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NOT: Kokoro Ramen, 157-159 Lonsdale St, Melbourne

In the documentary and cross-cultural love story ‘Banana in a Nutshell’ there’s a funny moment where the Chinese girl and her Anglo boyfriend argue whether cereal is a breakfast food or ‘anytime’ food. It mirrors the kind of conversations that I’ve had with RM before – to me cereal is only for breakfast, whereas he thinks it’s weird to eat noodles in the morning.

This is just a roundabout introduction to say that I LOVE NOODLES and consider myself a bit of a noodle freak. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, I could eat them all day (and for 3 weeks in Vietnam, I did). So when I heard Kokoro Ramen had opened I rushed there, post-haste, to broaden my noodle horizons.

Kokoro Ramen is a roomy ramen joint where the noodles are made fresh on site. The colourful menu is fairly overwhelming with all the possible options (you can even create your own toppings with your choice of broth) so I went straight for the menu recommendation – deep-fried soft shelled crab with the Tokyo chicken and seafood stock base ($14.90).

The bowl that arrived was generous with the noodles and less generous with the toppings – but I guess for under $15 you can’t be expecting too much seafood. At least the crab was juicy yet crunchy, spurting out soup stock at every bite.

But when it came to the noodles and the broth, disappointment set in.

I love noodles that are bouncy and toothsome, with a slight chew and glutinous resistance. These noodles were deadened. One chomp and a nothingness of noodle dough lying in your mouth.

I also found the broth very bland – spoon after spoon I sniffed and slurped, trying to discern some skerrick of chicken or seafood flavours. All I got was a semi-salty murkiness. There was no fragrance, no clarity. And I didn’t have a blocked nose…

On my visit Kokoro Ramen was busy with blue-shirted male office workers in a scene reminiscent of neat Japanese salarymen bedding down for their lunch at their local. And the ramen at Kokoro Ramen is certainly filling and reasonably priced and makes a change from a ham and cheese sandwich, so if you work in the area I can see the attraction.

However, I’m voting with my feet and walking that extra couple of blocks to Ramen Ya.

Kokoro Ramen, 157-159 Lonsdale St, Melbourne +61 3 9650 1215

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HOT: Mama Baba, 21 Daly St, South Yarra

Another day, another George Calombaris restaurant opens. That man (along with Andrew McConnell and Chris Lucas) is taking over this town!

But that’s ok, when he’s able to bring consistently excellent food and service to the four corners of Melbourne. He’s got it all covered – north, south, east, central…the only place missing is west (and I’m sure it’s coming soon).

His southside and newest venture is Mama Baba, an Italian/Greek eatery celebrating the heritage of his parents – his Greek mother (Mama) and his half-Italian father (Baba). The focus is all about food, family and that infamous $45,000 pasta extruder so sorry gluten-intolerant diners, I don’t think there’s much here for you.

Happily gluten tolerant, Gourmet Chick, her partner in crime MTV boyfriend, RM and I enjoyed Sunday lunch there a few days after opening. Surprisingly, it was half-empty given Calombaris’ reputation (but I guess it’s early days) and given its hidden away location in a cul-de-sac in South Yarra I don’t think they’d be getting any passing foot traffic. Maybe some referrals from their neighbour The Olsen Art Series Hotel will help.

Despite the semi-empty warehouse feel to the premises we didn’t feel like we had to be hush-hush during lunch. The long length of open kitchen keeps the vibe noisy and bustling. It’s interesting theatre watching the chefs roll out bread dough, roast baby tomatoes and chop onions.

To start we shared some arancani ($7.5) of bolognese and mashed potato, grilled scallops with garlic skordalia and crumbs ($3.50 each) and the parma ($7.50), with varying success.

The parma was the surprising standout, given I’m not a fan of parmas generally. This was more of a American-style slider with an Italiano twist- a small sweet glazed bun filled with jamon, crumbed chicken fillet, some cheese and tomato ketchup and speared with some cutesy Greek and Italian flags.

The grilled scallops were plump and fresh though the delicate marine sweetness was a little masked by the heavy crumbing, while the arancini were not very appetising, though exactly as described – crumbled spag bol mince rolled up with mash potato and fried.

The main pasta menu is split into two section – Greek and Italian. We tried two dishes from each country, again with varying success.

A highlight was the fat tortellini filled with prawn, saganaki cheese and dressed with tomato and feta ($23). It was the perfect light, summery dish for the hot weather outside with a good balance of subtle flavours. My spaghetti carbonara ($27) was a fancy pants version of the peasant staple – slippery spaghetti with calamari, crispy pork bits, maple bacon, a sprinkling of pumpkin parmesan, with a saffron brodo poured over the poached egg wobbling on top, ready for the toss to create the carbonara sauce. It was fun and filling and will be great as a hearty winter meal.

