Last updated June 2026
It’s that time of year again, when eating hot soup in all shapes and forms starts to separate the true noodle heads from the bit-part players. While ramen is a London staple year-round come rain or shine, when it gets hotter we especially start craving more comforting bowls of the good stuff. It must be the broth’s replenishing quality when we’re dehydrated.
We still mourn the closing of Brixton’s Nanban (RIP), which was for a long time our favourite place to get a bowl of ramen on a rainy day. Their pork number really was a thing of beauty – its creamy, salty, buttery broth rich, nourishing and sent from the gods. We also miss those perfectly gooey-yolked, tea-cured eggs and the side of angry bird chicken wings, which was obligatory with every order.
We can’t be too sad about its closure though, as London still has many brilliant bowls brimming with soul-satisfying, umami-packed tonkotsu, shoyu, tantanmen and more, many of which surprise with every slurp. All seem to satisfy, even the bad ones…
Ramen comprises four fundamental components: the broth, noodles, tare (seasoning), and toppings. Since components can be altered, ramen is a flexible canvas for cooks and diners, making this particular noodle scene in London all the more exciting and, at times, properly innovative.
Whether you’re a purist seeking the comfort of tradition or an adventurer chasing the thrill of innovation, there’s a spot in London waiting to serve you the ramen of your dreams. Let’s get to it; say “Irasshaimase!” to London’s most remarkable ramen spots.
Ramo Ramen, Soho
Ideal for bowls of ramen that brim with originality…
A lot of Japanese food follows a rigid, quasi-religious formula, but ramen can be interpreted any which way the chef wants, leading to a unique personality from each individual purveyor of the good stuff. With this expression of personality through broth and noodles in mind, we start our list with Ramo Ramen.
Ramo Ramen is the brainchild of Omar Shah, who has a string of brilliant restaurants under his belt, including Panadera Bakery (our go-to place for an egg sando), Bintang, and modern Filipino favourite Belly.
At Ramo, Shah’s Filipino-Japanese fusion approach to ramen has garnered much attention, particularly for his innovative rich, nutty and creamy oxtail kare kare ramen, which sees a deliciously deep beef broth infused with peanuts and topped with pulled oxtail. If you know kare kare, the Filipino stew it’s based on, you’ll get what they’re doing here. If you don’t, just know it’s probably the best thing on the menu.
The bowls here are generous and seriously indulgent. Take their wagyu beef pares, which is based on a classic Filipino comfort food dish. Here, wagyu is marinated in a classic, properly garlicky pares blend, and then seared off for some extra umami. It’s served with the end trimmings of wagyu, fried garlic and onion, and it’s bloody delicious.
The kitchen’s creative spirit shines through in their seasonal specials. A recent standout was the soft shell crab ginataan – think tempura soft shell crab and prawn, both swimming in a coconut cream broth bolstered by seaweed and lime. Magic.
The bowls here pack plenty of punch and a commendable command of flavour-interplay. There are loads of places doing ramen in London, but Shah’s doing something different here – taking risks, playing with flavours, and most importantly, making it all taste damn good.
Website: Ramo Ramen
Address: 28 Brewer St, London W1F 0SR
Ivan Ramen, Farringdon
Ideal for cult bowls of the good stuff from the American upstart who made his name in Tokyo…
Ivan Orkin’s route to ramen was an unusual one. A New Yorker who fell hard for Japan in the 1980s, he did the almost unthinkable for a Long Island kid: he moved to Tokyo, learned the language, and in 2007 opened a tiny ramen shop in a city where a Western face behind the counter was met with open suspicion.
The bowls won people round, which in that scene, against that level of local competition, is no small thing. He traded there for the best part of a decade, took the concept to New York in 2011, and became the subject of a Netflix Chef’s Table episode that introduced his cooking to a much wider audience. After a sell-out London pop-up in 2023, he’s finally planted a permanent flag here, on the Clerkenwell end of Farringdon Road.
