Bone Daddies Kensington, London

Another ramen joint poping up, this time it is Bone Daddies from Soho opening up inside Wholefoods market in Kensington. If you want to avoid the queue at the Soho branch, go Kensington. What's more, you can browse around Wholefoods after the meal and stock up on even more food.

Menu with interesting choice of starters and ramen. But we were here for one thing which was Tonkotsu, the big bowls of soup thickly laden with bits and bobs. To avoid the messiness of hair dipping into your food and any splashes of broth, how kindly of them to provide hair bands and plastic bibs.

Yellowtail Sashimi 

Korean Fried Chicken Wings

I was a bit disappointed that the hirata bun was not on the menu but nevertheless we enjoyed the yellowtail sashimi for starter. It was fresh and zingy from the ponzu dressing with a hint of heat from the fresh chillis. If you are Asian, you may have heard of the over popularised Korean drama "My Love from the Star" which brought in a craze of Korean style fried chicken and beer. It spread throughout East Asian at the beginning of 2014 with news broadcasting about people eating and drinking excessively and ended up in hospital (word of advice: unhealthy to do it excessively). Anyhow, never had the chance to try the Korean style fried chicken wings until now, I liked it but Mr T found it a bit too sour. I liked the kick of spiciness from the gochujang sauce and the wings was crispy and moist. The only thing that let it down was the wings was swimming in a paddle of sauce, it just did not need that extra ladle of sauce.

IP Tonkotsu Ramen

Tonkotsu Ramen

I ordered the IP Tonkotsu Ramen consisted of IP sauce, chashu pork, wood ear mushrooms and spring onion with extra egg and beansprouts where as Mr T went for the traditional Tonkotsu Ramen. I don't know what IP sauce is, according to waiter it is a spicy sauce. Was it spicy? Not really, it's a strange sauce that I can't find words to describe. It's nice but I would prefered it without the IP sauce. The Tonkotsu broth is good, it's rich but not the creaminess I was hoping for and the ramen was a bit soft for my liking. The dash of black sesame oil adds another layer of nutty flavour. The egg is runny and not over layered with beansprouts or spring onion. The chashu pork was tender but bland and I don't remember what cut they used but it was on the lean side missing the fattiness that the chashu pork needs.

Mochi Ice Cream

We didn't order dessert, we haven't even finished the ramen yet and was served twice the mochi ice cream mistakenly. The chef offered us the dessert as compliment. I was surprised Mr T never had mochi ice cream despite growing up in Hong Kong. It was all kids' favourite and wishing mum would buy it every time she went to the supermarket. Flavoured ice cream covered in a sticky pounded rice cake mochi. I love mochi and still do now, the chewy texture with some sort of fillings or covered in peanuts and sugar. We had flavours of mango, chocolate and raspberry. Oh gosh, it was cold in the mouth.

Bone daddies does ramen with creative elements not just traditional taste. For tonkotsu ramen, it is second to Kanada-Ya. But if you want more than just ramen, bone daddies will not disappoint you. Before leaving, don't forget your shopping from Wholefoods.

Score Rating: 3/5

Price: £10-20/head (50% soft launch, ~£20 for 2 people)

http://www.bonedaddies.com/high-st-kensington/