KANADA-YA RAMEN, SOHO

It's not often I go to a restaurant and come out declaring it's the best version of whichever food they're serving that I've tried, so it's a big deal for me to say I've found the BEST ramen that I've ever tasted, especially when it's a no-booking restaurant with food served so fast that you're in and out within 30 minutes. But that restaurant exists and it's Kanada-Ya.

I was invited to visit Kanada-Ya on a cold and rainy Wednesday evening. I arrived with Hugo at 6.30 to see a huge queue outside already, with probably more than 20 people queueing for this 24 seater ramen bar. The restaurant is small and compact with a semi open kitchen - there are bench tables in the centre and a few tables against the windows. The place is buzzing and no sooner has one table been cleared, than the next hungry diners waiting outside are ushered in.

The menu at Kanada-Ya is short and sweet. You choose from 3 options of tonkotsu (which means pork bone) ramen (noodle soup) - all made with the same creamy 18 hour pork bone broth, the toppings alternate slightly between the choices. Their three options of ramen are:

- Original ramen - broth, chashu pork belly, wood ear fungus, noodles, nori and spring onion (£10)
- Moyashi ramen - broth, chashu pork belly, wood ear fungus, noodles, nori and spring onion, topped with blanched bean sprouts (£11)
- Chashu men - broth, deluxe chashu pork collar, wood ear fungus, noodles, nori and spring onion (£12.50)

You can also add extra noodles (£1.50), black garlic sauce (£1), spicy miso (£1.50), Hanjuku egg - a soft boiled egg marinated in soy (£1.80) and extra nori (£0.50). We both went for the Chashu men with spicy miso, and an egg for me. You can also choose how you want your noodles cooked - extra firm, firm, regular or soft. Hugo went for firm and I had regular. The wait between ordering your ramen and it arriving at the table was less than 5 minutes. And when it does arrive you're greeted with a steaming bowl of goodness.

The broth is rich, smooth and plentiful. The bowl has thin slices of pork collar around the edges, and in the middle is a nest of noodles, mushrooms, spring onions and a soy stained egg. The spicy miso was a red swipe of paste, presented on a spoon to mix into the ramen yourself. The noodles were cooked perfectly for my liking, and the egg was amazing - the white fully cooked, but the yolk as rich and creamy as the broth whilst being soft and almost gel like, in a very good way! Hugo ate his bowl of ramen in less than 5 minutes! I savoured mine for a little longer, enjoying every single mouthful. Kanada-Ya also do extra noodles, so you can eat the contents of your ramen bowl, leaving the soup to add more noodles to for round 2.

Kanada-Ya is a Japanese restaurant, with 3 sites in the Far East, and was set up by Kanada Kazuhiro who used to be a cyclist, but when age got the better of him he turned his hand to ramen. The Soho branch is the only one so far in London, and is run by the very kind and charismatic Ken, who looked after so well and to whom I could've chatted 'ramen' for hours. Though I had to let him get back to dealing with the ever growing queue outside. Not before finding out that the best time to go to Kanada-Ya if you don't want to queue is 14:30 or 21:30, just before they close each shift. They make over 250 bowls of ramen a day, and the broth, noodles, eggs and all their other ingredients are made on site, by hand.

Kanada-Ya are licensed, though we stuck to green tea for our visit, you can get beer or sake to drink with your ramen. So wrap up warm, and go get in that queue! Trust me, it'll be worth it.