Sydney’s fried chicken and Champagne temple, Butter, is prepping for winter by bringing back their incredibly popular experimental ramen – the ‘fried chicken ramen’. And as exciting as that news is, as a standalone headline, what’s even juicier is the announcement of a full Butter Ramen Club Tour – a collaboration with four of Australia’s best chefs to create 6 experimental ramen bowls over the next 6 months.
From today until 26th October, the Butter Ramen Club Tour will enlist the considerable talents and distinctive styles of Kirby Craig of Ume Burger, Nick Smith of Rising Sun Workshop, Louie Tikaram of Brisbane’s Stanely, and Luke Powell of LP’s Quality Meats. In addition to Butter’s Executive Chef Julian Cincotta, all involved will working to express their respective specialities through a limited edition, soul-warming bowl of ramen.
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Each month will see a new ramen variant available for that month only. Although you’ll only be able to slurp them up in-store at one of Butter’s three locations across Sydney – Surry Hills, Parramatta, and the newly opened Chatswood. Although Brisbane locals will get a nod when Butter, for the first time, pops up in the city for one full weekend (July 27 to August 30) at Stanley, with Tikaram’s contribution – a five-spice fragrant ramen using a mix of Cantonese and Japanese flavours, served with Butter’s signature fried chicken.
Given Butter’s ambitious program of experimental ramen kicks off today, you can now get the first cab off the rank at any Butter store until May 17. That’d simply be Julian Cincotta’s signature $20 fried chicken ramen, which in the previous releases has always been built with a tonkotsu base mixing dashi and chicken broth, served with two fried chicken tenders, thin noodles, enoki mushrooms, and a marinated soft-boiled egg.
Next up, from May 19 to June 21, will be Ume Burger chef Kirby Craig, serving up a bowl of miso based tare ramen with corn and Butter’s chicken broth. Nick Smith from Rising Sun takes the reins from June 22 to July 26 with a burnt ends glaze ramen on Butter’s fried chicken. Tikaram’s aforementioned ramen pops up at the end of July, before Cincotta throws another curveball from August 31 to September 27 – that’s a ‘French Dip Ramen Fried Chicken Sandwich,’ which already sounds like it’ll be the year’s most popular food mash-up.
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Butter’s experimental ramen series will wrap up with LPs Quality Meats head honcho Luke Powell who, from September 28 to October 26, will be tweaking the fried chicken ramen with what he describes as a smoky chicken small-good. Details on that one are being tight-lipped, but seeing as LPs has fast become the small goods institution of Sydney, it should be well worth the wait.
Although the tour isn’t coming to Victoria, we’ve still got you covered with this list of where to find the best ramen in Melbourne. And for Queenslanders who can’t wait until August, here’s where to find the best ramen in Brisbane.
