Do you ever get the urge to hop in your car and drive somewhere slightly far away for dinner? I don’t know if it is just me, but I often do, usually in the guise of having a food adventure. And my usual companions for madcap adventures are Queen Viv and Miss America.
I came across Momiji during a Burwood suburb tour run by Wee Lynn Teo, a knowledgeable Burwood local and smitten by their fantastic ramen soup, suggested it as a place to dine. We were originally headed out west to a new restaurant but the fact that they didn’t take booking and it was getting late meant that we sought closer options. Momiji take bookings (hooray!) and we are on our way to Burwood.
Wee Lynn had told me that the couple that run Momiji (which means maple leaf which are present on the outside signage) are from Hiroshima. Mitsu Shimooka runs the floor while her husband Koji runs the kitchen. They turn out bowlful after bowful of steaming, hot ramen or enormous bento boxes. Hiroshima syokudo is written on the outside and a syokudo or shokudo means dining hall, dining room or restaurant. It’s not fancy but it’s clean and pleasant in its simplicity and service is that wonderful Japanese type of service where nothing is too much trouble. Some of the menu items are not available (alas, I was interested in trying the Hiroshima okonomiyaki but that isn’t available anymore) so we pick and choose. Miss America just wants soft shell crab and the rest of us want pretty much everything!
Seaweed salad $5
The prices are amazingly reasonable here and I didn’t expect a lot for a $5 seaweed salad but this has a layer of iceberg dressing with a wafu Japanese dressing and a generous amount of creamy, spicy seaweed on top.
Spicy miso ramen $9.80
The menu starts with their ramen. I had tried the miso ramen on the food tour and was in raptures over the thick, flavoursome broth. It takes 10 hours to make this broth made up of pork bones and fish heads to give it that thick, aromatic flavour. The fish heads add so much to the broth and stops it from becoming overly porky which can be overwhelming. The scarlet topped spicy miso ramen has a deep, full chilli flavour (too much for Queen Viv who doesn’t like chilli) but the thick but not gloopy broth goes so well with the corn, thin slices of pork and seaweed and a chilli sesame paste.
Prawn tempura ramen $12.80
The prawn tempura ramen came with two large prawns, still crunchy and rich with half a boiled egg, shallots, seaweed and three types of chilli powder which we could add as we saw fit. This was a shoyu based ramen soup rather than miso. Some preferred this one but I must admit that the complexity of the miso soup base was my favourite of the two.
Soft shell crab $11.80
Queen Viv and Miss America loved the soft, crunchy soft shell crab which came in large pieces, made for crunching. I also really liked the salad underneath it which was made up of flavoursome shiitake mushrooms and lettuce.
Teriyaki beef don $10.80
With the fragrance of ginger, the teriyaki beef don comes on a bed or rice with paper thin ribbons of sliced beef on top. A side bowl of miso soup comes with it. Whilst it’s good, I have to go with Wee Lynn’s recommendations of the ramen and hand rolls below.
Hand rolls
The other item that Momiji are known for are their hand rolls. Sometimes, I find hand rolls just too full of rice and just overwhelmingly dry. These are different. For starters they’re an absolute bargain at $2.50 each with one at $3 but it wouldn’t matter if they were double or triple that because they have the flavours and texture just right.
We tried the teriyaki chicken, fresh prawn, deep fried chicken and spicy tuna & avocado roll and it was a scene of everyone nodding and moaning about how good these were. Each roll had a distinct flavour to it with an excellent balance of ingredients and not a single mouthful was dry or full of just rice.
Bento box $14.80
On another visit, we tried some of the same things but added in a bento box just for good measure. The chicken karaage bento box came with a good amount of crunchy deep fried chicken pieces along with a shaker of salt and pepper seasoning and mayonnaise. There was also three pieces of tempura vegetables, seaweed salad, rice, miso soup and a whole orange sliced up.
There’s no dessert but that’s fine and the bill comes as a very pleasant surprise. I’ve got this section called “Cheap thrills $20 and under” and I haven’t been able to add anything in that section for ages. For the prize of being stuffed full, the bill totals a fantastic $60.70 for four people!
So tell me Dear Reader, are you ever struck by the urge to go on far away food adventures? And can you ever finish a whole bowl of ramen?
Mo Mi Ji
96a Burwood Road, Burwood, Burwood 2134
Tel: +61 9744 2977
Lunch:11;30am-2:30pm
Dinner 5:30pm-9pm
Closed Tuesdays
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32 Comments | Add your own
I can’t finish a bowl of ramen but I really like to try.
I’d have to say I don’t think I’ve ever been to dinner in Burwood. But I really should. $60 for four people for all that food sounds like a step back in time prices from 1950. And a $5.00 salad – there’s nothing on any menu in any restaurant in my suburb xx
This place is very close to me and I was interested in trying after you mentioned in your Burwood story. Now I must go! The food all looks so tasty and great prices. I doubt I could finish a whole bowl of ramen!
Fun food. And so reasonable as well. Yes, I do love to have far-flung adventures. Unfortunately, the husband is less inclined.
I know where I’m getting my next ramen hit!
