Eating Out: Taro's Vegan Ramen (and Taro's Ramen)

Taro's Ramen, as advertised, as a ramen place that has a few locations around Brisbane, only one of which had a vegan option (their South Brisbane restaurant). Then... a gift. Their inner city Taro's Express was rebranded and Taro's Vegan Ramen - with a full vegan menu of mains, desserts, and drinks. Hurrah! But, as things are given, so they are taken. A few months later, the building it was in closed for redevelopment and they closed. A crushing loss, as it was my favourite place in the city even though I'd only got to go there three times. Oh well, in memory, here is what I ate.

Of course I had to get the Vegan Ramen, because it was a ramen place! It comes in three levels of heat, and I clearly got the classic with zero chilli. This was really good, probably the best ramen I've had in Brisbane. The tofu in it was exceptional, so well seasoned and I could have just eaten a plate of it. With a side of seaweed salad because I love that stuff.



With heady plans of working my way through the menu (or at least, the non-spicy things on the menu), at visit two I moved down to the next item - the Cold Noodle Soup. This was a lovely soy-milk based broth, with a lot of five spice in it. There were some chilli things in it on the menu, so I got them to leave them out. This was lovely, but so filling! Also with some seaweed salad on the side.



I don't drink matcha often, because the caffeine in it makes me weird (I don't drink coffee or black tea either), but I couldn't say no to a matcha soy milkshake once I found out that they used soy ice cream.



Then, all plans were dashed when they announced that they were closing. Thankfully I was able to go one more time, on their last day. I debated whether I should try something new again on the menu, but at the end of the day I just had to go back for their classic ramen. Oh, what's that on the side? Might be some seaweed salad!



I also got some dessert - a Strawberry & Cream Dora. Two dense little pancakes with sweet red beans, fresh strawberries, and soy ice cream.



So, RIP Taro's Vegan Ramen. But all is not lost. They have added their vegan ramen to their other city restaurant as well as continuing it in their South Brisbane one, but the Ascot store has nothing vegan. They also have opened up another restaurant in Stone's Corner that has the vegan ramen and one or two other vegan things, and they mentioned planning on possibly having a monthly vegan special at this store as well. Very handy as it is very close to where some friends live! While I wish they had opened this new location as another all vegan one (Taro's Vegan Ramen was packed out every time I went in there), at least I can still get delicious ramen! Which is what I did! Please enjoy yet another photo of the Vegan Classic Ramen. Plus some edamame this time. They didn't have any wakame salad, but they did have a different type of seaweed salad (I can't remember what it was called), but sadly it was not as good. Wakame seaweed salad forever!



Taro's Ramen Stones Corner - 16 Old Cleveland Rd, Stones Corner, QLD

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



We were on the sofa watching Veronica Mars (got to be ready for when the new season drops on the weekend - so excite!), and Dim Sim was snoozing next to me on her pinkie. She did a little stretch, and then just continued sleeping with her head hanging over the side. Yep, looks super comfy to me! She had another bout of urinary issues over the weekend, but seems to have settled back to normal thanks to the wonderful healing powers of antibiotics.