Shoryu Ramen Soho restaurant review
Words: Guy Aubrey Devito
Situated in a quiet Soho street, near the oriental restaurant district of Chinatown, on the opposite side of Shaftesbury Avenue is Shoryu Ramen – one of three Shoryus in central London. Launched just two years ago, the chain of Japanese restaurants has taken the West End by storm by introducing less delicate, more hearty tonkotsu cuisine to London palettes.
Upon entering the restaurant I was struck by the verisimilitude of the place; its ambience and setup seemed authentically Japanese and if you found yourself surrounded just by Asian faces, you might just believe that you’d been transported to a little bistro in Tokyo’s Meguro ward. After being shown to our table we were greeted by our charming hostess who displayed all the hospitality that the Japanese are famous for. She guided us through a menu that we were largely unfamiliar with and plied us with cocktails and a delightfully original Kirin Frozen beer.
I decided upon the Chikuwa Fishcakes which were amongst the best I’ve ever had and the Shoryu buns, while stodgy were very moorish. The lady who accompanied me to dinner had Tempura Shiso Chicken – delicious apparently, and it was already clear that our (no doubt flawed) perceptions of Japanese cuisine were facing a significant challenge.
As tonkotsu is the speciality of Shoryu, we felt compelled to try the famous dish and I ordered the Kotteri Hakata Tonkotsu, a heavy, fatty, meaty noodle broth, whilst my plus one ordered a tonkotsu dish that was a little more manageable. Suffice it to say I wasn’t bowled over by the restaurant’s signature dish – rather the bowl seemed to be never ending as I slurped up noodle after fat-coated noodle. I was left a little confused and unable to eat more than half of my main, due to its richness and sheer size.
It’s hard to summarise a place like Shoryu Ramen without doing a disservice to what it is trying to achieve; namely the introduction of a different sort of Japanese cuisine to the layman. Although it is probably less than the sum of its parts, the food is delicious and the service as efficient as you’d expect. For those who know everything about Asian cuisine, Shoryu Ramen can provide a more unique, unexpected type of food – just try to forget everything you think you know about the eating habits of the Japanese.
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