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RESTAURANTS + FOO D
J
apanese people really do seem to
like queues; Tokyo is full of them.
Maybe that's why when the first
Wagamama opened in 1992, we
thought waiting in a long line for a bowl of
noodles was the height of chic. �e variety
of Japanese dining options in London has
since blossomed, and so the queues
remain. Now, West End choices include a
rockin' ramen bar with a permanent line of
prospective punters, a Japanese fusion
restaurant where you have to queue, and a
£300-per-head, nine-seater sushi bar with
a months-long wait for a booking.
From that first Wagamama,
with its Japanese-inspired interior
and big bowls of ramen, to the
present ubiquity, here we trace
the highlights and evolution of
Japanese food in London.
THE RAMEN BARS
Wagamama wasn't the first, but it
has become the UK's best-known
noodle bar and is now an
international chain. Restaurateur
Alan Yau created one of the most
influential restaurants of the
1990s, with its clean, minimalist
lines courtesy of architect John
Pawson. Bowlfuls of ramen egg
noodles were lavished with
South-East Asian flavours you'd
never find in Japan, while the
shared tables and no-bookings
policy were years ahead of their time.
Copycats came and went, but Wagamama
remained the noodle king - until some
noodle maestros from Japan took a chance
on whether the gaijin (foreigners) of
London could cope with the real thing.
�e capital's first properly gastronomic
Japanese noodle bar was Koya in Soho,
which served not ramen, but udon: fat
white wheat-flour noodles. �e toppings
and flavours included house-made walnut
miso, and such attention to detail made it
the hit of 2010. �e original Koya closed
after five years when the chef returned to
Japan, but a similar operation called Koya
Bar continues next door on Frith Street.
Bone Daddies caused the next big splash
in the ramen world, opening in 2012 and
run by a white Australian. �e horror of it
- except that chef-proprietor Ross
Shonhan makes great ramen, and turns up
the volume and flavours to 11 in his Soho
hangout. Branches followed.
�en, like London buses, another two
great ramen bars came along together:
Ippudo and Kanada-ya opened across
the street and just days apart from each
other in 2014, and were an instant hit with
East Asian students who appreciated the
more purist, properly Japanese styles of
ramen dishes on offer.
NOBU AND ITS KIN
While ramen was conquering budget
dining, it was one restaurant - Nobu
- making modern Japanese dining
fashionable with the jet set. �ere's little
doubt that Nobu's pioneering style of
Japanese fusion food has had a huge effect
on London's dining scene since 1997.
Black cod with miso, once a Nobu
WAGAMAMA'S SHARED
TABLES AND NO�BOOKINGS
POLICY WERE YEARS
AHEAD OF THEIR TIME
KOYA BAR'S UDON
LEFT: KOYA BAR IN SOHO
FAR LEFT: A DISH FROM
FITZROVIA'S ROKA
NOBU BERKELEY
ST IN MAYFAIR
BONE DADDIES' RAMEN
ABOVE: BONE DADDIES'
CHEF�PROPRIETOR
ROSS SHONHAN