Kanada-Ya is my favourite place for ramen in London and having tried many of its competitors, nothing comes close, in my opinion.
Established in Japan in 2009 by Kanada Kazuhiro, this game-changing ramen bar now has an outpost in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay and three across London. I recently had dinner at Kanada-Ya Angel, which is thankfully a little easier to get a table than its central London sisters, however you may still need to queue at peak times.
Kanada-Ya has added Gyoza to the menu at all of its restaurants this spring, so we just had to try them. The precisely-folded dumplings were steaming hot with a crispy, golden base and generously filled with well-seasoned minced pork.
Chicken Karaage – another small plate – was tender and succulent with punchy flavours of garlic, ginger and soy and a crunchy fried coating. I’ve previously found Kanada-Ya’s Karaage a little heavy on the batter, but this time the balance was just right.
A great new discovery was Chashu Don – the perfect dish to share if you can’t get enough of Kanada-Ya’s famous pork belly. A plentiful bowl of soft, pearl-like Japanese rice dish was piled high with seared chashu pork belly and a layer of slow-cooked shredded pork, topped with spring onion. It was ridiculously delicious and very filling – definitely a new favourite!
For the main event, we tried Tonkotsu X, a ramen dish exclusive to the London restaurants, made with pork and corn-fed chicken bone broth, chashu pork belly, wood ear fungus, seaweed and spring onion. The umami-rich bone broth was meaty and slightly opaque and the silky chashu pork simply melted in the mouth. Kanada-Ya offers a choice of firmness for the noodles (from soft to extra-hard) and the regular noodles were exemplary – thin, springy and tasty.
Chashu-Men was a slightly lighter ramen with pork bone broth, chashu pork collar, wood ear fungus, seaweed and spring onion. The chashu pork collar was a little leaner and heartier than the pork belly and the pork bone broth was subtle and not overly creamy. It was nicely complemented by fresh, earthy wood ear fungus, crispy dried nori and thinly-sliced spring onion.
We washed it all down with Kanada-Ya’s tangy, zesty Home-made lemonade, however you can also try an iced matcha latte, premium sake or Japanese beer.
Kanada-Ya is a fantastic addition to Islington’s Upper Street and its new menu of delicious small plates proves there’s much more to it than simply ramen. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
Chérie City was a guest of Kanada-Ya
All photos by Chérie City
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