Peek through the front window at Chun’s Kalguksu and you’ll see diners hunched over steaming bowls while sisters Sharon and Joanna Chun make noodles by hand in the kitchen. The Abbotsford restaurant is the Melbourne continuation of a family business that began in Sydney’s Strathfield in 2005, when their parents Seon Kyu Suk and In Wook Chun opened Hand Made Noodle.

Kalguksu is a dish of knife-cut noodles in broth and, as the shop’s name implies, it’s the star at Chun’s. The dough is made from scratch, kneaded, rolled and cut in-house every day. The texture lands in a carefully balanced middle ground: it’s soft enough to take on broth, but has enough chew to keep each mouthful satisfying.

The signature bowl is the plain kalguksu: hand-cut noodles in a clear anchovy broth with zucchini and clams. The room and the menu are both simple. There is no long preamble, no overworked concept or fancy fit-out. Besides the signature bowls, there are lighter noodle soups like kimchi janchi-guksu (thin wheat noodles in a light broth), plus bowls of bibimbap, including a bulgogi version and a vegetarian option.