It’s a small room, just 26 seats, which feels right for someone who built his name in pocket-sized Tokyo shops. You come for the broth, first and foremost, and the Tonkotsu is the one to measure him by: a rich pork broth with shoyu-braised pork chashu, woodear mushrooms, pickled mustard greens, a soft egg, mayu, and spring onions. The mayu, burnt garlic oil, is the detail that tells you he knows exactly what he’s doing, lending a dark, bitter-sweet depth that a lesser bowl skips entirely.
If you like a bit of fire, the Spicy Miso Red Chilli is the one we keep going back to. A good, sweaty dose of heat, miso, a dashi and chicken broth, niku miso pork (on this occasion, minced), bean sprouts, cilantro, pickled garlic, togarashi, a soft egg, and spring onions. It builds rather than blindsides, but it is genuinely punchy on the chilli levels. The pickled garlic cuts through the spice and richness in a way that keeps you spooning.
Order the Ivan’s Karaage on the side, buttermilk fried chicken thigh with a yuzu kosho mayo, and you’ll understand why people rate the man. Rarely has a more tender chicken been seen in London. To drink, there’s the Ivan Ramen to Biru IPA in a can, brewed to go with the food and exactly the kind of cold, hoppy foil a fatty broth wants. Phwoar, this is good stuff.
Walk-ins only.
Website: ivanramen.co.uk
Address: 98 Farringdon Rd, London EC1R 3EA
Monohon Ramen, Old Street
Ideal for a serious, seriously good bowl of ramen…
This ramen offering from Monohon Ramen feels very much like a neighbourhood ramenya in Japan. You can’t miss the restaurant; there’s often a queue outside of people waiting to get in. Don’t be discouraged; this rare independent, walk-ins-only ramen joint of just 32 covers is well worth the wait.
Situated between Old Street and the Barbican, Monohon Ramen is helmed by Ian Wheatley, an English chef who trained at a ramen school in Japan. His dedication to the craft is evident all across the operation, from the house-made noodles all the way to the bilingual menu. Those noodles are made every day, using precisely softened water to get just the right texture. Indeed, London water is too hard for the rigorous discipline of ramen, as our brittle hair keeps telling us (must buy that filter). We digress…
…Anyway, Wheatley’s commitment to doing things right doesn’t stop at the noodles. The ramen broth is simmered for a whole day to achieve its rich flavour. They even monitor the soup’s viscosity with a refractometer to get the right final thickness – yes, such a thing exists.
Things get more serious with their shoyu tare (seasoning sauce), which is made from ten different ingredients, with salinity measured judiciously using a different refractometer to make sure the saltiness is the same in every bowl. Yep, every element of the bowl here is meticulously thought out, but it would all be a little performative if the ramen wasn’t top notch, Tokyo-level good. But we’re pleased to report it is a seriously fine bowl of the good stuff.
Come the cold months, and Monohon Ramen wheels out their signature: the Fat Curry Men. The consummate comfort dish, it features Japanese-style chicken curry with that familiar low-hum of spice, paired with thick noodles and topped with a must-have extra onsen tamago (a very soft poached egg). It’s exactly the kind of soul-saving food you need in the colder seasons. Order a generous highball in a pint glass (that’s four shots of whiskey and soda here) and your cockles will be toasty AF.
This is also one of the better ramen restaurants for vegans. Monohon’s tantanmen, in particular, is a showstopper. It sees a creamy sesame-flavoured soup topped with spicy miso-fried seitan and lots of gubbins, and is, in our humble opinion, the best in the city. Seriously – it’s hard to understand how they get so much flavour into that broth with no animal fat.
Unsurprisingly, this place is wildly popular. If you want to get a seat, it’s best to arrive at least twenty minutes before they open.
Website: Monohon Ramen
Address: 102 Old St, London EC1V 9AY, UK
Menya Ramen House, Holborn
Ideal for ramen with a Korean influence…
Tucked away near the British Museum in Bloomsbury, this little ramen shop offers fiery Korean-influenced bowls of goodness, bringing a unique perspective to the city’s ramen scene. The restaurant’s 48-hour simmered, creamy, umami-packed pork and chicken broth, alongside flourishes of Korean flavour, presents a piquant contrast to the more traditional ramen offerings found across town.
