Sydney classics such as the spice and stretch of Xinjiang noodles at Chinese Noodle House or a crisp fried-noodle topped khoa soi at Chat Thai, and Melbourne’s beloved mud crab and vermicelli claypot at Flower Drum will always call us back –– but there’s a myriad of other signature noodle bowls to slurp. Maggie Scardifield suggests giving these satiating, soul-warming favourites a try.

RARA RAMEN, SYDNEY
House-made noodles. Top-notch ingredients like slow-cooked St Bernard’s free-range pork belly chashu. Natural wine. These are the calling cards of Sydney’s Rara Ramen (never-mind the pesky queues). The chewy Hakata-style noodles are made fresh daily using a 380-kilogram steel noodle machine imported from Japan. They sing in the creamy tori paitan, where corn and confit chicken thigh swim in a cappuccino-like supercharged broth (all Rara ramens do time in a custom-built pressure cooker for added intensity). Lucky for Sydney, the original Redfern site was joined in January by a larger Randwick restaurant, and Newtown has just welcomed Lonely Mouth, Rara’s first vegan noodle bar. 

Must order: Tori paitan

CHACO RAMEN, SYDNEY 
Chaco Ramen owner Keita Abe is from Fukuoka in Japan, where tonkotsu originated. But at his Darlinghurst ramen-only restaurant (formerly Chaco Bar) he skips sticky, heavier pork ramens for assari (lighter) ramen made more often with chicken, fish bones and even yuzu. The now signature chilli-coriander is a gift that keeps on giving: the broth gets its savoury backbone from blending sancho oil and coriander in with the chicken broth. The original is dotted with mushrooms, a smattering of fresh coriander and tender pieces of poached chicken, while the latest incarnation is served cold with poached prawns, grated daikon and a swirl of shellfish oil.

Must order: Chilli-coriander ramen.

XI’AN BIANG BIANG, SYDNEY
If you like your $15 noodles a little more pappardelle than pad Thai, Shaanxi chain Xi’an Biang Biang is bang on. Generous-sized bowls are filled with bean sprouts, a vinegary chilli oil, and the main attraction – hand-pulled stretchy belt noodles – before being topped with the likes of stewed pork, beef or lamb; tomato, egg and little nubs of green beans; dry roasted chilli, or a mixture of it all. What the noodles lack in firepower they make up for in comfort – especially when teamed with a rougamo, a shattery crisp-fried bread pocket of cumin-spiced beef or pork. 

Must order: Biang biang with chilli and a rougamo.

DoDEE PAIDANG, SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE 
The menu at Thai street-food chain DoDee Paidang is extensive. But don’t be swayed – you’re here for the spiced-to-your-liking tom yum noodle soups. Degrees of heat range from a level one “DoDee Nursery” to the level seven “DoDee Super Nova.” Even if you think you’re a Chilli King, don’t be surprised if waitstaff ignore your derring do and bring you a level below. “We want you to enjoy it and come back,” laughs our waiter. At three, the heat builds slow and steady but never overpowers the broth’s complexity, clean flavour and tang. You can choose your noodles, too: perhaps firm yolk-coloured egg noodles, bouncy glass noodles with excellent stretch, flat rice or even instant. All bowls are fortified with pork bones, a good fist’s worth of fried wonton wrappers, chopped Asian greens and springy pork balls.

Must order: First-timer? Give the glass noodle tom yum at level three a go. 

DAINTY SICHUAN NOODLE EXPRESS, SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE
Owners Tina Li and Ye Shao opened the original Dainty Sichuan in South Yarra in 2009. Over the past decade, they’ve continued to import high-quality ingredients from Li’s hometown, Chongqing, and now have multiple eateries under the Dainty umbrella. The standard-bearer at Dainty’s Noodle Express incarnation is the spicy Chongqing noodle soup: a lip-puckering, umami-intense chicken broth with wheat noodles, chilli oil, bok choy and mouth-numbing Sichuan pepper. It can be topped with your choice of braised beef, crunchy chitterlings (pork intestine) or both, but the real experts order a side of cooling vermicelli-style Sichuan noodles with green-bean jelly on the side.

Must order: Chongqing noodle soup with braised beef (and the cold-noodle with green-bean jelly).

BANH XEO BAR, SYDNEY
Folks flock to this “Vietnamese-ish diner” in Rosebery for the turmeric-laden bánh xèo pancakes stuffed with everything from roasted duck to king prawns. But there’s fun to be had in the noodle soups, too. A lemongrass-fragrant bun bo hue with vermicelli is given substance by flank and brisket, the meat slowly simmered in a master stock of roasted grass-fed beef and marrow bones. Co-owner and chef Ben Sinfield has clocked time in the kitchen at London’s St John restaurant, so additional toppings here include crumbed and fried nuggets of pig’s head, beef tongue, along with kimchi, pumpkin and sweet corn.

Must order: Combination bun bo hue with pig head nuggets

SOI 38, MELBOURNE 
In Thai, “soi” means side-street. But in Melbourne, mention soi and it equates to tasty bowls of pungent boat noodle soup dished up in a Bourke Street carpark. Andy Buchan and chef Vherachid Kijthavee opened Soi 38 as a pop-up in 2013, deadset on sharing their love of boat noodles, or kway teow reua, with Australia. Soi 38 has had its permanent site in the CBD’s Wilson parking garage for a while now, but the boat noodle soup is still the star – an intensely aromatic hug of a soup with sliced rump steak, house-made beef ball, twists of pork crackling and your choice of six different noodle types. Traditional boat noodles usually get their dark-coloured broth and complexity from pig’s blood, but at Soi 38 the sweetness and funk are thanks to a medley of cinnamon, galangal, soy, star anise, garlic oil and more.

Must order: Beef boat noodle soup

SHIMBASHI SOBA & SAKE BAR, MELBOURNE
The soba noodles at Shimbashi aren’t just made fresh in-house daily, but the buckwheat flour that goes into the actual noodles is also milled onsite. Chef-owner Taka Kumayama trained under a Japanese soba master and takes his soba – in this case Tasmanian buckwheat seeds milled using an original Japanese stone mill – very seriously. At both locations (CBD and Fitzroy) the soba is offered chilled or warm. The latter might sidle up to roasted duck fillet, duck mince, enoki and yuzu zest, for example, or soft-boiled egg, charry spring onions and a pile of golden fried karaage chicken.

Must order: Karaage chicken soba.