Tonkotsu ramen from Mt Eden's Zool Zool restaurant. Photo / Doug Sherring
Is hot ramen the best reason to leave the house on a cold night? Restaurant critic Kim Knight checks out Mt Eden stalwart Zool Zool.
In their own words: Zool Zool is "a cosy little noodle house and Izakaya bar serving the finest Japanese ramen noodles and a selection of other traditional Japanese cuisine".
First impressions: Why is the friendly man who offered us a choice of high stools or regular chairs groping around underneath our tabletop? "Ah," he says, suddenly. "The hook is in the middle - or another on the wall beside you." In Japan, you never have to dump your bag on the floor because even the tiniest places have coat pegs or high shelves with baskets for stowing personal detritus. Thoughtful, kind and practical - all Auckland restaurants should take a leaf out of this hook.
In the kitchen: Chefs Yuta Takahashi and Yuya Miyata are supervised by Zool Zool's founding owners. In 2015, when Toru Hirae (Soi) and Kazuya Yamauchi (Kazuya Restaurant) first opened, they acknowledged the New Zealand palate was becoming as familiar with ramen as it was with sushi. In the intervening years, the noodle soup has, arguably, staked a claim as the rice roll's cooler cousin. If sushi fuels the Kiwi working week, ramen is a gateway to somewhere far more interesting.
On the floor: Our window seat put us front and centre to passing foot traffic, but not the waitstaff. A big thank you to the man at the next table who noticed our distress and redirected traffic. If you want your food to arrive in stages, make that clear from the get go. We ordered a gluttony of snacks that arrived extremely fast; our waitperson only just managed to stall our ramen order.
The neighbourhood: Why one suburb gets a "village" and another, simply, "the shops" is a question beyond the scope of this review. You'll find Zool Zool towards the city end of the village known as Mt Eden, right next door to Pasta & Cuore and over the road a bit from Time Out, the bookstore that is thoughtfully open until 9pm should you wish to make a real night of it.
The menu: In winter, we slurp. You're aiming for an inhalation of ramen that treats the springy wheat noodle and savoury broth almost like a wine tasting (a few years ago, a winemaker told me to keep my mouth open while I sniffed - the double olfactory hit totally changed my appreciation of his shiraz). Both the noodles and the soup are made in-house - a long, slow process. Go for the "Zoolman" if you want a dryer, more pasta-and-sauce version of the star attraction, or skip the ramen altogether in favour of Japan's greatest snackable hits: Gyoza, karaage chicken, takoyaki, et al.
Best bite #1: I actually slurped Zool Zool's soup twice last week. The first via a take-out order that included a skewer of spicy squid; the trip home providing just enough resting time to replicate the slightly dry chewiness of hot cabinet food from a Japanese convenience store. I swear nothing I've eaten in the past two years has made me miss international travel more. Fresh from the kitchen, the squid was marginally more tender and coated in something slightly more oozy. Don't judge me, but I preferred the earlier version.
Best bite #2: It is customary, at this point in a ramen restaurant review, to tell you the difference between shio, shoyu, miso, tantan etc. Better, I reckon, to just order a highball and take your own time with the menu, which carefully explains the various flavour profiles of ramen broth. Don't skip the specials board (expect to see a swag of chilli-based options as it gets, well, chillier) and do consider the chicken paitan which I am definitely, 100 per cent, going to order one day because it sounds phenomenal and is the most popular dish on the menu. Ha. Who am I kidding? Think ramen, order tonkotsu. It's the broth made from rich pork bones; an elegantly milky bath cradling half a boiled egg and a handful of wood ear mushrooms, strips of bamboo shoot that taste slightly fermented and a faintly salty slop of seaweed. The noodles are thinner, yet more robust, than spaghetti. Slurp-bite-chew-repeat. When you eventually find a small amount of meat (order extra if you're that way inclined) it's superfluous - your entire being has already become one with this porcine distillation.
The jury's still out: "Sea gem vegetable salad" was underwhelming - five types of seaweed sounded intriguing, but I lost them in a tangle of lettuce and a sesame dressing that was too salty for me.
On the side: Well-balanced meals include plenty of vegetables. Delicious meals include plenty of crisply battered and deep-fried vegetables. Carrot, mushroom, broccoli, kūmara et al was coated in crunch. Light, crispy and lots of spare bits of batter in the bottom of the basket - reimagine this with a beer and maybe a little plate of wasabi and raw octopus instead of a bowl of ramen, and you might have room for dessert.
Dessert: See above. Better forward planning would certainly have included an order of yuzu sorbet and/or icecream: Matcha, wasabi, salted caramel or - best of all - mochi-wrapped.
Perfect for: Warming your soul on a winter date night.
How much: Quick snacks ($9.50-$13.50), seafood ($15-$22.50), vegetarian ($13.50-$18.50), ramen ($19.50-$24), sweet ($7.50-$9.80).
Zool Zool, 405 Mt Eden Rd, Mt Eden, Auckland. Ph (09) 630 4445 zoolzool.co.nz
by Yvonne Lorkin
I'm a huge fan of sipping something cool and beery when eating Japanese, and Zool Zool's beer list is nicely compact, featuring three different sizes of Orion (tap, in a 2l jug or a 3l tower). I'm not sure what a "tower" of beer is but I imagine you'd want some chums on side to help you climb it. Plus there's Suntory pilsner, Kirin Ichiban-Shibori and Asahi Super Dry, two pale ales from local brewery Sawmill and one "lite" beer. Could you possibly pop a "zero" beer in the mix too, please Zool Zool? Thank you.
On the fizz front it's pretty slim, just a $12 glass of prosecco, a peach bellini or an $82 half bottle of Taittinger, but the "Highball" list (whiskey and soda) is extensive, featuring a "Kaku", a bourbon apple and cinnamon version, an Islay Scotch highball with smoked salt, or a plum wine and ginger mix. But my favourite on the list is the porn-star-named "Minty Kūmara". It's sort of a mojito made with kūmara shochu, mint and lime and, for $19, it'll give you a good time. For $50 you could also sling back a shot of Tarusky Kome Shouchu (made from rice) or the Imo Shoushu, crafted from kūmara. Or for $28 try a shot each of Yamazaki or Hibiki whisky from Suntory.
I like how the wine list isn't divided up to "white" and "red" sections, rather it's separated into fan zones. "Paitan Lovers" features a light, minerally, Riff pinot grigio, an apple and lime layered Valli riesling and sauvignon blanc from Marlborough's Clos Marguerite. For "Miso Buffs" there's reserve chardonnay and rosé from Rebecca Salmond's Odyssey Wines, pinot noir from Clos Henri and viognier from Staete Landt. "Tan tan Fans" (the ramen, not the Chinese dating app) have pinots from Aka Rua and Pegasus Bay, an Argentinean malbec and a Bordeaux blend from Newton Forrest, while the "Tonkotsu Geeks" get to choose from the red wardrobe. Craggy Range's Te Kahu merlot cabernet, tempranillo from Marques de Riscal, syrah from Guigal and shiraz from Sandalford. A decent list indeed.
‘Mum had lived and died with this secret,’ says writer Mary Garden.