It’s no secret that I love Japanese food, I adore a good ramen, a well made broth, a bunch of different toppings. I like eating a variety of food, but after months of lockdown, I just wanted a bowl of ramen. I was absolutely delighted that Bone Daddies in London opened back up (with social distancing measures) to serve some food I hadn’t had in far too long. Dann and I went along to the first weekend they opened back up, hoping to be warmed on a rainy day by a nice bowl of soup.
Korean Fried Wings, Kimchee & Miso Aubergine Bao
A little excited for our first restaurant out in months, we over ordered on our snacks. We got some Korean fried wings – each wing including the wing and drum, covered in a BD Korean sauce. These wings were well coated, but still crunchy underneath. The heat stacked well, getting more spiced as we ate, which was super welcome and enjoyable. The Kimchee had a similar heat, though more in your face at first, and was lovely to eat throughout our full meal. Dann is a huge fan of bao and loves to try the vegetarian options, so we went for the Miso Aubergine Bao, which was simpily delicious. The boa was sweet, flavorful and the aubergine didn’t have a huge bite – so your teeth went straight through the soft bun and soft filling, with a crunch of carrot at the end. It’s was a lovely start to our meal.
Yuzu Tonkotsu
My main ramen was the Yuzu Tonkotsu, which had fried chashu pork belly, sping onion, bamboo, beansprouts and clarence court egg. I also added bok choy to my dish, which was raw but slowly wilted while I had my soup. The ramen was creamy, the broth super flavorful with a refreshing citrus note from the yuzu in it. Though I am not the biggest fan of eggs, this egg had great creaminess and a good flavor to it. I added a bit of chilli oil and seaseme seeds to my dish, which continued to elivate the flavor. I love that about ramen – being able to add whatever you want and customise the flavors! My pork, I should mention, was also lovely – super crispy despite being in liquid. There were tons of noodles and the bowl itself was plenty of food.
Tonkotsu
Dann got the original Tonkotsu at Bone Daddies, which was similar to my ramen but with a few twists. Instead of fried pork belly, his contained chashu pork belly, which was rolled and sliced. Dann found these to be really yummy! His dish also had burnt garlic instead of yuzu, which didn’t add much to the dish but was present in the bowl, as black garlic oil could be seen floating around. We both agreed the yuzu was more interested when it came to ramen, but his bowl had the same creaminess, the lovely egg, and he also got bok choy added. It’s a great classic ramen, full of a flavorful broth and everything you’d expect in your bowl.
Mochi Ice Cream
Going all out, we grabbed some mochi ice cream in the flavours of raspberry, sesame and yuzu. The raspberry tasted very flavourful, like a sorbet. The yuzu was fruity and light, with a great lemon hit half way and the sesame tasted nutty, with a great textural element. The restaurant did see that there was two of us and they cut all of the mochi in half, which was lovely and made for a easier to eat experience.
As I’ve mentioned, Bone Daddies is the first place we’ve gone since lock down to eat, so I feel we should touch on the changes they have made. The restaurant only allows a limited amount of customers, spaced widely apart. Before entering, we all needed to sign into a track and trace app, in case we need to be notified about anything. We were given hand sanitiser when we entered to wash our hands before coming in. All of the staff had masks on, gave us our food well far away from us and allowed us to move them over to us. The card machine, as they are not taking cash, was cleaned before and after I used it – the entire experience felt safe and I look forward to eating at more places that are this diligent.