Overview
You may not know it, but ramen, the quintessentially Japanese dish, may have actually originated in China. Traditional Chinese noodle dishes are very similar in style to ramen, and Lamian, a Chinese noodle similar to the type you find in ramen, may be the linguistic origin of the word ramen. But this is all conjecture. Now you can try for yourself and see. Shanghai Street Noodle Wizard has recently opened on Russell Street in the city and it’s serving up Suzhao noodle soups from China’s Jiangsu Province.
Apart from having the all-time best name for a venue, Noodle Wizard also wins our hearts by being a part of the Shanghai Street Dumpling family. As such, they'll not only be serving up soup, but sets of your favourite dumplings and dumpling-adjacent cuisine (hellooooo spring onion pancakes). The menu and ordering system looks slightly confusing, as there are some options for how the noodles are served, so it's best to apply the KISS approach – keep it simple, sexy.
For comparative data, traditional Japanese ramen joint Menya Sandaime is just up the road and open 24/7. You kind of owe it to science to compare the pair.
Shanghai Street Noodle Wizard is located at 167 Russell Street, Melbourne. Open Monday - Thursday 12:00pm -3pm, 4:30pm-9:00pm; Fri 12:00pm -3:00pm, 4:30pm - 9:30pm; Sunday 12:00pm - 3:00pm, 4:30pm-8pm.