Shyun Ramen

by Davin Lee

Down the street from Shyun, there’s their sister restaurant Shyun Ramen. It’s small and inconspicuous, but Matcha lovers will no doubt be drawn in by their lit up Matcha sign. As well as serving ramen (which is what their name implies) they have a wide selection of Matcha iced lattes. More on this later… first let’s talk about the parking! Trying to find parking on Koornang Road can be a difficult task to say the least, going up and down with a car right up your a** can be pretty stressful times. I’ve personally had more success with the carpark at Shepparson Avenue, but people are catching on, so I’ve had to park further down Neerim Road these days. I’m revealing all my parking spots, please be nice and leave a spot for me!

Walking into Shyun Ramen is like a trip down memory lane as it looks similar to a lot of restaurants in Japan. All the tables are squashed on the left and the kitchen is on the right, because real estate in Carnegie is expensive yo! Don’t expect any personal space here as it’s literally shoulder to shoulder. A guy asked to sit next to us, but when another table was available, he quickly slipped away like a ninja! Nothing fancy here… wooden tables and coloured stools. Be prepared to listen into other people’s conversations and vice versa. I didn’t mind this though because it spells bang for buck food, and it turned out to be great value indeed.

We started off with the wagyu beef tataki as our entree. It was seared on the outside and rare on the inside. We would have preferred it more rare, but I think most people would prefer it like this, gotta cater to the crowd! Great acidity, yet the sauce was still pleasant without being too intrusive. It’s probably one of the better beef tatakis we’ve had as of late, great start to our dining here.

I had the classic pork ramen with a shoyu based pork broth, the benchmark where ramens are rated on. Helen got a Tokyo ramen which is pretty much like my pork ramen except it comes with a light soy based broth. I enjoyed both the soup bases, the soy based one was more punchy in flavour, whereas the pork broth was richer and lubricated my lips after each slurp. Yes you heard right… slurp it up people, it’s the proper way to eat ramen! We both unanimously agreed that the pork broth was better, but we may pick the soy based to mix it up every now and then. The noodles weren’t overcooked and the corn had good texture to it. I’m not sure if it’s fresh off the cob, but I suspect it may be a higher quality packet corn. I thoroughly enjoyed my ramen, but there is one bone I have to pick with Shyun Ramen… why was there only one piece of pork!?! I’m a growing man! At least give me another piece for old time’s sake. The pictures on the menu shows two piece of pork… did we get scammed? I’m a little emotional because the pork tasted pretty damn good.

We finished off with some Matcha goodness. The decision as to what to get was tough because they have a huge range of iced Matcha lattes. You can have one with red bean, green tea softee with strawberry, cream with strawberry and chocolate syrup, etc. There’s about 12 varieties to choose from. Helen went for a classic iced Matcha with cream latte. She asked me if I wanted to share, but I aint no fool! I got myself a nice green tea softee, which is a soft serve. It wasn’t too sweet and had that tinge of bitterness I was looking for… perfect.

Apart from only getting one piece of pork I’ve enjoyed everything about Shyun Ramen. Everything was very tasty and decent value. To give you an idea, our beef tataki was $7.90 and our ramens were $11.90 each (add $5.50 for a drink and 3 gyozas). My green tea softee was $2.50. A very affordable weekday eating place which doesn’t blow the bank balance. I have an inkling feeling that we may become regulars here…


Shyun Ramen
Approx $20 AUD per person
Address: 73 Koornang Rd, Carnegie VIC 3163
Phone: +61 3 8394 5971
Website: shyunramenbar.com.au

Shyun Ramen Bar Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Young and Foolish

by Helen Le

So I’ve been telling people about this new brunch / lunch cafe in the local ‘burbs’ that just opened. Being food bloggers we’ve earned a bit of trust when it comes to suggestions for good eateries. But when I tell people that this new cafe is located at Brandon Park shopping centre, even I get doubtful looks and questionable wrinkled noses and frowns. Yes people, there is a pretty decent and modern cafe at Brandon Park! In fact, the last few times we’ve been, we’ve had to stalk other cars just to find parking. I feel like perhaps this cafe may be drawing more people to this place.

Anyway, located on the ground floor in a spacious spot where past failed restaurants have come and gone, Young and Foolish has recently opened up and taken the spotlight at this normally quiet shopping centre with its bright lights, bricks and wooden decor, leather booths and greenery throughout the cafe. It is a refreshing and welcoming change.

