United Ramen, 26th September

You don’t need me to tell you noodles are everywhere right now, what with the Shoryus and Tonkotsus (not to mention Phos), and London has just got a couple new ones – Kanada-Ya and United Ramen. I was particularly drawn to United Ramen because they were doing noodle soups and shaking it up a little by serving several versions, influenced by diferent parts of the world. So they had a Yankee Doodle noodle soup with pulled chicken and sweetcorn, and they have a British-inspired version on the weekends – basically a Sunday roast in soup version, complete with little Yorkshire puddings. (Not too sure about that one if I’m honest.)

So payday rolled around and I decided to treat Stephen and I to a quick dinner at United Ramen.

You walk in to a room that kind of reminded me of  a children's nursery - chunky, funky furnishings in bright, bold colours of orange and purple. One of my favourite colour combinations. The place has personality, though one suspects the furnishings aren’t of the highest quality. Our table was incredibly rickety and had to have a door stop put under one side to stop it rocking about.

The crockery is beautiful, in not many other places have I so admired the vessel my soup was brought in. As with most places, they had condiments on the side: chilli oil, a chilli powder, and sesame in little grinders which didn't seem to work.

I chose the Chinese-inspired spicy sichuan tantanmen, which really had no real kick to it, though a bit of chilli oil soon perked it up so that my nose was sniffing by the end of the meal. It came with minced pork sitting on top, which, though quite chunky to begin with, soon disintegrated into my broth giving it a mushy, thick texture that I didn't really like! Otherwise, before that happened the flavour was quite nice, and fairly light. The ‘thick’ noodles, were not that big, not as sizeable as udon noodles, which was great, as I don't like them too thick.

One of the best things about ramen is the soy egg, in my opinion. But not here. What a woeful specimen this ovum was - no soy flavour – the egg itself didn’t even look marinated, and it was small, very flabby and undercooked as well as half crushed. Totally disappointing.

Stephen had the Chashu Pork with thick noodles (Japanese inspired) and, without meaning to sound so cutting, said it was the worst ramen soup he’d had. He didn’t mean it was awful, he just meant it wasn’t as good as at other places. And I have to agree with him. I like all the different influences they have here, which is why I wanted to come so much, but the novelty of that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. There are a lot of places doing it better.

We had some kimchi on the side (a generous portion for 50p!) and also some pork gyoza which were both tasty enough.

Find the menu and more reviews on Zomato.

Salvation in Noodles (SIN), 3rd August

Noodle joints are ten a penny in London these days what with the Tonkotsus, Shoryus, Phos and of course the plethora of Vietnamese places along Kingsland Road but as long as they’re doing them well, then London still seems to have an appetite for them, and this London er in particular hasn’t got bored of them either. One of the newer ones is SIN (Salvation in Noodles) who opened up on the Dalston end of Balls Pond Road last year (I think, could have been early this year). 

The other Sunday I was supposed to be going to Feast for a chow down with the Nuffnang lovelies but someone (read - the boyfriend) couldn’t be bothered so instead we enjoyed a stroll around London, stopping by the evocative Poppies at the Tower of London and then walking to SIN. They had been at Feast and this way, I felt I wasn’t completely missing out. 

We pulled up a pew at the window and got ourselves some chicken wings to start and then I had hot noodles - the bun bo hue (spicy pho with pork belly and brisket in a lemongrass broth) and Stephen got cold noodles - a noodle salad with beef wrapped in betel leaves. I also ordered a Dalston lemonade to wash it all down.

At first I was a little worried for SIN's prospects - there was literally no one else in there when we arrived. But we soon decided that it must have only just opened for the evening when, 20 minutes later, the place had all but filled. 

So, the wings arrived – five beasts of them. They were finger-licking good, with quite a light, subtle flavour and crispy skin, though I didn't love the little hairs all over them - a bit too reminiscent of the creature they once were.

My lemonade had yet to arrive. Our waiter came back to explain that he did have the lemonade, but it wasn’t at all cold so he wanted to wait for his colleague to arrive with some ice. That was no small wait. I didn’t mind at all although at one point, when I was halfway through my bun hue and it still hadn’t arrived I did contemplate cancelling the order. He was very apologetic though and when it arrived, he gave it to me on the house, which was appreciated.

Both our mains were pretty satisfying. Am I whooping with unbridled glee at them like I did with Roti King (and soon would again at Palomar)? No, but such was the nature of the meal. I had chosen a delicate broth, not one rich with meat stock and indulgence, and Stephen had a light salad. Actually, I really rather did love Stephen’s cold noodle dish – each mouthful had the zingy nuoc cham sauce on it - I had food envy. I thought there were a little too many bean sprouts in mine and the noodles were quite choppy – good for scooping, but not good for twirling round your chopsticks into a big mound to shove in your mouth with a big spoon of soup. The broth was a perfect spiciness though – I had quite the sheen on me by the time I finished and I didn’t have to add any sriracha to get the heat I wanted. I also loved the sound of the crab pho and would happily come back for that cold noodle salad.