I was less enamoured of the gnudi ($24). The golf-ball sized ricotta dumplings were served with a sauce of burnt butter, honey, walnuts, crispy sage and capers, making for an extremely rich and heavy-in-the-stomach meal. It’s a dish that is better shared – after that fifth dumpling you just want to crawl under the table and sleep.

I also didn’t particularly like the ravioles ($23) as I felt that the weak flavours of the celery and lemon didn’t match well with the heartiness of the shredded meat inside the parcels. Perhaps that combination is authentic Greek? Don’t accidentally order this if in fact you’re wanting ravioli with beef and bone marrow, beetroot, wasabi!

Dessert was a throw-back to hot school afternoon treats. Waffle ice cream cones ($8) were topped with milk and milo ice cream, vanilla splice and crunchy peanut butter and salt, with the latter being my favourite flavour – nutty and not too sweet.

From the dessert trolley we also tried a deconstructed version of the rum baba – the ‘Mum-baba’ and a very rich Ferrero Rocher ($10.50) (sorry, photos gone AWOL). While both were sophisticated takes on classic dessert combinations, I think I would have preferred two simple scoops of that crunchy peanut butter ice-cream instead.

I thought that the food at Mama Baba was generally good and the ambience, decor and service excellent – but out of all of Calombaris’ restaurants that I’ve tried, I feel that Mama Baba is the least strong of them all. Maybe it’s just too early to tell and it has a lot of buzz to live up to, so it’s worth giving the restaurant a chance.

Mama Baba, 21 Daly St, South Yarra +61 3 9207 7421
Monday – Thursday and Saturday 5:00pm – late
Friday and Sunday 12pm – late

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HOT: St Katherine’s, 26 Cotham Rd, Kew

So George Calombaris may not know about the calculation of penalty rates for his waitstaff, but he does know how to run a good quality restaurant. PM24, Hellenic Republic, The Press Club and now St Katherine’s all get my whole-hearted recommendation.

St Katherine’s showcases mid-priced, relaxed, high quality region-influenced food and I think this Greek/Turkish/Middle Eastern hybrid is Melbourne-style dining at its best.

Although you can’t really tell the ethnic influences from fairly plain the street front, the large downstairs dining area is light and bright, with subtle Ottomon accents in the patterned stencilled window panes, the painted tableware and the use of empty food cans emblazoned in foreign languages to house each table’s cutlery and napkins.

On Monday to Fridays, St Katherine’s offers what is possibly one of Melbourne’s best value lunch deals – a 2 course ‘Xpress’ lunch shared between the table for $19.50 a head.

What is on the lunch menu changes regularly but it will involve dishes roasted on the Turkish grill, rotisserie and baked in the wood-fired oven.

First course is the St Katherine’s “bento style” lunch meze, a theatrical stage laying out flat ramekins of various meze – on our visit salty marinated feta, house made hommus with chunks of roasted almonds dotted on top (I’m stealing that idea for my next dinner party) and baby carrots mixed with yoghurt, cardamom, caraway and honey. The dips were delicious smeared on bread though I was less enamoured of the carrots, mainly because the dressing reminded me the smell of ladies handcream.

The platform also contained the pide of the day – ours was spiced lamb mixed with tomato, garlic, parsley and freshened with a squeeze of lemon juice – and on stage left, slices of warm fennel seed bread presented inside a lucky-dip style St Katherine’s paper bag.

Already quite full we were pleasantly surprised by the generous servings of the second courses –  platters of slow roasted free range chicken, the juicy shreds of meat tossed amongst herbs and salad leaves, seared salmon fillets grilled over coal with a simple marinade of fennel seeds and lemon and a sweet rice pilaf of dill, apricot, carrot and toasted pumpkin seeds. The salmon was the most memorable – perfectly seared, a zesty crust and so well matched with the nuttiness of the pilaf.

After two courses you will definitely be full but we couldn’t resist the temptation of dessert – a peanut butter parfait with chocolate sorbet, baklava crumbs and orange blossom foam ($14.90). The dessert takes a sophisticated approach to what are essentially childhood dessert flavours of chocolate and peanut butter and it works. To my surprise, the sweetness of the foam enhanced rather than overwhelmed the other sweet flavours – that hint of fragrant citrus lifted what would otherwise have been very rich chocolate and nut mouthfuls.

The service was impeccable throughout the lunch – the waitstaff were smiling and friendly, were happy to keep picking up dropped toys and seemed well-used to dealing with ladies who lunch to families with kids. They all seemed to really love the fun of the place!

Based in Kew, St Katherine’s may be what you’d consider a local suburban restaurant but my interstate guests and I were all impressed with the the wholesome, appetising food splashed with some fun elements, the high quality of the service and the attention to detail in the decor. Less than $25 a head for a filling and delicious lunch. Kew residents are very lucky!

St Katherine’s, 26 Cotham Rd, Kew +61 3 9207 7477
Mon – Fri: 12pm – 4pm, 5.30pm – 11pm
Weekends 11.30am till late

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