Staff were super friendly and seated us down straight away. They took our drinks orders and let us peruse the menu. Now I’ve been here twice now in a span of weeks so some of the dishes we ordered on both occasions included the wagyu cheese burger with crunchy fries, the vodka cured salmon, meatballs risoni and the Young and Foolish breakfast.

All the dishes were presented beautifully, particularly the vodka cured salmon. This was a really pretty and appetising dish. Davin felt like this was probably more of an entree for him and he wouldn’t be full on it but it was a perfect portion for me. The wagyu cheese burger was tasty and the brioche bun was not too sweet. It was a scoffable dish! The meatball risoni had veal and pork in it and it was slow cooked in tomato and basil with buttered risoni pasta. It was flavoured really well and a hearty dish. Our foodie friend ordered the Young and Foolish breakfast which had poached eggs, bacon, pork fennel sausage, swiss brown mushrooms, a hash brown and zucchini tomato relish, a clean dish! We also ordered some fresh juices in which they let you choose different combinations of ingredients and were pretty good.

Overall it was a great place to catch up with friends while enjoying some good food. Service was also great and staff were friendly and accommodating. Highly recommend if you’re in the area!

Young and Foolish
Approx $30 AUD per person
Brandon Park Shopping Centre, Corner of Springvale & Ferntree Gully Road,
Wheelers Hill, Melbourne, VIC 3150
Phone: +61 3 9560 2065

Young and Foolish Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Nikos Tavern

by Davin Lee

My friend recommended Nikos Tavern to me as an alternative to the Greek restaurants in Oakleigh. He said they were just as good. My interpretation of just as good was that they are not as good, otherwise he would have said that it was better. My success rate with ‘just as good’ places has been disappointing to say the least. Instinctively I was already thinking that Nikos Tavern may not have been such a good idea, because they were not only further away from me, but I’m settling for just as good. I thought I may be getting too caught up with these 3 words so my stubborn self wanted to be pleasantly surprised!

On one weekday evening, we made the trip to Ringwood to try these guys out. Just like the start of the movie – Meet the Fockers, it was all sweet and rosy at the start. The traffic to Nikos was silky smooth, the exterior and interior gave the place a real authentic feel, and the food we saw come out were big portioned. My skepticism turned to excitement and suddenly I was really looking forward to this dinner! Unfortunately this story has no happy ending, and what followed could only be described as a disaster…

They started us off with a very generous amount of dips, and some pita bread. First thing I noticed was that the feel of the pita bread was different. They were barely lukewarm and tasted very old. Old bread has this weird texture and flavour which is very easy to pinpoint. This was not fresh at all… but what were we going to do with the dips without the bread? They go hand in hand! There were so many dips, we sucked it up and tried to power through it. The dips themselves were OK. They stimulated the taste buds initially, especially the eggplant and caviar ones, but soon they all started tasting the same.

The saganaki was so heavily battered, I didn’t know whether I was eating batter or cheese. By this stage, my taste buds were all shot, and I wasn’t sure what I was looking for in this meal anymore. The chicken gyros came out, and after a quick bite… DRY. It seemed as though their turnover of meats hadn’t been good that night, and they’ve pre-cut the meat and put it in a warmer. Not only was the chicken dry but it was tasteless, and lacked seasoning. We waited a long time for the lamb, when we queried this the waitress said that the lamb was seen as the next course. This was interesting… I didn’t understand why the chicken and lamb couldn’t have come out together. The lamb suffered the same fate as the chicken, DRY. The chips that came with the salad were soggy and had zero crunch to it. They were quite possibly the worst chips I’ve ever had! Things really weren’t working out, we didn’t know what to do, so we just dropped everything and said that’s enough.

Hurts me like hell to waste food like that, but I couldn’t doggy bag it. If I’m eating meat this dry at the restaurant, the next day would be even worse. We drove home miserable, but the hardest thing was when my friend asked me what I thought of the food. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings but the truth had to be told. He seemed disappointed, but I assured him that there’s plenty of opportunities for good food in the future, and told him to not worry about it. With that said, we rode off into the sunset together….

Nikos Tavern
Approx $35 AUD per person
Address: 190 Mount Dandenong Road, Ringwood East VIC 3135
Phone: +61 3 9870 0554
Website: nikos.com.au

Nikos Tavern Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato