Last year I’ve been invited at the opening of a new restaurant in Manchester, Shoryu Ramen, the first restaurant outside London. After the event I received vouchers to sample the menu and my husband and I decided to take advantage of them a couple of days ago.
In Manchester, Shoryu Ramen is a small restaurant in Piccadilly Gardens with a Japanese cuisine.
The restaurant was busy on a weekday at lunch time, but were lucky as it was a free table for us. Their menu has only 9 ramen options and I think that is really great, I don’t think a restaurant should have a lot of dishes on their menu. Also, there are extra toppings that can be added and a lot of side dishes. The concept of the restaurant is based on a Japanese dish called ramen, from a recipe inspired by the taste of traditional food found in Southern Japan. Ramen are the thin noodles made from wheat that are served in broth. I’m vegetarian and my husband doesn’t eat pork or chicken, this meant our options were very limited, but we were expecting that.
We both ordered the vegan option, White Natural, as it was really the only thing we could order. It’s made with tonyu soy milk, miso, konbu and shiitake broth, fried tofu, kikurage mushrooms, spring onion, menma bamboo shoots and nori seaweed. I love experimenting with new ingredients and I cooked Japanese dishes before. I was familiar with the ingredients, as, beside miso, I cooked with all of them, including the kikurage mushrooms and bamboo shoots.
I loved the dish. I can say it’s one of the best dishes I had in a restaurant so far. The flavours were delicious. The textures from the perfectly cooked noodles, the moist tofu, the chewy kikurage and the bamboo that still had a bite to it, were fantastic. I loved the broth, it was so good.
I would eat at Shoryu Ramen again, without a doubt, I was so happy with the flavours and textures. The only tricky thing was to eat with a wooden ladle and chopsticks, but with a little bit of practice it should be easier next time.
We got green tea for drinks from these lovely cups and teapots. I chose Genmai Cha Tea, brown rice and green tea, it was fab, a very strong flavour. I liked it a lot. My husband chose Hoji Cha Tea, rosted green tea. Hoji’s flavour reminded me of sesame oil. I loved it, my husband was on the fence with this one. He is not keen on sesame oil either.
Have you been to Shoryu Ramen or would you like to try it?
Not been to this particular restaurant although I have been to a variety of ramen restaurants! Mmm, I DO adore ramen and TOFU!!! I would love this!!!
Sounds delicious! I love japenese food but i’ve tried a vegan option. I’d definitely give it a go though!
I have tried Japanese food and love it. I haven’t tried any other ethnic food that I didn’t like. Yummy.
It’s a pity there werent more options for you but it does look lovely!
Corinne x
I have not tried it before but it look great! I love Japanese food and would life them to open one in midland!
It’s not somewhere I’ve ever been but I absolutely love Japanese cuisine so it’s now on my radar…and not too far away from me either!