Tonkotsu

We were attracted by the outside of this ramen shop cuz it resembles those in japan. However when the food was severed our expectation fell to zero..the gyoza was obviously frozen although they tried to make it the jap way, they were just greasy and fell apart once you stick your chopstick in it.

As to the ramen i think those instead noodles you buy from jap store can easily beat that. I ordered a shoyu ramen which on word means soya sauce ramen. But come on how can you really just put soya sauce and mix it with hot water as the base of a ramen? The soup just tasted like diluted soya sauce and it had absolutely no flavour in it.

Whats more is the service. I know theres not much for a waitress to do when there are not many customers but still, they just kept come to our table every 5 seconds try to find something to clear. There's one plate i wanted to use to get rid of the fat from my pork and of course one of the waitress came and tried to take it away. Its fine and i said no. But just 5 seconds later another waitress came and tried to take it away again!! I mean please leave me alone!!

BAD FOOD BAD SERVICE! Defo wont recommend.
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4 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 4
Monday, May 06, 2013

I love the simplicity of the menu, and think this is a hallmark of a restaurant that knows what it is about. I am not an expert on ramen particularly but I do know my food, and I did find the ramen broth very rich and full of flavour and the dish as a whole very well executed. The right portion size too. The way portion sizes should be, anyway. Loved the gyoza. I expect it could be a bit cheaper but it is slap bang in the centre of Soho and there is a premium to be paid for that. I will definitely seek it out again when I am out and about in town. Happy to recommend this place.
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H
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Friday, April 26, 2013

I wholeheartedly agree with other reviews that question the depth of flavour to the broth, and the preparation of the ramen.

I have been eating ramen all my life, and have recently returned from a month in Japan, where I slurped countless bowls of ramen (including traditional tonkotsu in Kyushu) in the most modest of stalls, all of which were positively bursting with flavour.

The broth at Tonkotsu Dean St simply has no depth to it. I see that Jay Rayner's review talks of 18 hours preparation, but if this is the case the flavour simply does not bear witness to it. While appearing the 'right' colour and thickness, it is utterly bland.

As others have alluded to, the ramen themselves are also undercooked (the analogy to overly al dente spaghetti is perfect) and their quantity is rather stingy. Having said this, the texture and taste of wheat gave the impression that they would have been good had they been properly cooked.

The pork itself is very thin, and most importantly the meat does not fall away from the fat easily. It's difficult to eat, which is not something I recall in the past while eating tonkotsu ramen.

The one laudable aspect is the half egg, which is well cooked and presented (though was cold for some reason).

The gyoza were also bland, and very thin, but the cooking of them was not overly objectionable.

Service was good.

I wouldn't return here unless on good authority that the offering had significantly improved. The ramen experience is about receiving a generously portioned, steaming hot bowl of delicious noodles in a broth bursting with flavour, all served in a bustling environment. Tonkotsu Dean St fails on most counts to me: the flavour is poor, the portions are parsimonious, the setting is overly dingy and cloistered, and to top it off it is expensive in comparison to equivalent offerings in London.
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Rosco
5 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Thursday, December 06, 2012

As a native Japanese and a ramen lover, I was overjoyed to hear the arrival of Tonkotsu a ramen place in Soho. Whilst I want to applaud the proprieter and the team for the efforts made which is evidently clear, I also have to be honest about my experience. Ramen is not a pretentious dish and is not to be experienced as refined dining. I found the whole vibe a bit pretentious, like trying to be special just because it's the only decent ramen place in London.

Food - the noodles are way too al dente even to someone who is married to an Italian! It was not cooked properly and difficult to enjoy because it was undercooked! The portion was TINY and ungenerous. That's not the way you want to feel when you are eating a bowl of ramen. Nothing worse than a stingy bowl of ramen. The broth - it was Tonkotsu soup, but with no depth to the flavour and a rather unclean taste. The thing about a good Tonkotsu soup, is even if it's super rich, there is a clarity to the aftertaste.

So to summarise, everything was wrong about the place - pretension, overpriced dishes, undercooked noodles, broth with no zing...

I am very patient and forgiving as a customer but must say that I will never return to this restaurant.
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5 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 2
Monday, November 19, 2012

I went to Tonkotsu last night to wait out train delays on my way home.

This was my first time eating Tonkotsu, so can only base my experience on this one experience.

Firstly though I eat ramen at home at least once a week, it's no gourmet dish. to me. So whilst the noodles were firmer and springier than shop bought, I can't really see what's so amazing about that.

Moving on, the broth was awesome - first taste i actually thought 'so that's it?' but the more i drank the more porky goodness I absorbed, and when i finished it, I was yearning for more, my lips were sticky from the milky soup and I was a happy little pork eater. A shout out too for 1) the massive pork slice - it's porkyness wasn't at all lost in the soup as i had feared. It just bought a bit of succulent meat to it. 2) The seasoned egg with the softest yolk ever 3) the chilli oil. I didn't want it to spoil the gorgeous broth so i carefully added some to some noodles on my spoon. It was great.

