Ramen shops serve up soul in a bowl

With ramen-mania washing over the US, it's inevitable that ramen-yas (ramen shops) devoted to the Japanese staple are beginning to pop up around Melbourne. Yoshi Kurosawa has recently opened Mugen, one of the city's first tsukemen (dipping ramen) joints, opposite his manga-themed Robot Bar. Think of tsukemen as deconstructed ramen, where al dente house-made noodles are plated separately and dunked into dashi-pork stock. The two-level CBD laneway bolthole (there's a newly excavated basement izakaya) also offers Japanese ''tapas'', including house-made gyoza, along with local craft beer on tap and Japanese Coedo in glass (sweet potato lager, anyone?).

And in Northcote, punters are lining up to slurp down pork and vegetarian ramen at the newly opened Dojo Ramen Bar. The secret pork broth recipe comes in three variations - shio (salt), shoyu (soy) and chilli miso. Other hit menu picks are handmade gyoza and JFC (Japanese fried chicken). The inexpensive, casual ramen-ya has a small wine, sake and Japanese beer list and a DJ on Friday and Saturday nights.

Mugen, 11 Bligh Place, Melbourne (no phone), mensousaimugen.com. Open Mon-Fri 11am-2.30pm, Mon-Sat 6-11.30pm.

The Dojo Ramen Bar, 333 High Street, Northcote, 9482 1247. Open Tues-Sat 5pm-late, Sun 3pm-late.