The menu is short and sweet, featuring bowls like kimchi ramen, which has a spectacular-looking rusty broth, and gyoza ramen, which is a real crowdpleaser. Their seafood ramen, with satisfyingly savoury saline notes, brims with crab, prawns, and mussels. It’s a soulful bowlful, that’s for sure.
Whichever bowl you go for, you can choose your spiciness level and how you want your noodles cooked, with ‘hard’ being recommended for the latter – that’s ‘al dente’ to an Italian. For the former? We’d recommend pushing the boat out – these Korean noods are designed to coax some sweat out from that brow. There aren’t as many extra toppings to choose from as with other ramen joints, but sometimes simplicity is best.
This is a Korean take on ramen, so don’t come here expecting the traditional stuff, but it’s an excellent bowl nonetheless. Indeed, Menya Ramen House has quickly established itself as a destination for those looking to explore the intersections of cultural culinary traditions in a welcoming environment. On our last visit, this place was cash only. It probably still is.
Instagram: @menya.ramen
Address: 29 Museum St, London WC1A 1JR, UK
Kanada-Ya, Covent Garden
Ideal for ‘authentic’ tonkotsu ramen…
Crashing into London on a tonkotsu tsunami in 2014, Kanada-Ya specialises in tonkotsu ramen and is known by many as ‘London’s most authentic ramen’. It remains one of the best places to head for a bowl of the good stuff and has maintained its solid reputation while expanding into five locations across London, all whilst ramen entered the city’s vernacular with increasing ubiquity.
The man behind the story of Kanada-Ya is Kanada-San, a once-professional Keirin racer, who, after an accident that meant he could never race again, decided to learn the art of ramen. Originally, he was turned away by all the ramen masters (known as an ‘Itamae’ in Japan) that he met. Then, after years of exploring and experimenting, he finally mastered the craft of ramen-making and created his distinctive ramen style. His ramen restaurant eventually became one of the most popular in Japan, and he opened a franchise. After lots of trial, error, and some treachery along the way, he finally opened his first foreign franchise in Covent Garden, bringing the same technique and preparation straight from Japan.
Good ramen starts with the broth, which needs to boil for a long time. At Kanada-Ya, their rich 18-hour pork bone broth gives an extra-meaty oomph – you can feel all that goodness from the collagen penetrating your soul (and coating your lips) with every sip. Noodles are handmade daily using a high-protein wheat flour and a proprietary blend of alkaline salts known in Japanese as kansui, giving ramen its signature ‘bite’.
While the Tonkotsu X, exclusive to London, is the number one selling ramen, we’re huge fans of the Gekikara, otherwise known as ‘the spicy one’. With chilli used to flavour the the spicy tan-tan minced pork, chilli oil, chilli powder and fresh bird’s eye, this bowl is recommended for folks who like to live a little dangerously. Be warned, the heat builds in this ramen – it’s one to be approached with a modicum of caution.
The only dish we aren’t too keen on is their truffle ramen – with porcini truffle paste and white truffle oil, it’s a little too rich and one-dimensional for our taste buds. That said, it’s garnered something of a cult following amongst truffle (oil) lovers, and if you love truffle (oil), you’ll love this bowl of noodles.
Website: Kanada-Ya
Address: 64 St Giles High St, London WC2H 8LE
Tonkotsu, Soho
Ideal for classic tonkotsu ramen…
Tonkotsu ramen reigns supreme in London. The restaurant of the same name was right at the heart of the beginning of the ramen revolution in London and has weathered the ramen craze and countless competitors to remain one of the city’s best. Now it has branches all over London and in Brighton, Bristol, and Birmingham, too – all the best B’s right there (there’s one coming to Bath soon, too, apparently). You’ll often find us at our local Tonkotsu, shovelling down a bowl on the weekend after a heavy night of drinking. It’s that damn restorative.
