Even with lockdown’s disruptive hiatus to ramen eating – two-minute noodles with dehydrated flecks aside – the city’s love for a tangle of handmade noodles, chashu pork and a just-set ramen egg has not waned. Chase Kojima, Sokyo’s lauded executive chef, has banked on our renewed enthusiasm for eating extraordinary ramen, something we can’t make at home, with his latest venture Senpai Ramen.

This new omakase-style (chef’s choice degustation) diner sits up an ordinary Chatwood alley. It’s ramen, but with accompanying snacks like we’ve not seen before. It’s “a little bit different, a little bit special”, an earnest waiter says.

The 20-seater nook has been given a slick fit-out befitting a low-fuss but edgy vibe. Black Wishbone chairs slide nicely under black wood-grain tables, the floors are tiled black and even the handmade ramen bowls, which set Kojima back $100 a pop, are textured with a black volcanic rock-like glaze. A wall of pink neon lights brings some Tokyo business district vibes. Early in the evening the tiny bar is bare, begging to be filled with couples holding o-choko sake cups. And when they do turn up the room transforms, sparkling with the rambunctious joy of bright young ramen eaters, Hentai Shinshi Club tunes playing overhead. It’s good to be out.

Kojima and head chef Teppei Yura deliver a single menu of seven beautifully presented courses, ending with ramen of choice before dessert, a steal at $65. The dishes come out fast. Sashimi kicks off with a thin transparent curl of snapper enhanced with white soy and flecks of nori and sesame seeds, silken tuna bathed in a subtle housemade soy and a dot of wasabi, and fatty salmon, a spoonful of vibrant Japanese green chilli sauce on top. Then boom, the next dish swiftly appears.

Chawanmushi is too often rigid or wobbly, but here the dashi egg custard is just set around tender pieces of spanner crab, topped with an indulgent puddle of just-browned melted butter and salmon caviar. Kagoshima A5 wagyu comes next, sukiyaki-brushed and draped over a nigiri mound of seasoned rice, a stunning and generous, blush-making mouthful.

Next, Kojima reveals his prowess with the bird. A chicken wing is painstakingly deboned and stuffed with prawn, then deep-fried to form a chicken-salt golden crust. A comforting super-smooth puddle of corn on the plate has a sophisticated peppery yuzu kick.

Kojima has a secret weapon for the main event; a $100,000 ramen kettle around which his kitchen was designed. It takes the grunt work out of stirring bones for the 12-hour paitan pork tonkotsu. The servings are smaller than elsewhere, appropriately. Spicy Tan Tan Black ramen has a thick gravy-like mouth-filling richness, the springy noodles are thin, there’s umami-rich pork mince on top and we didn’t expect black fungus but it came, pleasingly textured and cutting through the dense broth. It’s a lot. It’s fabulous, but it’s not for the faint-hearted or the easily filled.

Yuzu Shio ramen is a delight. The chintan chicken broth – clear and chickeny, so gloriously soul-soothing and refreshing at once – is filled with chopped leeks and bamboo shoots and thin slices of chashu chicken, a sunny half ramen egg on top. Each slurpable spoonful is punctuated with yuzu. A little-bit special, indeed.

A Japanese-leaning drinks menu designed by PS40’s Michael Chiem lists four beers, all bottled and from Japan. Wine is from France, New Zealand, Italy, here. The aged Houraisen ‘Bi’ Junmai Daiginjo sake is a worthy mellow, fruity accompaniment to the snack courses and beyond.

This is a piece of Tokyo excellence in Sydney, a place delivering fast, perfect snacks and ramen to a city that is ready to get out, once again, for a little-bit-extraordinary experience.

Related recipes: Hopeless ramen-tic? Prepare to fall in love with these 30 noodle soups