Mugen Ramen

I really wanted to like this place, especially with some of the positive reviews. But the experience here was so disappointing I found myself needing to share it, especially for anyone who was planning to go out of their way to eat here (like I did). To those who had a great experience here, I am JEALOUS. I can only wish that was us, but honestly this place was the worst we had in Melbourne. Not worth it.

TLDR: TRUST THE OTHER REVIEWS. DO NOT COME HERE TO EAT.

Came here last week with my friends on a Saturday night for dinner. We were from Sydney and I wanted to introduce them to a nice tsukemen place (HUGE tsukemen fan here). We were at first super excited: the place had nice music and vibes, plus they had a promotion where you could get 10% off drinks at the bar across from the place if you show your receipt. We were keen, but the night ended with disappointment and a sour mood. We didn't even get drinks.

When we entered, there was some miscommunication so we ended up going up and down before being seated in front of the kitchen. Had to ask for table water service and utensils twice. But up to this point, we were okay. It's chill, people can make mistakes. After 40 minutes, we started to wonder where our food was and can hear from the kitchen that they were playing around. Staff were speaking in Korean but I understood what they were saying, and some were clearly playing around/flirting with each other, asking "am I cute? " to one another. That's nice and all but I don't think its enough reason to wait so long for food (?). Please flirt after bringing out our food?

One of the waitress noticed our staring and went to ask the kitchen about our orders. The next moment they were hussling and the waitress came to tell us that our order was delayed because there were too many other orders before us? We were literally in front of the kitchen and NO dishes left in the past half hour. Clearly our order was forgotten.

The food came and they forgot to put seaweed on my friend and I's plate (we ordered the large one too) and the soup was lukewarm at best that we had to ask them to reheat it for us. Even reheated, only the bowl was warm and I ended up with a mouthful of watered-down, cold soy with some noodles. The noodles remind me of this Korean knife noodle rather than ramen, which was interesting. I agree with the other reviewers that the soup was quite watered down, but I wondered if it was just the soy style in comparison to the usual meaty tsukemen broths we're used to? Either way, was not nice. Honestly quite disappointing, considering they only had this and one other tsukemen item on the menu?

This place used be my favorite ramen restaurant in the entire Melbourne region. However, the food quality went downhill since several weeks ago when they changed their menu and chefs. Now they’re just serving overpriced low quality ramen, which tastes absolutely repulsive and is even worse than random cheap ramen restaurants.

Sad how badly they went down hill. Hopefully they will bring back the goma tsukumen (actually slashing the better half of their menu was bad idea). The complete staff turnover has had a detrimental effect on quality too. Hopefully all temporary but not worth it at the moment in mid 2022

Gave one star because cannot give zero. Tried tsukemen and its taste was kinda Empty. Cannot feel any umami, savoury and etc. So I asked some additonal tare sauce but the staff had no idea with what the tare sauce was. Seriously? Maybe this is not an authentic place. U know what? Wafu means ‘Japanese style’ not a sauce. Overall, not worth waiting for an hour.

Recommended by locals + sites for best tsukemen.
Arrived 5min after opening time.
Waited 1hr to order food

- Wafu tsukemen is the most disappointing. Dipping sauce was very bland, felt diluted. Chashu was too dry. Egg was under marinated. Noodle texture was good though.

+ Housemade gyoza was very good.

+ Mazesoba decent

Would be great if they had a max seat time especially with the limited seats.

1 hour wait for disappointing tsukemen, soup and charsiu was a big let down. The gyoza was good, so that redeems it a little.

I was very disappointed. Waited in the queue for 1.5 hrs. Never done this in my life. The noodle was really nice but the soup base was disappointing. So was the fried chicken/karage. I would recommend Shuyn and Dojo in northcote more.

3 star because we had both 5 star and 1 star experience at the restaurant.

Good:
- As a japanese ramen shop, the manager and some staffs are japanese, which is always a plus.
- The manager seems nice, and he cares about his customer.
- Their miso ramen and soy sause ramen tastes pretty good. I love the texture of their noodles.
- The environment is definitely a 5 star. The paints on the wall, the lights, tables and chairs must been carefully selected.
- It is a small restaurants will a few seats, but it gets both male and female toilet, amazing!

