Shoryu Ramen, the chain restaurant specialising in authentic Hakata tonkotsu ramen, finds its 11th home on Kensington High Street. The 70-cover restaurant features counter dining, mini dining pods and an open kitchen so that guests can watch chefs prepare bowls of their signature ramen. Not to mention a relaxed bar area with white tiles and traditional Haka Bei Wall decoration where guests can order ice-cold Japanese beer and limited-edition sake cocktails.
Central to the restaurant’s food offering is its Hakata tonkotsu, made with a rich 12-hour pork broth and topped with char siu bbq pork belly, a burford brown egg, kikurage mushrooms, spring onion, red ginger and nori seaweed. Vegans are also taken care of with its white natural ramen made with a unique tonyu soy, miso, konbu and shiitake broth.
Of course, plenty of Shoryu buns are on the menu: fluffy, steamed Hirata buns filled with either char siu bbq pork belly, soy marinated chicken karaage, crispy pumpkin croquette or Japanese tofu. Further Japanese street food favourites include karaage fried chicken, takoyaki octopus balls and gyoza served the traditional way in sizzling hot cast iron skillet with spring onion and grated ginger. Also on the menu is chicken katsu curry with crisp panko breaded chicken breast and curry sauce and a vegetarian pumpkin croquette curry.
For dessert, guests can opt for Shoryu’s original matcha cheesecake, or a selection of mochi ice cream flavours in Hong Kong milk tea, mango and passion fruit, and vegan miso chocolate and cookie dough.
The drinks menu focuses heavily on sake, with a finely curated sake list serving selected choices and labels from one of oldest sake companies in the world. Sake novices can always try the kikizake sake flight with three different servings of sake from Honjozo to Junmai. Plenty of Japan-inspired cocktails are also available including a yuzu mojito with fresh strawberries, homemade yuzu syrup, and yuzu umeshu over crushed ice.