Ginza Kagari

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An overwhelming scent hits you as soon as you step inside this much-celebrated Japanese ramen shop that opened its first Australian outpost in Melbourne early this year. The culprit? Its signature ramen, imbued with enough truffle oil to obliterate the real truffle also contained within.

But the real star of the show here is the simplest, most unassuming dish: the tori paitan chicken ramen containing an intensely mellow, chicken-y, silky, milky broth made from Japanese spring water with chickens that are freshly killed. It’s a broth that earned the original Tokyo outpost global recognition in 2016, and the Melbourne restaurant wouldn’t settle for anything less.

It’s also why the ramen here is relatively expensive, starting at $29 a bowl. You’re paying for that broth’s shipping, which seems a bit outrageous – but also totally worth it. Because once seated at a counter along the wall, you focus only on the lovely, mellow, deep purity of the soup. And then you go on about your day, slightly better for this small act of self-love.

Must order: Tori paitan ramen.

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