Noodles

Last few years we have seen a massive expansion of Japanese ramen noodle restaurants in London. The latest such restaurant is Kanada-Ya. Kanada-Ya is arguably the most authentic ramen restaurant, as it comes from Yukuhashi in Japan where it was set up by Kanada Kazuhiro in 2009. They also since then have opened a restaurant in Hong Kong. Kanada-Ya London is their first European venture. Kanada-Ya serves tonkotsu (pork bone broth) ramen.

I came to Kanada-Ya on a Thursday evening and was at the place at five past 6 and even then there was a long queue outside, so we had to wait for 30min to get in. Most of the people in the queue and in the restaurant where Japanese, a great sing. Also my Japanese colleague Asako told me about this place and said that it was getting all the Japanese in London very excited.

I thought this was the best Ramen place in London up until the very last moment when I actually tasted my noodles. Bone Daddies is the latest Japanese noodle restaurant to be opened in Soho (London is going through a mini noodle craze it seems), on a small side street, and Bone Daddies is by far the coolest/ trendiest ramen place in my view. The name of the restaurant apparently can be interpreted in a bit of a sexual way (my boyfriend tells me and had to explain, as little naïve me would not get it), and also on the menu alcohol is divided into "hard" (not so strong alcohol) and "harder" (stronger alcohol) and you can find "Asahi super creamy head" beer on the menu, which I don't think Asahi named in that way.

Tonkotsu is a Japanese Ramen restaurant in Soho, which as many places in Soho has a no reservations policy so you may need to wait when you go there (I went there on a Friday evening and had to wait 20 minutes to be seated). Waiting is actually not that bad as you can watch the chefs plate ramen noodle soups, as they are located just by the entrance. The restaurant occupies two floors and we were seated on the second floor. You may know another very famous noodle restaurant in Soho called Koya, which has been named by many reviews as one of the best Japanese noodle restaurants, and I love Koya (MMMM), so I was very keen to try Tonkotsu, as I had also read somewhere that they served great gyoza, of which I am a huge fan.