Jesse Mulligan Reviews Den Ramen: Why This Buzzy Izakaya Bar Is Packed Out Nightly
This exciting new Japanese joint is already drawing queues, serving standout cocktails and deeply satisfying bowls of ramen.
Some businesses are sprinkled in magic dust and this is one of them. I know operators who’ve launched restaurants (brilliant restaurants!) along K Rd and struggled to stay solvent, but Den Ramen opened on Cross St with no fanfare a few weeks ago and has been full ever since.
Like, full full. We arrived 10 minutes after the 5pm opening time on a Sunday and had to be seated outside. We were eventually bumped up to the bar and by then the waiting list had got even longer (literally; they write your name and time of arrival in marker pen on the front door).
I haven’t been to Aussie for years but I think you know what I mean when I say that it feels very Melbourne. This will be even more so when the Canada St entry to a flash new Karanga-a-hape train station opens shortly nearby, not that Den Ramen needs any more walk-up traffic.
A short paper menu lists some very appealing options for food and drink. Cocktails come in short, squat glasses with a big cube of ice and look beautiful even if they don’t last long. I had a lovely house Negroni, which was sweeter and more approachable than usual thanks to yuzu sake in place of the campari and my darling wife had their “sour Ume” twist on a G&T. The vibe of the place is “Izakaya”, which means the drinking is as important as the eating – a buzzy bar with fantastic food.
It’s a tricky balance, because it’s the sort of place you would love to spend a couple of lazy hours in but that list on the door (Devon (3) 5.45pm, Kento (3) 5.48pm, Christina (4) 5.55pm ...) reminds you that you’re on the clock. I spent $175 in less than one hour, so perhaps it’s for the best that we didn’t stick around and kick on.
The food menu is exciting, even more so when you’re sitting up there at what is an effective chef’s table, watching four maestros put it all together.
We began with a cold salad of octopus pieces, avocado, crispy shallot and a soy/balsamic dressing and it was a total treat, even if working with chopsticks made it almost impossible to experience more than one of these ingredients in the same mouthful. Then came braised daikon with torched miso and some popped amaranth seeds. The flavours were great, though once again, we had some utensil trouble; it was perfectly cooked but still needed the two of us working together to break it up, and we were left at the end with a pool of delicious sauce we were unable to do anything with.
Gurnard, the smelliest of your supermarket fresh fish options, is treated with the right amount of hostility here, where they torch the aroma out of it then glaze it and plate it simply with pink pickled onions.
But the main event is of course, the ramen, and I will admit to a bit of decision fatigue at your classic ramen joint. Do I care enough about wide noodles or thin, medium-size or large, egg or no egg that it’s worth asking me for my thoughts on each? Just give me my bowl of noodle soup.
Blissfully, Den has taken almost every decision out of your hands, offering four choices with no add-ons or substitutions. Victoria chose the shio chicken-snapper broth, which was a new one to me, but I loved what I tasted of it – the fish stock is really distinct in the mix but doesn’t clash with the chicken flavour, which in my experience finds a way to harmonise with pretty much anything (compare say lamb stock, which you can only ever use with lamb).
I went for a darker chicken-soy soup with slices of pork shoulder and pork belly (they are really generous with the meat), and they threw in half a boiled egg with it. You won’t get your five-plus a day with these, garnished as they are with just a little spring onion, but Victoria had some nice crunchy bamboo shoot in hers, and if you’re worried, you can always go for their vegan option, made with a miso created by Auckland hospitality favourite Fraser McCarthy up the road at Lillius. The noodles are mostly uniform across the range, a thin, springy handmade treat supplied by an old guy who apparently refuses to share any of his secrets.
As we left the restaurant, a dozen or so prospective customers lined up hopefully for a table. It’s just the sort of nightlife that will benefit this part of the city which, I will be honest, felt dodgier than usual as we wandered off the main strip.
Hopefully, the throngs of public transport lovers are about to bring some life back to the darkness.
Den Ramen
Cuisine: Japanese
Address: 22A Cross St, Auckland Central
Contact: denramen.co.nz, @den_ramenbar
Reservations: Not accepted
Drinks: fully licensed
Hours: Mon, Thu & Sun 5-10pm, Fri-Sat 5-11pm, closed Tue-Wed
From the menu: braised radish $12, grilled gurnard $19, octopus and avocado salad $19, shio ramen $25, chashu shoyu ramen $30.
Rating: 19/20
Score: 0-7 Steer clear.8-12 Disappointing, give it a miss. 13-15 Good, give it a go. 16-18 Great, plan a visit. 19-20 Outstanding, don’t delay.
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