Menya Mappen Noodle Bar

As an avid reader of several Sydney food blogs, I was well aware of Menya Mappen in Sydney, and was so excited to see that one had opened up at Sunnybank. L and I raced over there for lunch last week. 

The place is small, but with plenty of bench seating and a high rotation of noodle consumers you are bound to get a seat. Add that in with a not-so-efficient ordering system, and there were plenty of seats available but with a line to order going out the door and down the pavement. 

The ordering system is cafeteria like. Basically, there are several noodle options available, so you start by choosing your base. L and I both went for the sukiyaki beef option however I had udon and L had soba, just to say that we weren't getting the same thing (we argue about this, I always say we cannot order the same dish). 

 Noodle bowls are available in regular and large options. From there, you move along to grab your tempura accompaniments. L and I went a bit crazy here... I had chicken and sweet potato tempura and L grabbed a mixed vegetable and a large prawn tempura. After this, you move past a few sides, and drinks and pay at the end. There are free tempura chips and spring onions to lash on your soup as you please. At the end of the counter is a large urn with piping hot tempura dipping sauce. The flaw that I can see is that everyone dilly-dallies around thinking about what they are going to choose, and this definitely delays the process.


The soup broth was surprisingly quite concentrated and salty. It tasted good and was full of flavour however certainly not the subtle soup base that I was expecting. My udon noodles were very chewy and slimey in texture, whereas L's soba were nicely al dente. Sukiyaki beef in comparison was quite sweet, and didn't really go with the sharpness of the soup base.

The tempura batter on our sides was extremely thick, although L liked this, tempura is supposed to be only a very light batter. It was lucky the tempura dipping sauce was hot, because my sweet potato and chicken were cold. L had better luck with his prawn which was still nice and hot in the centre. The vegetable tempura was a big spiderlike mostly onion concoction, and added a bit of crunch. 

At the end of the meal, trays must be taken to the corner of the room, so not only do you have to serve yourself, but you must clean up after yourself as well!

Menya Mappen is a great cheap option ($6.90 for a bowl of noodles, soup and sukiyaki beef) for lunch, but don't expect anything too gourmet, in fact its more like fast food. We would be quite happy to return there for lunch again and try some of the other dishes.

Love,
C