Ippudo London

Ramen is ok. Everything else is overpriced for the small portion that you get.
We had a good time when we went there soon after the opening, but now the service was really bad. The dishes were not corresponding to their description and many order were taken simply wrong (not just ours, the people at tables around us had similar issues).
For the poshness that they want to show we were mistreated (even for the simple thing, you don’t deserve a small plate if you share gyoza…)
Not going back. There are better options for excellent ramen in London

Like many others, we were going to the place across the street and changed our minds when we saw the line. Yikes!
We opted to try Ippudo out and were very pleasantly surprised.
We liked it so much that we actually opted to dine there again on our last night in London. Ramen is very very tasty. Service was spotty the first time but the 2^nd time it was fabulous. Sake is good too!

I came here on a Saturday night before 6pm, it’s best to get there before the dinner rush. I ordered the ippudo akamaru modern, with extra sides. What is ramen without a proper egg? I am a fan or tonkatsu ramen, and the broth here does the job. Order a bottle of sake to share with a friend and you are good.

I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed Ippudo yet, but maybe it’s a subconscious thing because I don’t really want to share it? It’s the best ramen in London and I have a hard time finding ramen I can have as ramen is usually made with pork broth, but Ippudo makes a fantastic vegetarian broth that is so damn good it is better than some chicken ramen broths I have had in the past. This has become one of my favourite places in the city and there is nothing better than a hot bowl of steaming perfectly chewy yet soft noodles on a chilly evening. I always add the egg, which comes cold but if I let it sit in the broth for a little while, I get a perfectly melty center that is yummy. The tofu is not my favourite but the bean sprouts are delicious and I find that I can never make it to adding extra noodles (it’s an option for people who have leftover broth they want to use) because I always finish what I have.
There is also a really lovely chicken hirata bun appetiser here that is fluffy bun goodness with teriyaki flavour. The gyoza is also some of the best I’ve had and is steaming hot and perfect.
I once had the fish and chips appetiser here and although it was well-​made, I would say it is actually way too filling and I was actually really sad when my ramen came and I was too full to have much of it. They don’t do takeaway so don’t make that mistake. The iced green tea was also too strong for me, and the fried chicken appetiser was nice but not my favourite. The ramen is basically the star at this restaurant and it’s a well-​deserved title.
The décor here is glam with its gorgeous chandeliers and yet somehow cosy and comfortable at the same time. I would warn you that the waiting time can be long if you come on a Saturday night, so come early if that’s your day.

They got rid of the £10 student deal. What a shame!
You can eat at the bar for fast service if you’re a small party and don’t want to wait for a table. The Karaka Spicy Men is spicier than the Akamaru Modern but they are generally pretty similar. Noodles are straight and thin. This is a good place to get your ramen fix.

When I look at the menu I was surprised by the wide range of dishes they have as I’ve been to Kanada-​Ya, right opposite Ippudo, previously and their menu was so small. Ippudo even had fish & chips and steak, with a twist though.
I ordered the £10 student meal which was so good as it included a bowl of ramen, a portion of gyoza and a drink.
Usually the ramen is already over £10 on its own. I shared this with my friend and we ordered some hirata buns and desserts to share.
The broth was rich which was tasty but different to Ippudo, the buns were fluffy and the gyoza had golden crispy skin on the outside filled with juicy, meaty filling.
The staff was friendly and helpful and all the staff would always greet you when you arrive and when you leave by shouting out Japanese words such as ‘welcome’ and ‘thank you’. Think this is a Japanese restaurant cultural thing but can be awkward as I assume most people here wouldn’t know what to say or even what the words mean.
But overall it’s a great ramen bar in London. The broth taste richer and better than Shoryu and has a wider menu than Kanada-​Ya. I would definitely go back!

Hi guys, so my last visit I didn’t even get to go inside but I returned at the end of 2014 with a friend of mine.
Unfortunately the bad experience continued. Yes, when you walk in they all yell welcome in Japanese to you and something else when you leave. It is a bit weird and jarring but that’s the way they do things in Japan!
The problem this time was that hidden in the ramen that my friend ordered was a string. She held it up with her chopsticks and I said is that just some noodle? Nope, it’s like those strings you get when you buy raw chicken, and it’s in her ramen. WOW.
We waved a waiter over, who saw that and promptly took the bowl away apologising all the while. In the interim another 2 waiters came along and apologised again. One of the waiters offered to replace her bowl of ramen and any extra she wanted for free. Nice gesture, though we were already full (unfortunately she was near the end of her bowl of ramen before this «discovery»).
The food is mediocre, the soup stock was nothing special. Coupled with the ghastly experience, I am going to stick with Kanada-​Ya.

Love their daily special and their amazing free bun promotions! Plus, they have an impressive selection of sakes and gyozas. I’m sold.

