Tonkotsu: Soho, London

Tonkotsu:

Date of Visit: 25^th May 2013

Ambience

This is a very small and cramped restaurant which somewhat resembles a typical ramen place in Japan.  With wooden bench like table and seats, you could find yourself rubbing shoulders with strangers.  We arrived for lunch when the restaurant was open at 12pm so it wasn’t busy to start with but as we left, it was heaving with diners.  The décor is very simple with the story of how Tonkotsu began and images of how the ramen is freshly made, framed up on the wall.

Food

The menu is limited but it shows that the restaurant specialises in what they are good at, namely ramen in soup.  I had the original tonkotsu ramen with pork belly, which was full of flavour and the ramen was perfect – the noodle was a springy texture which was not soggy at all.  I was glad to see a proper ramen egg within the bowl too – one which had been marinated for some time.

I thoroughly enjoyed my ramen but unfortunately there was one small incident which let the place down.  My companion bit into a couple of bits of rope which she found in her bowl of noodles – we confronted the waitress who apologised and offered to replace the bowl with a new one.  This offer was not taken up since the contents of the bowl was almost empty and we wouldn’t have been able to stomach another.

Instead, we opted to try the Ice Cream Mochis – the three flavours that we chose were Salted Caramel, Hazelnut and Mango.  All three were yummy :)

Service

The service was quick and the servers were responsive.  Due to the little incident with the rope, the waitress offered to take the dessert off the bill for us as compensation which we gladly accepted.

Summary

I enjoyed every aspect of the food and I think the place is great for a quick no-fuss meal which is satisfying as well as filling. I would have no qualms about visiting this place again but before I do so, I would like to try Shoryu which is also known to be famous for their ramen.