Tonkotsu Bar & Ramen

I feel slightly cliché writing this post on the train but I have nothing else to do because it’s way to dark to stare outside. I love food. Who doesn’t? I sometimes say I’m going to diet but then regret saying that because I feel like I’m abandoning good food. I’ve just been to Tonkotsu Bar & Ramen in Soho (near Leicester Square). 

Unfortunately, I have to start by complaining because at the restaurant they made six of us sit on a table for four so it was a cramped table and it was at the front of the restaurant so half way through people who were waiting for seats were just staring at you eat because they had to stand at the side. I have no clue why we were put on a small table but I think it was poor service however the food was on point so I won’t complain after this.

I ordered Tonkotsu which is the first dish on the menu, I’m not entirely sure why I did this because I had seen the menu before hand and I’m pretty sure I had said I wanted the Tokyo Ramen but for some reason I forgot what I wanted and this looked more appealing at the time. The two side dishes are Chicken Karaage (Top left) and Crab Korokke (Right). Before anyone thinks I’m super fat, I’d just like to clarify but I did share the side dishes with a friend.

Tonkotsu was actually really nice it wasn’t spicy so anyone can eat it but of course if you wanted you could add the chilli sauce to make it spicier. It just looked so pretty in the bowl. It was a massive portion so I couldn’t actually finish all of it. I find that oriental restaurants are really generous and give you lots of food. 

I did not like the egg – maybe the others liked it but it tasted so strange in comparison to the rest of the dish, everything else was really nice. 

The broth was ‘milky’, I want to say that it had milk within it but I’m not sure. The menu states that the pork ‘melts in the mouth’ - that is a lie, but it actually tasted nice so I don’t care that they lied. I loved the thin noodles- I started to hate thin noodles after packet noodles, I really like Vermicelli from Chinese restaurants but packet noodles let me down, apart from Shin Ramyun, I love Shin Ramyun.

Chicken Karaage was amazing, the chicken was tender and succulent and the ‘skin’, is not healthy at all, but it was crispy and was just so nice in my mouth. You should order it. Crab Korokke- it wasn’t bad but I wont order it again because it wasn’t exactly the highlight of my meal. I’m not entirely sure how to describe the texture, the exterior was lightly breadcrumbed and inside was a mixture of things, I couldn’t taste the crab. It reminded me of the Indian fish patties, but it was a finer mixture on the inside. 

Anyway, before I start drooling, the overall experience was great minus the really, really bad seating area. So if you do decide to go I hope you have a wonderful experience and hopefully you’ll get better seats.

Thank you for reading.

p.s. I wrote this post on the 5th November but had to post this later incase I overloaded everyone with words.