Fabulous dinner stop on a rainy Monday evening. My younger sister has only moved to London a few weeks ago and still somehow managed to scope out this place before me. Her description of it sounded so tasty that I insisted she go again and take me!
Anywhere with a roof would have been welcome shelter after sploshing our way over from the bus stop, but this place was particularly nice to enter, with the glow from the gleaming wooden interior visible through the glass frontage. We arrived at a quite early 6.45pm so were happy to wait when she said it’d take about 20mins for a table. They have one of those systems that texts you when your table is ready but given the rain we weren’t going anywhere fast. We pulled up 2 high chairs at the bar instead and enjoyed the décor around us with ramen bowls on display overhead and dried noodle squares set into the counter. We both like plum wine in Japanese places so ordered Plumpop cocktails — prosecco, plum wine and orange bitters with a strawberry.
Before the barman had finished making them though the front-​of-​house came over and asked if we’d mind counter seating; we didn’t, so could be seated then. We walked round to a row of seats lining the kitchen, so they all face into the chefs’ food prep area, and are suitable for solo diners or two’s. Our cocktails followed us and were delicious. Food-​wise we were too intrigued by other parts of the menu to order the traditional ramen which seems to be the specialty here. Instead we went for a chicken hirata bun each, which was so tasty that next time I might just gobble 5 buns myself for a meal. For main, we shared a Japanese savoury pancake stuffed with pork belly and cabbage and made with their pork broth, and a sizzling pot of noodles with minced chicken and tofu. Both were incredibly hot (in temperature) but the flavours were delicious (once the feeling in my tongue returned).
Our server was very friendly, and they make an effort to speak a few words of Japanese to say thank you and bye which I thought was a nice touch. It’s probably on the pricey side for what the food is but it’s a swish little setting right in the middle of central London so I think much as expected. Best for smaller groups or date night I think; the hardest part was resisting nabbing one of the big red ramen bowls on the way out — my sis definitely had her eye on one to use at home!

This is my favorite ramen. I prefer this over the NYC branch, the same dishes taste the same, but there are better veggie options in London (as usual) and better service in London (definitely not as usual!). It’s more spacious, relaxing and comfortable than the NYC one. London has shorter lines too.

I knew about Ippudo because of my last year trip to Japan; and I still cannot forget the ramen we tried there: OUTSTANDING! In fact, we when twice to Ippudo during our stay in Kyoto and we also went to Ippudo some days later in Tokyo. We also tried Ippudo at NY East Village.
The menu in the London restaurant is similar to the Japanese one. And the food is also excellent! I found the noodles just slightly worse in comparison to the previous times.
However, there were a couple of differences in comparison to the Japan and NY restaurants that I didn’t like at all. First, the restaurant does not have the cozy ambiance I found in Japan and NY. In fact, the restaurant looks like a modern restaurant difficult to identify with the traditional japanese dishes.
Second, the service was kind of bad. The waiters were anxious to retire our bowls and they seemed to be depress. Just the opposite I found in Japan and NY, where the waiters were enthusiastic and speaking a much more credible japanese!
Overall, I gave 4 points just because I am always willing to reward nice ramen (which unfortunately is still difficult to find).
I am sure that I’ll be back to NY’s and Japan’s Ippudo restaurants… but it seems unlikely I’ll be back to Ippudo London in my next trip to the UK.

Not the best ramen, but it’s solidly good, especially for a casual lunch or quick dinner.
I always get hirata pork bun, followed by Akamaru Modern and then green tea. The ramen is very garlicky, but clean tasting and you can always add a boiled egg for more protein.
I actually prefer Kanada-​ya, across the street, but their queue is very long most days. Ippudo is reliable and consistent, whether you’re in Sydney, London, or New York.

I was looking forward to this since visiting Ippudo in Japan, I mean REALLY REALLY looking forward to it. And what a disappointment.
tldr: Food was good, service was appalling. Won’t be coming back.
In Japan, Ramen bars are a local grubby place where all that counts is the food — which is 99% of the time just amazing. Even chains such as Ippudo have this kind of authentic charm to them that I couldn’t wait to live again in London.
Well, they tried to recreate the charm, but they also added some false pompous poshness. It didn’t work. At all. And it just turned it into a bad customer experience: something you wouldn’t ever find in Japan.
So note: you can’t book a table, and you can’t be seated till the whole party is there. Fair enough, they need a quick turnover. But again, this method doesn’t fit with the sense of «posh» they are trying to convey in this place. So we ended up waiting at the bar, having some bar snacks and starters while waiting for the queue to grow, and grow.
We finally get seated 20min (after receiving a text notification) after all our party was there.
The menu is pretty simple, and offers a bit more variety that what you would find in their Japanese restaurants. Prices are acceptable, similar to what you would be paying in other ramen bars in London.
And well, this is what saves them their 2 stars: the food was actually pretty decent:
— The Gyoza were fantastic
— The ramen was as it tasted in Japan — never been a massive fan if their noodles, but their broth is fantastic.
My other half went for the spicy ramen, and added the extra spice, and went for the x15 spicyness. But beware: it is lethal. He loved it, my mouth was burning by just dipping my finger in it.
We decided to skip desert and paid the bill. Wile we were just saying goodbye to our friends when one of the managers came and asked us to leave. That was pretty much the last straw.
Ippudo London? Been there, done that. I’ll go and satisfy my ramen-​craving needs somewhere where I am not treated like kettle, thanks.