That looks so delicious!!! I wish I lived closer!!! Our family loves Japanese food. I will pin it so that we can visit. Oh and do they do Hiroshima style Okonimiyaki, it is my favourite style (noodles in the omlette)
What a wonderful find and so central to most residing in Sydney! The food looks very appetizing – can’t even pick out a favourite: perhaps the soft shell crab at that great price! Costwise one can obviously let one’s imagination run without doing much harm to the pocketbook
! Love the hand rolls, am perchance a little less keen on the bento box, but that may be because of its food styling 
! Bowl of ramen: no difficulty for an enthusiastic me 
!
I can ALWAYS finish a bowl of ramen. LOL And that spicy miso one looks totally slurp-a-licious.
Waaaa…really want the miso ramen badly now…will try ASAP
With a nickname like FANG, will let you decide, TRUE!
I am ALWAYS up to the next food challenge and adventure too!
Fantastic prices indeed, what a great find! I’d really love to try their stock, it’s perfect when it’s thick and just a little goopy from hours of simmering.
The name is so cute and the food looks incredible
Definitely I love the idea of taking a long drive to get to the desired location – makes the food more worthwhile!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Yes, it is exciting to venture somewhere out of town every once in a while! This looks so good and great value… maybe a trip to Burwood is in order! Rynagh x
its often in the burbs that u find these hidden little gems!
I never eat much at a time so no, I wouldn’t finish it. I love to head off on food adventures. Because the Sunshine Coast is a foodie haven and because they aren’t side by side, it’s often a drive to get to some good places.
Well, after reading this post I had to head down to Burwood and try this place today, as I am a mad ramen fan. Your photo’s certainly show the food out of context. The place appears to be a converted pizza outlet of some kind. We sat, waited 10 minutes before being able to order, then waited approx 30 minutes before we got our first item… Finally an hour later the miso pork katsu ramen arrived and immediately dissapointed.. Oliy, bland and dull looking.. I’m sure they may have had a bad day… On a high note the Inari was excellent and I should have ordered just that!
Okonomiyaki is my favourite. I would love to know where to get good okonomiyaki in Sydney. Does anyone have any recommendations?
Looks oishii. I’m always defeated by ramen. Food adventures are sought, but limited despite occasional exotic requests from 8 year old daughter. That said, sage requests Japanese often, which was exotic know by me until my teens, and still exotic for many Aussie kids!
I always have the urge to go far far away for food hahaha the most extreme is the 24 hour Krispy Kreme that is a good 45 minutes away from where I live! I go there whenever I’m upset, I’ll go buy a dozen of KK donuts and then rock up at my friends place and just whinge and cry about all my issues while we binge on donuts
I haven’t done that for ages, I think that means I’ve been happier HAHAHA
Ohhh Momiji definitely looks like a great place for a quick Japanese fix and like you said it’s an absolute bargain! Wish we had a Momiji around here in Melbourne!
Oh im always up for an adventure even if there is no food involved. Yee ha. This place looks like a great find
I confess that I actually CAN polish off a bowl of ramen – and that bowl of tempura ramen looks particularly tempting!
Raminator, I’m not sure where you get the converted pizza outlet from, there’s no sign of that at all. And we’ve since been twice, both times we’ve had great service and food (and everyone else has been served quickly too we noted). And never would I consider their ramen oily, bland or dull!
The spicy miso ramen looks absolutely fantastic! I love those thick broth kind.
Look at the deep-fried badness/goodness of the bento box! Mmm. Pair that with crunchy soft shell crab and I’d be swooning. LOL
It was just a guess, maybe I’m mistaken about the big hunk of metal behind the bain-marie that looks like a disused conveyor style pizza oven, and my ramen wasn’t the best, although I am comparing it to late night ramen bars in Shiodome. I did have a really good one in Ashfield recently, no names mentioned..
I find it hard to finish a whole bowl of ramen – especially drinking all the soup as well!
And I love the idea of going on food adventures, hehe such a cool idea
I’m drown to the deliciousness of miso ramen!! Yum!
I wonder if I have time to go there before I head to Tokyo at the end of the month. Surprisingly we haven’t done much Japanese food in the lead up to this trip, we usually hit a Japanese restaurant once a week before we go. Mo Mi Ji is definitely going on the list to try!!!
Momiji sounds like a great snack/treat! (I could eat 2 entire bowls of ramen at once, no hesitation)
Love this kind of hot steamy food during the cold days!
What a fine post on Momiji, Lorraine, I will be sure to tell Mitsu about it. My secret to not wasting the whole bowl of ramen? Ask for a half or quarter serve of noodles and more veg. Then you can finish the collagen-packed soup (good for complexion), have the fibre and do it the low-carb way. And yes, I savour the hand rolls for not being too rice-y too. Welcome to Burwood!
This is my first time seeing shrimp tempura on ramen!!! Anything can be possible.
You always order enough meals from the menus that I can kind of see what kind of restaurant it is. It’s always fun following you around..hehehe.
Oh I wish we had a okonomiyaki resturant in Sydney. When I lived in London one of our favourite restaurants – Abeno – was an okonomiyaki specialist. I miss it so much.
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