The original branch of Tonkotsu in Soho is renowned for its creamy kyushu-style tonkotsu ramen, made from pork bones simmered for hours. It’s one undeniably spectacular bowl, packed with springy noodles and an intensely porky, opaque pale broth with a gorgeous buttery texture. The little globules of fat dappling the surface and meltingly tender pork belly bobbing within are simply outstanding. Indeed, for us, the broth at tonkotsu remains unrivalled.
Just thinking about the creamy pork broth and the thick slices of melt-in-the-mouth pork belly makes us salivate. For us, the thing that stands out about this place is their springy noodles. The owners spent months perfecting the recipe, and they now have a factory that supplies noodles to all their restaurants.
Similarly to Kanada Ya, Tonkotsu like to collaborate with other peeps in the food business. Our favourite collaboration of recent times was with Sebby Holmes of Farang to create a red curried fishcake ramen special. It was marvellous.
Anyway, don’t leave without taking home a jar of their Eat the Bits chilli oil; it’s become one of our store cupboard staples.
Website: Tonkotsu
Address: 63 Dean St, Soho, London W1D 4QG, UK
Uzumaki, Bloomsbury
Ideal for the anime fan in your life…
Stepping into Uzumaki is like entering a Japanese anime movie. Billing itself as London’s only immersive Japanese Anime restaurant, eating here is certainly an experience.
If you’re not into anime, then let us enlighten you; Uzumaki is a Japanese horror manga series telling the story of the citizens of Kurouzu-cho, a fictional town plagued by a supernatural curse involving spirals.
Luckily, nothing is terrifying about this Bloomsbury restaurant, and the only curse you’ll find is the one coming out of your mouth when you taste how good the food is.
One of the best things about Uzumaki (the restaurant) is that you’re always greeted with a warm welcome at the door – the anime community are a friendly bunch, that’s for certain. Like the series, the restaurant is visually stunning. Manga motifs adorn every wall, and every nook and cranny has some sort of artwork inspired by popular Japanese comic books and animated series, drawing diners into the vibrant world of Japanese pop culture. It’s not overwhelming, either – the restaurant is fortunate to be flooded with natural light, owing to an expansive skylight above.
The menu is as much a work of art. Intent on transforming your favourite anime dish into a delicious reality, the signature Naruto ramen should be your go-to order. A luxurious dish if ever there was one, it features ramen just the way the manga character likes his. So, that’s a tonkotsu miso broth, a double portion of chashu pork, a whole ajitsuke tamago, and a couple of slices of Naruto maki, along with nori, bamboo, and spring onion. Clocking in at £21.95, this isn’t the cheapest ramen on the block, but it’s one of the most generous – the bowls are massive!
And if you’re a fan of bubble tea, don’t leave without trying their Uzumaki Milk Tea. Their signature brown sugar bubble tea is thick, rich and with a lingering taste of caramelised sugar. Lovely stuff.
Website: Uzumaki
Address: 107 Great Russell St, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3NA, UK
Kokura, Southwark
Ideal for a cheap yet delicious eat…
As we’ve learnt this deep into the bowl, ramen can be pretty pricey in London. Thank the lord for Kokura, then, an unassuming ramen spot that serves some of the best value ramen bowls in the city.
The best deal is their lunchtime special, where you can enjoy a bowl of ramen for just £7.90, which in London is crazy cheap. For dinner, a bowl clocks in for just over a tenner; still a bargain.
A nine-minute stroll from Waterloo Station, you can’t miss the place. Outside, in classic Japanese style, plastic replicas of food adorn the windows. Inside, it’s no frills with the usual minimal Japanese look of wooden tables and stools and not much else. It’s just how we like it. Order at the counter, and you’ll be given a buzzer when your food is ready.
Noodles made on site are another plus here, but it’s Kokura’s inventive takes on ramen that make this place stand out. Alongside the classics, they always have a special on; be it sweet and sour tom yum tonkotsu, or spicy, tangy, tingly kimchi ramen. On a recent visit, we had a visually striking bowl of black garlic ramen, the smoky, earthy, umami-rich black garlic adding a whole new layer of complexity to an already gorgeous broth.
