The city has been seeing an influx of chains from the Far East
From the rise in regional noodle dishes, like biangbiang and Chongqing xiaomian, to the increase of Asian supermarkets in the capital, it’s clear that London’s appetite for Asian food is only getting bigger. No wonder then that many popular chain restaurants from China, Hong Kong and Japan have chosen to set up shop in the capital.
In a recent interview with Restaurant, Li Zhang, founder of 3 Gorges, points to the growing interest in the West for authentic Chinese (rather than Anglo-Chinese) food, plus the political and economic situation in China driving well-off people to leave the country, as the reasons why more China-founded brands are entering the market. From popular malatang spots to Michelin-recommended ramen joints, these are the Asian chains that are well worth checking out.
Songhelou
Songhelou was first founded in Suzhou, China more than 250 years ago, during the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty, and now it’s opened its first international branch in Chinatown. The Wardour Street restaurant is showcasing the food of Jiangnan, a region immediately south of the Yangtze River in the south east of China. Suzhou-style noodles are Songhelou’s most famous dish – slim, delicate noodles in a sweet spicy dark broth – served with an array of different toppings, such as sweet and sour squirrel-shaped bass, Suzhou-style braised pork, stir-fried crab meat and roe, sizzling eel slices in oil, and flavoured crayfish.
22 Wardour St, London W1D 6QQ
songhelou.net
Kanpai Classic
Japanese restaurant group Kanpai Classic, which was founded in Taipei two decades ago and now has numerous sites in Taiwan and China, has opened its first UK location in Soho. It may look understated – a sleek, minimalist black exterior gives way to a sleek, minimalist black interior (save for a large wine fridge with some pretty fancy bottles inside) – but there’s a huge amount of detail here. Kanpai Classic is about two things; wagyu beef and yakiniku (that’s cooking bitesize pieces of food over a charcoal flame), so if you don’t eat red meat this is one to swerve. But for carnivores, a veritable feast awaits. Company founder Soji Hiraide has made it his mission to bring the finest wagyu to his customers and showcase a wider range of cuts, so you’re getting meat here that you won’t find anywhere else in the UK.
147-149 Wardour Street, London W1F 8WD
@kanpaiclassic_london
Mealtime Malatang
Mealtime Malatang ,which has more than 50 locations throughout China, made its first move into Europe with a site in Fitzrovia. As the name suggests, Mealtime Malatang deals in Malatang, a hot pot-adjacent form of Sichuan street food and the small, 26-cover restaurant is a great lunch spot for people working in the area. Using tongs and dish, diners pick their fresh ingredients to be ‘Malatanged’ (cooked up in a signature spicy broth), with options including various meats, fish, vegetables and herbs. After you weigh your choices (at £3.60 for 100g), you then get to choose the Malatang base, which can be spicy, tomato, curry, tom yum goong, sacha or classic, and fill it with your toppings and noodles.
34 Goodge Street, London W1T 2QL
@mealtime.london
Ramen Moto
Ramen Moto, from the same team behind Moto Yakitori & Sake Bar in Hong Kong, menu centres around a selection of authentic ramen bowls and Japanese small plates. Expect chewy, 100% Hokkaido wheat flour noodles and creamy, miso and shoyu broths, including the likes of creamy chicken (with soft chicken, pork chashu, seasoned egg, deep-fried burdock, spring onion, sliced fungus and onion); yuzu (with yuzu paste, soft chicken, pork chashu, wakame, spring onion and sliced fungus); spicy miso (with soft chicken, pork chashu, seasoned egg, wakame, sweetcorn, spring onion and sliced fungus); and veg/ spicy veg (with a kombu & mushroom broth, miso/spicy miso, konnyaku, sweetcorn, deep-fried burdock, deep-fried bean curd and nori) Plus, there are smaller plates and snacks like onigiri with truffle butter, chicken karaage and crispy shrimp rolls.
6 Charlotte St., London W1T 2LR
@ramen_moto_london
Kineya Mugimaru
Kineya Mugimaru is a big deal in Japan – founded in Osaka in 1967, the udon noodle chain has 500 sites across Japan, Hong Kong and the US – and now it has several London branches, including in Ealing, Wimbledon, King’s Cross and Embankment. The casual spot makes all its noodles fresh daily and uses higher welfare and free-range meat and eggs, with varieties including Kitsune Udon (noodles, Kineya’s Original broth, inari & spring onions), Kamaage Udon (noodles in hot water with ginger, spring onions and dashi tsuyu dipping sauce), Zaru Udon (cold noodles made in zaru dashi broth with ginger & spring onion), Vegetable Gyoza Udon (noodles in Original broth with gyoza and miso paste) and Beef Yaki Udon (stir fried noodles with beef brisket & teriyaki sauce). There are also non-noodle dishes on offer too, like hearty Japanese curry over rice, onigiri and tempura.
Various locations
kineya.co.uk
Shugetsu
Founded in Japan and awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand in Hong Kong, Shugetsu is a must-try for all ramen lovers. Tsukemen, where the noodles are dipped into a concentrated broth made from chicken stock, soy sauce, vinegar and fish powder, is the specialty here – you can get it with pork belly or fried chicken, and once you’ve finished the noodles, the broth gets topped up with dashi so you can drink it. There’s also regular ramen, with pork or chicken, on the menu, alongside abura soba (dry noodles) with crab, pork, or fried chicken; katsu curry rice; and dumplings.
33 Old Bailey, London EC4M 7AU
@shugetsu_london
Zhangliang Malatang
With over 5800 stores worldwide, including one on Shaftesbury Avenue, Zhangliang Malatang is proof that people just can’t get enough of malatang, a spicy soup that originated from Sichuan province. Essentially it’s an individual hotpot – you pick your ingredients from the large selection of meat, seafood, veggies and noodles, and then you pick your broth (options include bone soup and tomato soup), and it’s all priced on weight. There’s also a condiment station so you can make up your own dipping sauce to go with it – a truly customisable meal.
112A Shaftesbury Ave, London W1D 5EJ
@zhangliangmalatang_london
Happy Lamb Hot Pot
Zhang Gang founded hotpot restaurant chain Little Sheep in Batou, Mongolia in 1999, before growing it across Asia and then selling it to a US conglomerate. Zhang then launched his own spin off, Happy Lamb, in 2017 which now has a number of locations across America, plus two in London, one in Birmingham and one in Edinburgh. At the Mongolian hotpot spot, you choose your broths, such as spicy marrow chicken or rich tomato chicken (you can do split pots), and then order a variety of ingredients to simmer in it – the menu includes everything from Chinese yam and beancurd skin to beef tendon meatballs and crab sticks.
Holborn & Bayswater
happylambuk.com
Curry House CoCo Ichibanya
Curry House CoCo Ichibanya, or CoCoICHI to its fans s Japan’s largest chain of curry houses with over 1400 sites around the world and two in central London. CoCo Ichibanya is famous for its curry rice, which you can customise by adjusting the rice portion, the sweetness and spiciness of the sauce (ranging from mild to crazy hot), and the toppings. As well as beef, pork and fried fish, you can top the rice with everything from hamburgers to squid to scrambled egg, and the menu also includes curry rice gratin.
Bond Street and Leicester Square
ichibanya.uk
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