First Look: Lawrence Shi follows her passion with Mookata n Ramen Bar

Posted on 16 October, 2026

For Xintong “Lawrence” Shi, opening Mookata n Ramen Bar was an act of choosing passion over expectation.

And the result is a new restaurant which offers Canberrans a unique dining experience, sure to please lovers of the comfort food of Ramen, the fragrant flavours of Thai food and the smoky heartiness of charcoal-grilled meat.

Lawrence arrived in Canberra in 2016 to study a Master of Finance at the Australian National University, but the prospect of a conventional career could not compete with the pull of the kitchen

“I have to be true to me and do the job I want to do,” she says. It meant stepping away from the finance career her parents wanted and into cooking, a skill she learnt from her mother and grandmother.

Chef and owner Lawrence Shi

That decision has led to Mookata n Ramen Bar in Bruce, where Lawrence is owner and head chef. Having previously run Asian Pot House, she is now cooking in a style that resists a neat label: Thai at its heart, with Japanese ingredients, broths and techniques woven through the menu. Rather than keeping the two cuisines separate, she lets them meet on the plate – layering the brightness and heat of Thai flavours with the savoury depth and precision associated with Japanese cooking.

The clearest expression of that approach is mookata, a communal Thai dining style that brings barbecue and steamboat together in a single vessel. Meat and seafood sizzle on a raised domed grill while broth simmers in the surrounding moat, ready for vegetables, noodles and other ingredients. As juices infuse into the broth, the soup becomes richer and more complex throughout the meal. A miso and soy-milk broth draws on shabu-shabu, while Thai seasonings shape the barbecue selection and accompaniments. It is nothing short of delicious.

It is also the perfect communal dining experience for families or groups where some love meat, some love vegetables and everyone loves a little bit of theatre. The setup is easy to navigate even for novice cooks, allowing diners to decide just how long to cook their meat, or submerge their vegetables in broth.

She also notes with pride that Mookata n Ramen Bar is Canberra’s first and only venue to cook mookata over charcoal rather than gas, adding a distinctive smokiness to both the food and the experience.

Lawrence wants the experience to feel generous and accessible. This means you can partake of a charcoal barbecue experience for just $89 for six dishes, with a free serving of vegetables.

But this is not all the restaurant has to offer. Lawrence oversees a wide menu to cover a multitude of appetites. From a selection of noodle dishes, traversing Pad Thai to Char Mien, to special fried rice combinations and Thai basil Kra Pao fried rice, to creamy fragrant red, green and Massaman curries to comfort food classics like stir-fried noodles and Hainese chicken with rice.

All this before you even consider an entire page of the menu devoted to Thai beef noodle soups and then the extensive Ramen options. We loved the fish roe prawn wonton Ramen which included a fragrant broth with crispy wonton and fresh seafood.

Dishes are substantial and very well-priced (around the $20 mark) given the care and expertise Lawrence puts into every menu item. If you are only up for snacks, these is also wide selection of street food style appetisers from fish cake crab rolls to satay sticks, salt and pepper squid and honey siracha fried chicken (please do wear the plastic gloves before you dig in…)

The same playful exchange continues through dessert, with Thai milk tea tiramisu, coconut panna cotta with pistachio and Thai milk tea bingsu crossing familiar culinary boundaries.

Only three weeks after opening, Lawrence says loyal customers are already embracing the Thai–Japanese combination. She is also planning a collaboration with Capital Brewing Co for the warmer months, making use of the restaurant’s outdoor balcony and pairing the food with beer.

Bruce was an easy choice for the restaurant’s location. After years living in the Belconnen area, Lawrence values the neighbourhood’s friendliness, quieter pace and sense of community. With plenty of parking and a convenient stop on the way between Gungahlin and the city, she hopes the restaurant will tempt diners from across Canberra to make Bruce part of their evening.

She just wants people to experience beautiful flavours cooked with flair, crossing cultural boundaries and drawing friends to gather around the inviting glow of a charcoal flame. And in the meantime, she gets to go to work in the jobs she truly loves to do.