Find the menu & restaurant information on Zomato

Tonkotsu, 23rd November

I have never tasted anything that tastes so porky, other than pork, in my life. It was a like a gustatory illusion –  you get all of the taste that something your mind and tongue expect to be fleshy meat, yet the texture is completely wrong. Your brain finds it hard to compute. It's almost like something the modern real-life Willy Wonka - Heston Blumenthal - would conjure up. I definitely had a case of food envy when I’d had a mouthful of that - the tonkotsu a sea-salt based broth flavoured with pork bones with a mildly disconcerting appearance, looking a little milky, not clear like I am used to from pho, for example. 

However, after getting through my Tokyo ramen, a lighter, soy sauce-based dish, I did wonder if maybe such a rich, deeply flavoured broth would be a little hard to finish. Stephen said that he felt that way as well, so perhaps my choice with pork and chicken was the better option after all.

Either way, they were both very tasty, and the meat inside was as flavoursome as you would expect of something that had imparted such flavour to its surrounding liquid. The unexpected highlight, and I can’t really believe I’m writing this, was the ‘seasoned egg’. Now, I’m a big fan of eggs, in almost any form, but they're not the sort of thing you normally get taken aback by. An egg’s an egg’s an egg. Unless it’s a seasoned egg, in which case it is amazing! They are marinated in soy overnight, which gives them a pleasingly salty taste and unusually deep flavour.

Along with your bowl of noodles you have the option of ordering more noodles (given how much you get, this seems completely unnecessary), a garlic shot (I was tempted, but we were going out drinking after and I thought I’d spare my friends the after-effects) or another half season egg. Definitely worth getting them to pop another one of these fellas into your pot.

We turned up at a little past six. I thought we’d get a seat but was a little anxious we might have to wait a while. It was surprisingly empty, considering I feel like it hasn’t been around that long. We chose two seats at the ‘bar’ which was right in front of the kitchen area.

There are only three choices – two meaty ones and one veggie, so naturally Stephen and I had one each. As I said, he had the tonkotsu, for which the restaurant is named and I had what was called Tokyo Ramen. We were hoping that one of them was going to be the spicy one we had read about but I guess the menu changes every now and again. The noodles were the thin kind, which I like, and were topped with big slices of fatty, ever so delicious, pork belly. Pork belly is always good but this seemed to be extrarich in flavour, perhaps soaking up some of the meatiness from the very broth it was sitting in. Highly satisfying.

They’re a little on the pricey side for noodles - a bowl of pho down the road at Nam will only set you back £6.50 whereas these are £11 and £9 respectively - but I don’t mind paying £15 for my dinner, especially when that includes an alcoholic beverage. They serve quite a good selection of beers – Stephen went for the 8-ball, loving snooker as he does, and I had a glass of rose wine. It was actually a very nice rose, not at all too sweet and better than the one I then had in the pub later. 

You can probably take your time over a meal here, as they have starters and sides and seem happy enough for you to order more but we just wanted something hot, tasty and filling before our night’s revelry and Tonkotsu met all three criteria. They do gyoza and something called Kara age chicken which sounded very nice (garlic and ginger - can’t go wrong) so they’re not just a one-trick pony. Although I suppose they could do these very badly, in which case they would be, but I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Our waitresses were all very friendly, even if one was slightly barmy – they seemed to be having a good time among themselves anyway! 

Next time they put that spicy broth back on the menu, I'm there, going heavy on the seasoned egg and putting their gyoza to the test!





Find the menu & restaurant information on Zomato

Koya, 14th November

This is meant to be the new 'hot spot' for those who like their noodles. People queue up outside the door to get em, waiting up to, maybe even longer than, half an hour. I've read many good reviews of the place and Stephen is a bit of a noodlehead so it made its way onto our radar. And guess what his favourite noodles are? Yes that's right, you get a gold star - its those fat juicy udon noodles, which are Koya's speciality.

So we tried to go the other weekend but at that point in time it wasn't open on a Sunday. So we tried again tonight.

Kinda wish we hadn't bothered. I had the beef hot noodles in hot soup. Stephen had the pork and miso hot noodles in hot soup. And sure, they were welcomingly warm considering the weather we had just braved to get there (some light drizzle - the worst of all weathers). But I thought the noodles were faintly ridiculous. No one needs noodles that fat or that long. They were pleasantly chewy and the broth was quite comforting, but I wasn't blown away. Pho won my heart over recently (the dish, not the restaurant, although I also like the restaurant), and Koya's udon could not steal it away.

If a bowl of noodles were a fiver a pop or something like that, this could easily be a go-to place when we're wandering Soho as we often do, and don't know where to go for some food. But for £10, the likelihood of me going back is pretty slim. Baozi Inn will remain our staple for cheap and tasty Asian food.