As the cold snap starts to settle in over Sydney, the soup season starts. Pho, ramen, wonton broth, tom yum — the kind of food that warms you from the inside out and makes everything feel better. And luckily, we have so many delicious options here in the Eastern Suburbs.
So, here’s a quick quide of where to find the best soup, pho and ramen in and around the Eastern Suburbs.
Pho
Viet Eatery — Surry Hills
The Crown Street stalwart. Viet Eatery has been doing the same thing well for years — clear broth, tender beef, and a queue most lunchtimes that moves quicker than it looks. Order the rare beef pho, add the lemon and chilli, ignore your phone for the next ten minutes.
Phamish — Darlinghurst
The local. Phamish on Palmer Street has been a Darlinghurst fixture for what feels like decades. Vietnamese street food, cold beers, ideal for a solo bowl mid-week. The pho is honest and the prices are fair.
Phan’s House – Potts Point
The local. Phan’s House does honest Vietnamese in a small Potts Point room — clear broths, generous bowls, and the kind of service that remembers a face after one visit. The pho is the obvious order, but the bun and the banh mi both hold their own. Good for a quick weeknight bowl or a slower Saturday lunch with a Tiger beer.
Ramen
Ramen Zundo — Bondi Junction
Inside Westfield Bondi Junction, but don’t let that put you off. Ramen Zundo does proper tonkotsu, and the queue at lunchtime tells you everything. Order the black garlic, ask for kaedama (extra noodles) once you’ve drunk through the broth.
Daniel San — Bondi
Daniel San does the polished, dinnertime version of the ramen experience — pretty room, Japanese cocktails, good ramen alongside a longer Japanese menu. Best for a mid-winter dinner with a couple of drinks.
Ippudo — Sydney CBD
Worth the train into the city. Ippudo is the international chain, but the Sydney room runs to the global standard — rich tonkotsu, properly springy noodles, the kind of meal that warms you for the walk back to Town Hall station.
Honourable mentions
Spice I Am — Surry Hills
Tom yum and tom kha at Spice I Am are some of the best in the inner city. No bookings at the original, queue moves.
Gumshara Ramen — Haymarket
A day trip out of the east, but the broth at Gumshara is famously thick — proper tonkotsu reduction, twelve hours simmering. Worth the trip on a cold Saturday.
A few practical notes
- Most pho rooms run loud lunch services and quieter dinners. If you want a slow read-the-paper bowl, go between 2 and 4pm.
- BYO is more common in the Vietnamese rooms than the Japanese — check ahead.
- Ramen broth gets the most credit, but the noodles are what separate good from great. Anywhere making their own is worth your time.
- Solo bowls work everywhere on this list. None of these rooms care if you’re eating alone with a book.
Worth knowing
The cold months in Sydney are short but real, and the Eastern Suburbs have the right kind of dense food map to handle them. A pho lunch on Crown Street, a ramen dinner before a walk home through Darlinghurst, that’s our favourite warming-winter food trail for a Friday. For a slower indoor afternoon, our guide to the Eastern Suburbs bookshop crawl covers where to spend a rainy Saturday with a coffee in hand. Or for a full evening’s plan, see our pick of long autumn lunches in the east. For more on the local area, the Laing blog is the place to start.