I’ve been a few times to Tonkotsu and have always gone with high expectations that it will be much better than the last time I ate, but I’ve always left feeling disappointed.
This time though on a post gym meal, I left deeply disappointed that I’ve decided I will not be returning again.
Soho on this Bank Holiday Monday was pretty empty and to be honest I could have walked straight into any restaurant and got a table straight away, but as I’ve been hankering after some ramen for a little while now and hearing from other bloggers that Tonkotsu had been getting better and I’m always willing now to give places more chances than they possibly deserve. Tonkotsu it was.
The restaurant was pretty quiet, but as I was on my lonesome I wanted to sit where the action was happening, i.e. in front of the kitchen where I wouldn’t look like a sad lonely git.
I was here for ramen and ramen it was, looking at the menu I was tempted to have the Tonkotsu but for some reason the soy based Tokyo Ramen grabbed my eye and after quick deliberation I was hooked.
So Tokyo Ramen and a glass of water were ordered, I wasn’t in the mood for anything else as trying and keep trying to limit my middle age spread that won’t go away.
An impressive bowl of noodles was put down in front of me about five minutes later, well impressive in sixe when compared to Bone Daddies, who I need to revisit to see if their portions have increased. Unlikely.
All looked good, smelt good, so far so good. Took a taste with the most awkward wooden spoon you could find. Hmmmm lacked a little in umpf and was a tad over powering on the soy sauce side but not uneatable.
Then sadly it all went down hill from there, the noodles were more than slightly undercooked and a tad claggy when I was mixing them from the bottom of the bowl, the taste was ok, but when noodles are stuck together you know you are not onto a winner. I actually should have sent it back but I was bloody hungry.
The pork belly, well where to begin, it was a tad too thickly sliced, and with some slices being not tender enough and others slightly overcooked with one mouthful being quite tough, I love pork belly and this was a sad effort. The fat was still quite chewy and hadn’t been cooked long enough to soften it up.
As this was a lunchtime sitting it was pretty obvious that all of the leftovers from the night before were being used and not the best leftovers as well, sadly.
Well to end on a high, the seasoned egg was nice, good yolk and the spring onions were cut well.
The service was ok, nothing to really bitch about, although after the state of the food if the tip hadn’t been included I wouldn’t have left one.
There has been a lot of chatter recently about how people view this job of waiting on tables, but I think that’s for another blog posting on my views on that as I feel another rant coming on. .
Tonkotsu for sure has seen me and the inside of my wallet for the last time, they won’t miss me as there are still plenty of people who like what they serve and will gladly go back for the post industrial look that I though went out in the 80’s. Adios.
No comments:
Post a Comment