Bad: Unprofessional staffs
- We ordered the dry ramen and the dipping ramen. But the staff1 gets both wrong - what came was the soy sause ramen and miso ramen. We are not familiar with the menu, so we pointed at the menu to let the staff1 know what we want, and it is suprising that staff1 got both wrong.
- We told staff1 that it was the wrong dish, staff1 said sorry, and we forgive it. Then we were hoping for some small compensation because we didn't get what we ordered. But nothing comes. Of course the compensation is not a must be, but it makes us a bit unhappy.
- When we go upstairs to pay the bill, staff2 asked us for the receipt, which we didn't get from staff1. Then staff2 asks us where we seat then calculate the bill for us. Seems that there are problems with staffs' communication.
- Boy oh boy, what can possibly go wrong? Here it is - staff2 get our ramen size wrong when checking out! We had a regular and a large, but it says we ordered 2 regulars. We tried to explain to staff2, but staff2 could not understand. Anyway, we paid for 2 regulars.

Bad: Male toilet too dark. Maybe i didn't find the switch of the light?

Sorry for not being able to provide photos, we were too confused when the wrong ramens come - and we forgot to take pictures haha

The place is only opened for 2 days a week, few hours a day. The food is decent and no matter what options you pick, you won't be disappointed. They also have a big screen where they show classic Japanese movies.

Very disappointing reopening
I use to love this place and it was always tasty however reopened and hoping to my get back into their grove

Got the dipping ramen and the soup tasted like a disappointing version of KFC gravy. The texture was clearly thickened with corn flour and the depth of flavour was severely lacking

I hope things get better but I won’t be back to pay $17 for something I couldn’t finish

Good tsukeman ramen. Can't compare against what you get in Japan. But for Melbourne it's good. I find it hard to locate this dish in Melbourne

FINALLY. A thick, full flavoured, creamy and rich miso broth! Something that really reminds me of the more expensive ramen bars in Tokyo. This place is lovely, amazing atmosphere and a beautiful layout. Staff are very kind. Dipping ramen is beautiful with lovely noodles and a broth that sticks to the noodles for a better dipping ramen experience. The gyoza are excellent but suggested to eat them sooner rather than later

Average Ramen, it was cold when arrived to the table. Went for the large size which is just a massive amount of noodles, not enjoyable.

Staff were friendly, we ordered chicken wings, Curry Wafu Tsukemen - Dipping Ramen and Wafu Ramen. The chicken wings and the dipping Ramen were delicious the Wafu Ramen was average. The place was super busy would recommend booking ahead of time. Not much room to sit upstairs more seats below ground. Overall a nice place to eat before venturing out for a night in the city.

Too cold, Too slow. We order Ramen and Gyoza but Gyoza came 30min later after we start eating Ramen. And it's supposed to hot cuz we wait n finally came. But it was really cold n just oily. I was looking forward to come here but so disappointed.

The pork was a bit dry to the taste. However the chicken side dish was made extremely well. Due to that minor inconsistency 3 stars.

Tasty tsukemen broth that clings well to the nicely textured hand made noodles. My favourite was the soy broth.

A quick pre-show dinner option. Delicious ramen. Like the soup base, rich flavour and not too salty. Affordable price. Would like to try the dipping ramen and the pipi in sake next time.

I had the Salmon foil-Yaki cooked to perfection (moist and super flavoursome) unfortunately they don’t offer rice here to accompany! Food came out efficiently but the server girl who looks after the front runs the place well when comes to reserving tables and juggling walk-ins but could be a little bit more friendlier! The Gyoza was delicious and the sauce it came with. Best to make booking if you are wanting to sit downstairs and there is more space if there is more than 2 people and wanting to enjoy your food.otherwise upstairs near the entrance is more like a bar set up, good pit stop to eat before heading home.

We had reservation, then we ordered only Tsukemen.but it took about an hour from order to serve.too long.need to hire employee.the taste was good.