KANADA-YA, HAYMARKET

I'm a big fan of Japanese food. I love the diversity of it. So many people think of Japanese food and just think of sushi, but there's so much more too it, including one of my favourites - ramen. And one of my favourite places for ramen in London have just launched a second site, which is great news as it means less queuing! I've reviewed the original Kanada-ya, in Covent Garden, previously, where we had a ramen so good I can still remember all the tastes now. So I was pretty excited to visit their new site on Panton Street, just off Piccadilly.
 

The Haymarket site has a different feel to the original one. There are wooden booth tables, low lights and it all feels quite industrial in a good way. The core menu remains the same, though there are new dishes such as chicken, truffle and veggie ramen, as well as sides including chashu, kale, edamame and karaage. I went along with Hugo, who'd been to the original with me, and we ordered a whole load of things to try out.

We started with a few sides. My favourite was the karaage chicken, which is chicken coated in flour and deep fried and served with their made in house mayo. The little nuggets of chicken were juicy and tasty enough that I'm sure they were thigh meat. Other highlights were the Aburi Chashi - seared chashu pork belly with yakiniku tare (miso based BBQ sauce). The pork was just the right balance of meat and fat and so good dipped in the smokey, sticky, sweet sauce.

 

The other sides we had were two portions of onigiri - one pork with that same delicious chashu pork on top of sticky rice, and the other was a triangle of the rice with minced tuna and bonito inside. Again, both really tasty and the perfect amount of fish/meat with the rice. We did slightly over do it with amounts though, so I'd recommend one of the first two sides we had and one onigiri between two of you!

Ramen wise it was hard to choose. I was tempted by all of them, particularly the truffle ramen - 18 hour pork bone broth, chashu pork collar, spring onion and porcini truffle paste, and the Gekikara - 18 hour pork bone broth with with spicy ‘tan tan’ style minced pork, pork belly chashu, wood ear fungus, seaweed and fresh spring onion - which is actually what Hugo ended up ordering, and loved. It was punchy, full of different textures and the tan tan pork ball on top was insanely good.

In the end I chose the Chicken-Paitan - corn fed chicken bone broth, secret sauce, chashu pork collar and shredded leek - and loaded it up with two rounds of spicy red miso paste to try and combat my summer cold. I couldn't chose between the two we had as they were both so good, so I'll be back to try all of the others over the coming months. I've had a few ramens in London, and the very best in Japan, and really believe that the ramen at Kanada-ya is the tastiest and most authentic you can get here, so highly recommend it. You can find details of their two sites and menus on their website here.