and chashu, unless this was a one time thing or unless you want ramen but you’re on a low-​fat diet.

Nothing really to fault about this place apart from being in a food court which might be an issue to some (Its not an issue to me).
Basically you’re getting Ramen which is of similar taste/​texture to ippudo but for half the price! Sure you can’t tell them how you would like your noodles cooked, but the price is definetly unbeatable.
Its one of those great places where you can go every (or almost every) day without putting a big dent in your bank balance — $ 7.80 for plain ramen, or add Gyoza to the order and get it for $ 9.80.
Very grateful for all the good and cheap eats within walking distance, and I’m sure I’ll be going back many times.

There’s a new ramen shop in Sydney and I didn’t even know until I was reading about it in a Japanese magazine. It’s located in the Market City food court on the 3^rd floor, which is not a bad location if you’re in that part of the city and it’s kind of easy to spot once you enter the food court.
As the shop name implies, they sell Hakata tonkotsu ramen which uses pork bone broth with thin straight noodles. The menu is quite simple, they have: ‘White’ original flavour; ‘Red’ with spicy miso; and ‘Black’ which uses dark garlic oil. They also have ramen which gives you extra pork belly, and one which comes with prawn and vegetables. You can add extra toppings for your ramen and there’s also a range of side dishes to choose from.
When I went, I ordered the White Tonkotsu without any other extras and it looked quite good once I got it. Once I tasted the soup, I found it was ok and that it was quite light compared to other places around Sydney that also serves tonkotsu ramen which have a heavier soup. If you prefer a lighter tonkotsu soup which isn’t so thick then you should try the ramen here. The noodle itself was just ok, not something I would rave about but it does the job for me.
From what I understand, this is Toridoll’s first shop in Australia, known for their Marugame Seimen udon shops where they have over 500 shops around Japan. I was quite surprised to find out that they would open a ramen shop first instead of an udon shop but I guess there’s nothing wrong with that as ramen is quite popular here in Sydney. As their first shop in Australia, it’s not a bad effort.
The ramen here is good, cheap and is different from other shops, so I think it’s as good as any other ramen around the city. I think it’s good enough for me to come eat again and it gives me a reason to go eat at the Market City food court which I normally don’t go to.