slurp, actually
As one of the world’s greatest cities, London, England can boast its fair share of everything, including an assortment of ramen shops located primarily along the chic streets of Soho north of Piccadilly Circus. Joints like Taro and Ten Ten Tei specialize in no-nonsense noodling, while the incongruously named eat TOKYO and Ramen Seto do their best to hide their not-quite-Japanese state of ownership. Perhaps no ramen shop has ever been more obvious about co-opting another’s gimmick as Osatsuma, which has admittedly got the Wagamama sense of modernist decor down to a science. All told, Ryo may serve the most authentically Japanese bowl of shoyu ramen this side of the North Sea; at least in vibe, the modest izakaya is as ex-pat as they come.
Ryo is damn tasty, I must say, and the atmosphere is appropriately unpretentious. However, the best ramen I’ve had in London so far is at Nagomi, off Bond Street. Maybe it’s simply because it’s one of the only tonkotsu ramen shops in town, but their thin noodles and creamy broth take me back to my Fukuoka days.