Tonkotsu Ramen, Brighton 16.4.25. Noodles done right.

 

Tonkotsu Ramen, Brighton 16.4.25. Noodles done right.

20 New Road

Brighton
BH1 1UF

 


The first time I encountered Tonkotsu ramen was when I ordered some takeaway from Uber Eats. Never heard of them before but thought I would give it a shot. The cardboard packaging was unpretentious and attractive. I was having a meal with a friend and we both thought it was exceptional. It was good enough for me to take the trouble to google the noodle shop. Tonkotsu Ramen is a small chain of Japanese ramen shops with most of the branches in London. Their USP was intriguing, they make their own ramen in the shop. Otherwise, they’re just a soup shop. That tends to suggest that hardly anyone else does. I had planned on checking one out in person but forgot about it. More fool me.

 


Yesterday, I arranged to meet someone in Brighton for a catch-up. Now that I have started writing a food blog, I try to find somewhere new and interesting to eat every time I go out. I did a quick google and recognised the name. There are thirteen branches in London, and one each in Brighton, Bristol and Birmingham. I vaguely remembered the bowl of ramen was being exceptional.

 


Brighton is one of the most progressive and left-leaning cities in Britain. It’s near enough to London to qualify as a commuter town and expensive enough that you need to earn a decent whack to make such a commute viable.  Caroline Lucas was elected as MP for Brighton Pavilion as the country’s first Green Party MP. It’s a lovely place to visit. A London in miniature. Brighton feels like an example of what complete gentrification looks like. So Tonkotsu fits right in, being on the same road as the Theatre Royal. As we head into spring, the light was good, it was windless and there was no rain. Tonkotsu has a light blue façade. It leads into a bar area with a passageway that leads in a large room. It is clean spartan and sparsely furnished in the style of such establishments but what struck me the most was how much space was available. In London it would be unheard of and also very pleasant.

 


Probably not food blogging best practice but I admit that both my dining companion and myself had the Tonkotsu Ramen, handmade noodles luxuriating in a pork broth with the main feature, noodles aside, being the slices of pork belly. Forgive my likely misidentification but my companion commented on what I took to be crunchy bamboo shoots. He enjoyed them as did I. Looking up the constituents of this particular dish on Wiki, it makes no reference to bamboo shoots as an element but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be there; handmade ramen, pork broth and slices belly pork being the non-negotiables here and they were all here, present and correct. It’s not the first time I’ve eaten at a branch of this restaurant nor, I think, this particular dish and this was an excellent rendition. We had ordered a plate of King Prawn Katsu: tasty but unremarkable.

If I fancied a bowl of Japanese ramen and I happened to be in Brighton, this would be an absolute no-brainer.

Bill came up to £52.09 for two bowls of noodles, a small plate of King Prawn Katsu and a couple of drinks.

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