Gogyo

The signature bowl here arrives almost black, and that is the point. Modelled on a cult Kyoto ramen house, the kitchen makes its kogashi, or burnt, miso by heating lard in a wok to around 300 degrees, then ladling in the tare and letting it flame until the miso chars. The result is a broth with a smoky, near-bitter edge that reads as intense rather than heavy: charred red-and-white miso against chicken stock, finished with rolls of pork belly chashu, half a soft egg and springy noodles built for the char to cling to. It is the first Australian outpost of a Japanese name with serious pedigree behind it, and the Surry Hills room keeps things focused, a compact, low-lit space on Albion Street where the burnt bowl is the reason to come, though a shoyu version and the usual gyoza-and-snacks supporting cast round out the menu. Portions land in the high-teens price-wise, and the crowd skews to ramen obsessives curious whether the flaming-wok theatre translates. For the most part it does: this is ramen with a genuinely distinctive signature, not another tonkotsu variation, and worth ordering the charred bowl first to understand what the fuss is about.