Umami Tokyo is a new late-night izakaya serving snacks to fuel your next bar crawl.
Umami Tokyo, an izakaya close to bars and clubs that push through to dawn on Chapel Street, serves street dishes such as takoyaki (fried octopus balls), chicken skewers and pork gyoza, as well as ramen, until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays.
Founder Manato Hikawa (Parco Ramen) created the concept after noticing there were no late-night places serving the Japanese drinking snacks he had become used to in Tokyo.
In contrast to the rich, creamy tonkotsu pork broth served at many Melbourne ramen restaurants, Umami Tokyo focuses on lighter chicken ramen including more vegetables than usual: mushroom, carrot, radish and kelp round out the flavour extracted from simmered chicken bones.
There’s extra umami from two types of oil stirred into the finished ramen: chicken oil that’s skimmed from the base broth, and a vegan oil powered by slow-cooked leek and nashi pear. The resulting soup is glossy, silky and comforting. The medium bowl size ($20-$23) is a draw too, making it feasible as dancing fuel rather than the typical ramen-to-couch trajectory.
Small bites are just as carefully constructed. Agedashi tofu is served with a sauce that includes five different soy sauces, and roasted cauliflower is seasoned with two types of Japanese curry powder (try adding it to your ramen). The shopfront restaurant has 30 seats, arranged around a central horseshoe-shaped bar.
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