Sara Craft Ramen & Bar

Sara Craft Ramen & Bar is the work of chef-owner Ryo Northfield, a protégé of Hiroyuki Sakai, otherwise known as “Iron Chef French” (who you might’ve seen on the Japanese cooking show Iron Chef).

Sara is not a French restaurant, but the French and Japanese techniques Northfield learnt from his mentor are evident in his cooking. The foundation of Northfield’s ramen is a light shoyu (Japanese soy sauce) broth that lets the ingredients shine. Sara’s tonkotsu (pork bone) shoyu, topped with a spiral of chashu (braised pork belly), gobo (burdock) chips and the (optional) addition of house-made chilli oil, is a lighter alternative to the popular Hakata-style pork ramen easily found around the city.

Meanwhile, the asari clam shoyu ramen gets a slight French twist with burnt butter. There’s also a yuzu and smoked duck ramen made with a combo of duck and shoyu stock. Then there’s an A5 Wagyu ramen, which Northfield says is rarely found in Japan. He adds dimension by spiking the broth with a black pepper sauce he would normally serve with steak.

Diners can customise their bowls with straight noodles or two-week-aged wavy noodles, which are made in-house. There are also various rice dishes, like aburi (flame-seared) Wagyu sushi with wasabi stem relish, and kaisen rice bowls with fresh tuna, kingfish, salmon crab and tobiko.

The 21-seat venue was designed by T-A Square and has a dark grey interior with an orange cut-out ceiling fixture and plenty of cosy nooks for slurping up a quick lunch or lingering over dinner.