Tonkotsu is dotted around London and Birmingham the one we went to was in Battersea, Claire surprised me on my birthday last month and it happens to be one of the best restaurants in town! It is 10 to 15 minutes walk from Battersea Park Station, or there are other options such as Battersea Pier if you like to travel via ferry and sight see London.

This restaurant chain is well known for their fresh ramen and notorious stock, every morning they make their signature stock, and ramen noodles with their traditional Japanese machines – creating 3 different delicious ramens; Tokyo, Tsukemen and Tonkotsu each ramen has their own specific stock creating a character for each bowl. I had heard great things about this Japanese restaurant so I was very pleased that Claire took me here! The staff were attentive although not so friendly, we were happy to be seated and were given a menu.

Tonkotsu

We asked for tap water for the table, whilst we chose our ultimate dishes – we realised there were a lot of families that Sunday and it turned out that Tonkotsu welcomes children to eat for free, which we thought was amazing especially to introduce them to different flavours from a early age.

We decided to share a couple of ‘on the side’ dishes – Kimchi and Edamame beans with sea salt, for our mains Claire chose their Miso mushroom – Konbu and shiitake broth & miso base. Classic homemade noodles topped with shiitake, enoki & shimeji mushrooms, black kale, bamboo shoots, spring onions and seasoned egg. (she was able to remove the seasoned egg from the dish).

I chose their Tonkotsu – Pork broth enriched with lardo & sea salt base. Thin-cut homemade noodles topped with roast pork belly, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, spring onions, burnt garlic oil and seasoned egg.

On the menu it stated the ramen’s being cooked for exactly 32 seconds, to give it the medium bite and if we wished to we could request our own preferences.

Our sides came and not long after our mains arrived – my Tonkotsu smelt divine, a thick frothy soup with all the delicious elements. The froth was creamy and complimented each ingredient. I saved the egg for last as it looked so good the egg was silky and smooth with hints of salt – I could have had more!

The kimchi was fresh and had a little kick, in the past the kimchi’s we’ve had were too spicy to enjoy but this one was just right for the both of us. Edamame you can’t fault lightly salted and enjoyable to eat.

Claire’s Miso mushroom was flavoursome too, the mushroom flavour was prominent but it didn’t over power the dish, it was creamy and rich and well put together. Our portion sizes were big but we managed to devour it all.

Sadly there was no vegan desserts but because the desserts were calling my name I had to choose one of them! I went for the Salted caramel, miso, chocolate & Guinness cake ice cream sandwich – a comforting dessert – a rich creamy salted caramel ice cream that had been sandwiched between a chocolatey savoury sponge – I had gobbled that up pretty quickly.

To cleanse our palettes we both shared a pot of green tea, this satisfied our bellies and we reflected on our mouthwatering food. We couldn’t get over how creamy both our broths were and how delicious our noodles tasted. We highly recommend Tonkotsu, a place that will blow your mind if you love ramen!

Tonkotsu Battersea opening hours are from Sunday to Thursday 11.30am to 10.30pm, Friday and Saturday 11.30am to 11.00pm.