The rest of the ramen menu is small, with around five choices, including the usual side-order classics. Perhaps our favourite thing on the menu is then oyako ramen (oyako means parent and child), which sees ramen topped with meltingly tender free-range chicken (parent) and a marinated egg (child). Silly but lovely, and delicious too!
Don’t forget to order a draft of Asahi, which is served in an iced glass, and a side of karaage chicken – because crispy chicken and ice-cold beer is always a good thing.
Website: Kokura
Address: 49 The Cut, London SE1 8LF
Bone Daddies, Soho
Ideal for rock ‘n’ roll ramen with creative twists…
One of London’s most creative ramen shops comes from Nobu-trained chef Owner Ross; Bone Daddies. It’s another restaurant that opened at the height of London’s ramen mania back in 2012, and the restaurant quickly made headlines for its crazy concoctions and rock’n’roll grungerie.
Creativity is everything here, and Bone Daddies and its monthly specials keep the menu interesting and keep us coming back. On our last visit, they teamed up with Tajin to create a Mexican-inspired bowl of ramen – think al pastor pork, crispy nachos, and pineapple pico Tajin seasoning.
If you don’t eat pork, Bone Daddies has a whole section of ramen on the menu rendered in lighter chicken bone broth. Our favourite is the ‘Tokyo cock cock’ which has fried chicken, cock scratchings and a dash of spicy yuzu tare.
With a rock n’ roll vibe, expect to slurp your noodles while listening to the jams of the last couple of decades, wherever you’re manipulating your chopsticks. Bone Daddies now has eight locations across London, as well as sister restaurant Flesh and Buns. Soho was the original rock n’ roll bar, though.
The Bone Daddies restaurant in Leicester Square is the largest, with space for up to 80 people across two floors and has more of an industrial feel compared to its siblings. However, the window or bar seats at the Soho spot are our favourite – we love people-watching and sitting side by side here.
Website: Bone Daddies
Address: 31 Peter St, London W1F 0AR
Ippudo London, Covent Garden
Ideal for experiencing noodles from a world-renowned ramen chain…
This Japanese import specialises in tonkotsu ramen. Don’t be put off by the word chain; like only a handful of restaurants in this umbrella category, this one is well worthy of your time. Quite simply, Ippudo offers a consistently excellent ramen experience.
While tonkotsu broth is what they’re known for, the karaka-men, which is a spicier version of the creamy original, is our go-to order. Billing itself as “a bowl full of stimulus”, it certainly does stimulate the senses – the karaka part is a spicy miso paste that is nirvana to spice lovers. Whatever you do, order a side of renkon chips which are deep-fried thin slices of lotus root served with sea salt and lemon. They are seriously addictive.
The great thing about Ippudo is that you can sit and linger over your bowl. Its dining room is larger than other ramen joints in the city, meaning that you can come here with a group and sit happily for as many glasses of Choya Umeshu as you can drink.
Ippudo also has locations on Canary Wharf, Goodge Street, and Villiers Street. If you’re on a mission to try all the good ramen in the city, then Ippudo should be on your list.
Website: Ippudo
Address: 3 Central St Giles Piazza, London WC2H 8AG, UK
Hakata Ramen + Bar, Bermondsey
Ideal for vegetarian options and late-night izakaya vibes…
Hakata Ramen in Bermondsey is a lively place that channels a Tokyo izakaya vibe. If you like your ramen served with a good time, rather than a reverent one, then this is a good choice.
The meaty, umami-laden headlining ramen here packs plenty of flavour, sure, but this is a good place to come if you don’t eat meat and like to have choice; there are plenty of vegetarian and vegan options on the menu, unlike the majority of the other ramen restaurants on our list that have limited choices for non-meat eaters. There’s also a great selection of toppings to pimp your ramen up with, including burnt corn, garlic chips, and fermented bamboo – just a handful of what’s good here.
For dessert, have a katsu sando, that iconic Japanese sandwich. Here, soft, rich toasted brioche is filled with your choice of pork, chicken, or aubergine katsu, topped with shredded white cabbage, a little mayo, and a drizzle of traditional tonkatsu sauce. It’s lovely. And yes; to us, it’s a dessert.
