Pavement Whispers: Paddington ramen spot Hai Hai is opening a new location in West End
The team behind long-running Paddington ramen spot Hai Hai is making a move south of the river. In January, Hai Hai will open a new location in West End, serving a larger menu of slurp-worthy ramen, izakaya-style snacks, shochu-infused highballs and Japanese-inspired cocktails. Here’s what we know …
When Hai Hai’s neon ‘Noodzilla’ sign first lit up its pocket of Paddington in 2016, it heralded the start of a new age for Brisbane’s ramen scene. At that point, a few local players had already popularised the dish with interpretations that, for the most part, hewed close to the traditional Japanese expression. So, when Crowded House Hospitality (the crew behind fellow Paddington concepts Remy’s and Ham on Rye, as well as Superfly Pizza in Woolloongabba) launched Hai Hai and its debut menu, which blended authentic touches with non-traditional twists, foodies sat up and took notice.
“We always felt like we weren’t confined by the traditional expectations of ramen, which meant that we were pretty innovative straight out of the box,” says Reianna Vercoe, director of Hai Hai. Though not bound by the strictures of tradition, the team has always had to contend with the size of its home – a converted worker’s cottage on Latrobe Terrace. Soon, that won’t be an issue, because Hai Hai is expanding.
In January 2025 the team will cut the ribbon on a brand-new 90-seat location over in West End, taking over the Boundary Street site formerly home to Chop Chop Chang’s for its second outpost.
“We always thought it would be great to have another location, but we wanted it to have the same sort of ethos, which was really hard to find,” explains Reianna. “Paddington is a really fantastic village and West End has exactly the same thing going for it – there’s a fantastic community. With this place particularly, we were looking for somewhere we could expand and try some more innovative stuff as well.”
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With a bigger kitchen and bar on hand, Hai Hai West End will see the crew expand its food and drink offering significantly. The restaurant’s core menu of ramen (anchored by pork tonkotsu, chashu grilled chicken and vegetarian ramen) will be carried across. But expect the venue’s array of izakaya-inspired sides (which already includes crowdpleasers like sweetcorn lathered in miso butter and steamed buns stuffed with panko-crumbed tofu) to be greatly expanded, alongside the addition of new substantial options and a more consistent rotation of creative specials.
“It’ll be like being unleashed, for our kitchen staff,” says Reianna, who also informs us that the group is on the hunt for an executive chef to helm both West End and Paddington, and help upgrade the brand overall. “We had to kind of do things in a pretty lean way, so it’ll be good to take those techniques and processes that we’ve developed at Paddington and put it across a broader range of food.”
On the drinks front, Hai Hai’s service manager Saori Hagiu is overseeing the venue’s punched-up beverage offering, which will feature a number of highballs, cocktails infused with sake, shochu and whisky, and a broader selection of Japanese beers. Expect many new elements introduced at West End to also filter back to Paddington.
The West End space will receive a cosmetic refresher to bring it in line with the aesthetic of its OG haunt. “We’re not totally confined to the norms of a traditional ramen shop,” Reianna tells us. “We’re definitely going to bring some of the traditional elements in, but we’re also going to bring in some different styles of lighting and just basically change the vibe a little bit from that traditional feel. It has industrial elements, which I really love, so we will lean into that a little bit, as well.”
Hai Hai West End is tentatively slated to open in January 2025 – stay tuned for more information over the coming months.