You want to go to Kanada-Ya in London, sir. Followed swiftly by Bone Daddies and Tonkotsu. I'm very lucky to work very close to the original branch of Kanada-Ya but you'll have to go at an odd time to get in. By 12:30 there's at least 15 people in the queue and it only seats about 20. I've tried a lot of ramen in London and those are the top three for sure. Although actually Bone Daddies has gone down in quality slightly if I remember correctly. Shame. There's also Shoryu and Ippudo which are not bad. I believe Ippudo is a New York chain.
Seen as you've done the whole ramen-in-Japan thing, what's the rules for slurping the last of your soup directly from the bowl? The spoons they give you at most places are useless so I tend to grab the bowl and slurp from that if it's good enough
Thanks, I will check out those 3 when i am in London
As for Ippudo, it actually originates out of Fukuoka like Ichiran, they both serve Hakata style Tonkotsu ramen. I've only had Ichiran in Japan, I had Ippudo in New York which was average. A bit stingy on everything and lacks the complexity of the best of the Tonkotsu ramen.
As for the soup, go for it, I do it, seen people do it. There are very few rules in terms of eating.
You can slurp as loud as you like, it's not really a sign to the chef or anything like that, it's merely something the Japanese don't find offensive, like the English don't find breathing offensive.
That said, some restaurants or ramen shops to have their own rules, mostly stems from 2 things.
1 - You don't disturb others
2 - You eat up and leave.
Point 1 - This results in some rules such as no phones, you don't talk on the phone as that's loud, you keep quiet and don't talk loudly if you have a friend. Concentrate on your ramen. This is also why Ichiran created the booths system, people can eat in peace.
Point 2 - this also can result in rules like you don't use your phone, at all, no text, no surfing, no photos even in some. You are meant to focus on your meal, the chef has spent all this effort making this delicious ramen, so the least you can do is give it all your attention. Also a lot of ramen shops are small and they don't have the seating for lots of customers so don't take up too much time by distracting yourself and stop the ramen shops turning over tables (or a chair). Go in, eat and then go. I think in Fukuoka there is even a stand up ramen shop, about 300 yen a bowl. Their thing is speed, cheap and quick turnover in order to get more customers.
So yeah, lift it up with both hands and drink it up. With Tsukemen you can ask for some stock to dilute the thick broth after you finished all your noodles into a drinkable soup.