Drink-wise, there is a great selection of biodynamic and Japanese wines, and sakes too. While they don’t have the usual Asahi on tap, if you’re a beer drinker the Orbit X HAKATA Rice Lager is just the ticket – together with Orbit Brewery it’s been tailor-made to complement the menu.
About the beer, they say that “the Rice Lager has a distinctive characteristic from Sorachi Ace, a hop variety developed in Japan in the 1970s. This brings delicate floral notes of coconut, lemongrass, dill, and coriander to this refreshingly light and unique lager”.
We might have to order another to see if we agree, but you’re not on the juice, they offer unlimited refills of green, jasmine, and tea.
After your meal, head to the basement bar for some Japanese-inspired seasonal cocktails. Low-lit and vibey, if a Tokyo dive bar and a NYC speakeasy had a baby, this would be it. On our last visit, we tried an alcohol-forward Okinawa Daiquiri to celebrate autumn. Made using Kiyomi (meaning ‘pure beauty’), which is a premium white rum craft-distilled in Okinawa using locally produced molasses, it’s shaken with yuzu sake and fresh blueberry syrup. They also serve bar food, just in case you regret not having that sando for dessert.
The restaurant doesn’t take reservations, but you can wait in the ‘izakaya’ part of the operation and whet your appetite. While you could probably have better ramen at more specialist places on our list, the cocktails and izakaya vibe make the whole package here a great experience.
Website: Hakata Ramen
Address: 177 Bermondsey St, London SE1 3UW
Cocoro, Marylebone
Ideal for rich kotteri-style ramen in a traditional setting…
Opened in 2006, Cocoro was a favourite among Japanese diners long before ramen mania swept the capital. It’s the kind of place that makes you feel as though you’ve stepped into a small Tokyo eatery, despite being in the bustling heart of London. Now with four restaurants across the capital, Marylebone is their original no-nonsense restaurant.
The menu covers everything from sushi to donburi, but we’re here for the ramen. Our favourite thing on the menu is their kotteri tonkotsu ramen – a richer, creamier, and thicker version of the more widely known tonkotsu. Kotteri broths are made by boiling the bones at a higher heat for longer, which makes the broth opaque in colour, fat emulsifying as it bulles and giving an altogether richer and fattier consistency. It’s balm for the soul, quite honestly.
Website: Cocoro
Address: 31 Marylebone Ln, London W1U 2NH, UK
Shoryu Ramen, Soho
Ideal for authentic Hakata-style ramen and sake pairings…
With more outposts than you can count on two hands and reportedly more to come, Shoryu Ramen must be doing something right. You can find Shoryu Ramen all over town, but their Soho spot is our favourite, and no, it’s got nothing to do with the fact that they have the largest selection of sake, shochu, and umeshu in the UK with over 130 options to choose from.
This joint specialises in Hakata tonkotsu ramen, which comes from the Hakata district of Fukuoka city in the South of Japan. This is where the Executive Chef Kanji Furukawa was born, and the owner also comes from these parts, so it makes perfect sense.
Of equal importance to the dining experience is the pairing of ramen with their gyoza – delicious, fried dumplings. The finest found here are filled with pork, further enhancing the piggy credentials of this must-try ramen joint.
Come back another time for one of the curries with rice, as Furukawa has developed his very own authentic Japanese curry sauce over the years by working and studying in kitchens across Japan. His complex curry sauce is made from a secret blend of over 18 different spices and a mix of vegetables, and it’s an intoxicating thing indeed..
Back to the ramen though, and it’s good to know Shoryu have an early bird ramen deal running from Monday to Thursday between 3pm and 5pm, the time when most kitchens are quiet. During this two hour window, you can have a bowl of their signature ramen plus a side or dessert for just £12 – any other time the same bowl is £14.25. Oh, and if you ever wanted to have a ramen party, their subterranean private dining room can seat up to 16 people. Don’t forget our invite!
Website: Shoryu Ramen
Address: 3 Denman St, Soho, London W1D 7HA, UK
Can’t get enough of soup? Check out our thoughts on where serves the best pho in London. You know what? We might join you over there.
