Tonkotsu Ramen Bar, Cardiff City centre: review

It’s Thursday afternoon and a World Cup qualifier: in a few hours Welsh hearts will be broken in the cruellest fashion, but surely that’s to be expected if you have to play both Bosnia and Herzegovina, goes the old gag. Hardly seems fair, does it, little old Wales taking on two at once, but it means the plucky underdog narrative writes itself.

High Street is thrumming: both sets of fans, police horses, a street preacher with fresh ears to reach, and an unnaturally high quotient of bald heads. But never mind all that, there’s ramen to sup, because I’m back here at Tonkotsu for the second time this week.

They have not, you might say, come to play. Cardiff loves a quality restaurant chain, especially one which has moved west from Bristol, and indeed some of their staff have come over to bed everything in. Joint owner Emma Reynolds is on site. Nothing is being left to chance.

Details matter. They clearly have an eye for an enviable central location, much as Bristol’s busy Baldwin Street setup combines shopping centre proximity with convenience for Hippodrome and Beacon shows. There’s the suggestion of smaller portions for solo diners (and no, I didn’t take them), alongside specialty teas as part of their ‘no and low’ lists and a two-course weekday set lunch for £10.50 which will be very popular. Between my visits the outdoor seating has been reassessed, so here are cushions as luxuriously padded as the thighs of a Rubens model. It’s all rather welcoming and the service is charming (a mention for Mia, who is a natural).

There are the vegan ramen options (two), and salads and take-home chilli oils (Great Taste Award two star winning, no less) and extra portions and kids’ bento boxes and pride in making their own noodles, which can only be a good thing. There are halal choices, as you might expect from a company which is drawn to distinctly multicultural cities (London, Birmingham, Bristol), and- I can’t tell you how glad I am to write this- their Tonkotsu Foundation which currently supports the Street Smart and Burnt Chef charities, and I’ll always have time for anyone who does that.

Chicken kara-age is the good stuff. There’s not enough mayo, if we are nitpicking, and some way short of a generous dollop. And if nothing else, I am a man who always enjoys a generous dollop. Give them a spritz of lemon and get to work, because these bite-sized pieces of thigh, steeped in ginger and garlic, are fried to a cragged crisp: juicy, compelling stuff, and particularly good with Mikan Shimida, their satsuma pale ale collaboration with Thornbridge.

While I’m here my other gripe is lemon-based: if you’re going to serve a bowl of ramen with a slice bobbing on the surface, make sure it has been de-pipped.

Right, pedantic citrus-based grievances over, because I’m rather taken with this place.

Gyoza are (obviously) made here too, which is rarer than you’d think, and very well done they are too, with their telltale irregularities. They are delicately flavoured things, steamed and fried and just begging for some of that house chilli oil.

The ramen itself is exactly what I’m after: creamy pork broth, the sort of thing that hints at hours of patient simmering until it reaches that consistency and richness you crave.

The custom noodles- cooking for 32 seconds is the magic number, apparently- are just right, the egg yolk jammy and vivid. It had been a busy day: this is a bowl you just want to slump into at the end of a long day to make everything just that little bit better.

Try it, tell me I’m wrong.

The chilli prawn bowl is built on a lighter, chicken-based broth, this time clearer but with a spicier swagger. It’s another hit, every element done just-so, and by now no one should be surprised. A salted caramel ice cream sandwich stays the right side of over-sweet and is cutely packaged as ‘The Naughty One’.

At the other end of the operational scale I find myself think fondly of Sumisu, the most satisfying ramen experience I’ve had in some time, with their handmade gyoza and patiently coaxed broths: and while a weekend popup in a coffee shop seems a world away from city centre real estate, there’s a common belief in doing things right. Tonkotsu is a very polished, capable and welcoming arrival in Cardiff, and I’d anticipate them doing very well here.

7 High St, Cardiff CF10 1AW

Monday: 11:30am – 10:00pm
Tuesday: 11:30am – 10:00pm
Wednesday: 11:30am – 10:00pm
Thursday: 11:30am – 10:00pm
Friday: 11:30am – 10:00pm
Saturday: 11:30am – 10:00pm
Sunday: 11:30am – 10:00pm