My first ever taste of the Japanese noodle broth called ramen was at Tonkotsu and what a way to lose my ramen virginity – I loved it! Since then London has become rather obsessed with the stuff and its popularity has rocketed, meaning ramen bars are opening left right and centre. Somewhere that always seems to have a queue outside is Bone Daddies so my gentleman companion and I planned a later visit at 9pm and got a table no problemo.
It’s the creation of Ross Shonhan who previously headed the kitchens at Zuma and Nobu – impressive stuff. The restaurant was busy and had a really great atmosphere. Loud music blared through the speakers as we perched on our stalls at the bench style tables. If a ramen bar was to open in Camden this is how I imagine it would be.
We decided to start with some fried chicken (£5) from the starter section of the menu. Served simply with a big ol’ wedge of lemon, we both agreed that a creamy dip of some kind would have made these succulent moist pieces of chicken taste even lovelier. However, the lemon did its job rather valiantly and cut through the fatty chick perfectly. We really enjoyed these.
As recommended by our delightfully charming waitress we ordered some pork bones (£7) from the specials board. These were drenched in a firey chilli sauce and once my taste buds had overcome the initial shock of the spice, I became completely addicted. I would have gladly eaten them all myself and was annoyed that I had to share them with my gentleman companion as they were so ruddy delicious.
Five different flavoured bowls of ramen were on offer and I opted for the Tonkotsu (£11) which was a broth made from pork bones boiled for at least 20 hours (wow) with noodles, a boiled egg, bamboo, bean sprouts and chashu pork. The broth had a seriously intense pork flavour and was divine. The thin slices of pork were tender and soft which only added to the porky sensation. Extra toppings were available such as more broth, a pipette of fat (yum!), more pork etc but I opted for some cock scratchings (£0.80) which were in fact crispy chicken skin. I couldn’t actually taste them which was a shame.
My gentleman companion opted for the T22 (£9) which was a soy ramen with chicken, cock scratchings and chicken bone broth. This one was slightly less exciting as the overall flavour was only that of the salty soy sauce – but it was still enjoyable. My gentleman companion compared the noodles to Super Noodles that you get out of a packet which added to the comfort food element of the dishes. We slurped away to our hearts’ content and got ramen absolutely everywhere! Lovely.
Our trip to Bone Daddies was a rather enjoyable one. The staff looked trendy but were more importantly friendly. It’s the sort of place I’d gladly take friends for a quick bite to eat (if there’s no queue) that isn’t too expensive.
8/10