I definitely don't understand those who had a watery or clear broth in the reviews. I can only assume that they were given the wrong soup, or one that hadn't been simmered long enough?

Agree the price is a problem though - 12 quid is too much for a bowl of ramen. Even if i am still dreaming about that broth.
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7 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Wednesday, November 14, 2012

I've spent a lot of time in Japan and one of the things I miss most when I'm not there is ramen (after Unagi...). So since Tonkotsu has opened I've been quite a few times. I like their ramens and think it is definitely the best ramen in London. The last time I went a week ago it was particularly good - the tonkotsu had changed and for the better. It was much more creamy, lighter white and more porky - all things I look for in a good tonkotsu ramen (watch out Ippudo!). The sides are great - freshly made gyozas and their fried chicken is to die for. I also like their adventurous beer list. We were stuffed and happy for £30 a head so I think that's pretty good...for Soho. I see a couple of negative comments here which may have just been the kitchen settling down after opening? I for one will be going back frequently.
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Rob Craven
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Anyone who ever had real tonkotsu ramen will remain very disappointed here.

An embrarassingly small bowl of watery, tonkotsu ramen is 11 pounds plus 10% service charge =12.10. An outrageous rip off is the nicest way of describing it.

Paradoxically, the menu goes at length describing how tonkotsu soup is white and rich and creamy, as it simmered full of pork bones for up to 18 hours. Then, when the food arrives, it totally contradicts the description they so proudly put on the menu!!! Soup was a transparent broth which had hardly seen any pork bones, let alone boiled for 18 hours. The noodles were below average, most likely run of the mill factory made that you can buy in an asian wholesale supermarket for a few pennies.

For comparison, in Tokyo - certainly not the cheapest of metropolitan cities - the best tonkotsu ramen shops serve a wonderfully made, flavourful, rich, large bowl of ramen with freshly made noodles for around 5 pounds.

Enough said.
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Enrico Selli
4 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 2
Saturday, August 04, 2012

I tried the Tokyo Spicy ramen and thought it was delicious. It comes with a tender mound of slow-cooked pork, rather than the sliced pork that's in more traditional ramen. The soup and noodles were great as was their house made chilli sauce. I'd wanted to try the gyoza, but they'd sold out so I'll be back again soon to try those. I was surprised to read someone write that the portion was small, as I thought it was huge and was unable to finish it. Will definitely be going back to try some of their other ramen flavours. Curious about their "London" flavour.
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9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, July 04, 2012

I have to echo JaL's review below - for a place called Tonkotsu, the ramen was really not up to scratch. The Tokyo Spicy was also a big disappointment as the broth was seriously lacking in flavour. There was a long queue so the restaurant is clearly quite popular, but in my opinion the ramen was just not up to standard I'm afraid.
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Anon
6 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Monday, July 02, 2012

I was really looking forward to some fantastic noodles after following all the pop up tastings and blogs that this restaurant had inspired even before opening so visited with some eagerness. Slightly surprised to walk straight in 7.00 on a Thursday night, maybe it was the football, or the heat.

First the restaurant, nice enough deco it's new, were were seated upstairs with the large windows open to Dean Street on a sweltering Thursday night it was nice and airy. Exposed brick walls, unvarnished wood tables with scaffolding frames, quite nice, comfortable fabric covered benches at the windows.

So ordered a beer each, a tonkotsu each and some prawn and pork gyoza to share. First thing that surprised me is that it took about 15 minutes for the food to arrive. Ramen is an easy to assemble dish, should have taken 5.

Second thing that surprised me, the bowl of noodles is quite small. Not the big bowl you associate with ramen, in fact it's about the size of a bowl you'd use to make instant ramen at home... 8" across or so.

Ok the taste, soup looked good and cloudy, but was very single note, tasted like, well, boiled pork broth. I was expecting lots of complex flavours. Not so. Then there were the ramen, they were undercooked and straight, almost seemed like the bundled straight somen you can get in supermarkets, these had the visible white line in the middle that says to me undercooked, as such they were sort of floury/mealy. Not nice. The egg was good with a rich gooey yolk and the pork was tender and tasty. Overall, not impressed.

Next the gyoza, these looked good 5 or so in a row pan fried so that they were stuck together which is fine as it's a nice authentic touch. However, the filling was really unpleasant, I got a metallic fridge taste from the filling and really should have sent them back. No amount of the underpowered 'chilli' oil on table could help them.

So the bill for 2 people, with 2 beers, one starter and 2 mains was about £38.

We left still sort of hungry and disappointed that we hadn't gone for some sushi at TTT. We contemplated sharing a sushi plate, but were almost saddened that the ramen had left us not full but also not hungry enough to eat somewhere else and do it justice, especially after walking down dean street and seeing all the other offerings there.
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JaL
4 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 1
Saturday, June 30, 2012