Ramen is a Japanese noodle soup dish, consisting of wheat noodles served in meat broth flavoured in soy sauce or miso, and topped with ingredients such as chashu (sliced pork), nori (dried seaweed), red ginger and spring onions.
Nearly every region in Japan has its own variation, from miso ramen in Hokkaido to tonkotsu in Kyushu and Sapporo ramen.
Tozaki, a former mechanic who returned to Japan to learn the art of cooking ramen from a master, said he hopes to come up with new flavours that would become Auckland's own variety.
Ramen Lab opened last month at Huron Street in Takapuna.
Tozaki's wife, Fumiko, who is front of house said: "One of the reasons we call our restaurant Ramen Lab is because we will be experimenting with flavours, and getting a dish that is most suited for New Zealand.
"For those who want to learn the art of eating ramen noodles the Japanese way, we will also show them how."
However, in good news for silent slurpers, she added: "Every Japanese knows ramen and every Japanese would have eaten ramen.
"It's nothing fancy, so there's no right way or wrong way to eat ramen," she said.