I really liked ippudo — the ramen doesn’t come with as many included extras as somewhere like Shoryu (which remains my favourite ramen joint) — so if you want an egg in your bowl you have to pay extra… however the broth was really rich and flavoursome and you have a choice of which type of noodles to have and how soft or hard you want them.
Definitely a place to check out if you’re a ramen fan (or even if your not!)

If standing in a queue for mediocre, no-​frills ramen served against the backdrop of incongruous, loud music with staff who whiz past without glancing your way is your thing, then Ippudo is for you. I’ve never been to the other, global Ippudo locations, but my visit to the new London location was disappointing. Limp, flavorless noodles served with minimal ingredients for £10 … would much rather queue for Kanada-Ya’s superior ramen directly across the road.
It seemed to be overstaffed during our visit, and yet, several plaintive «Excuse me?» for water, bill, and for someone to take our order went ignored. I’m spoilt for choice when it comes to ramen in London, with Tonkotsu East, Shoryu, and Kanada-​Ya all virtually on my home/​work doorsteps … so I won’t be returning to Ipuudo any time soon.

I love Ippudo! I went to the one in Manhattan every now and then, and I missed the richness of their broth. Very few ramen shops have super rich broths like Ippudo.
I got the spicy ramen, and boy the broth was incredibly thick. But it was super rich and flavorful, just like I wanted. It was a bit spicy, but not enough to make it undrinkable. I thought the meat was okay (I’ve had better) but they really do a good job with the broth here.
Service here is whatever, but I think that’s just how most of Europe is.
Prices seem on par with what they are in the U.S. The seating is a bit more open here too compared to the one in Manhattan.

I had a great experience at Ippudo. The wait on Wednesday night ~7pm was about 20 minutes which we gladly spent at the bar. I don’t drink alcohol, but the bartender was kind enough to whip me up his own virgin mocktail creation — lychee, strawberry, calpis and fizz… it was the cutest drink (and very yummy).
We ordered the karaage (fried chicken) and the pancake as starters — yum! We were pleased with both. The chicken portion isn’t the biggest and comes with only about 4 – 5 pieces, but it’s very tender. The pancake was gorgeous and still piping hot on the pan.
I got the regular white bowled tonkotsu ramen (I don’t remember the full name of it… but it’s the first option on the menu) and was very pleased even if it’s simple and straightforward. Do ask for sesame, crushed garlic, and chili oil to add into your ramen. The ramen is the thinner kind, and you can tell it’s real fresh.
When we entered, everyone shouts Japanese greetings at you… and when you leave, everyone shouts Japanese goodbyes and well wishes. It’s kind of endearing.

Nom nom nom!
We arrived just before 7pm and had to wait about 30minutes (but at least we could wait with a drink by the bar, rather than out in the cold.)
The Akamaru ramen was really gorgeous. The noodles were perfect, the broth had a deep, porky, garlicky (and delicious) flavour. The portions were good for me, but I know my Japanese colleagues will say it’s a bit small… at least you can order kaedama if you need extra noodles. The eggs weren’t the best in London, but they were good. The pork hirata buns were really, really tasty too.
The only thing I didn’t love was all the shouting. I think it is awesome that they have taught all the staff two phrases in Japanese, «irrashaimase», and «arigatou gozaimasu»…but some folks really managed to massacre those few words. As we were leaving there were sooo many cheers of «aRIgatoh — go-​ZI-​masu» it got a little bit jarring (and was a bit overkill — surely they don’t ALL need to say it!?)
They have a few staff that were able to speak Japanese well… maybe it’d be better if they allowed them to be the only greeters?!

In my PRD (pre ramen days), Cocoro was virtually the only place in London which served proper tonkotsu ramen. Then, I headed to New York on holiday and came across Ippudo
I still remember that epiphany with my first slurp of the creamy, salty, fatty broth and I was in love. My initial sadness on returning to ramen-​less London has been tempered over the last few years by the wave of specialist ramen restaurants opening across the capital over the last 2 years. While London still can’t match the breadth of ramen restaurants compared to places like the Bay Area, I think the best of London (Bone Daddies in my opinion) is pretty good these days
However, I did get a pang of nostalgic excitement when I heard that Ippudo were opening in London. I hurried down there last Sunday to see if they had brought their A game to London
There was a small queue at 7pm but the 30 minute estimated wait time I was give turned out to only be 5 minutes. I like the Japanese greetings shouted by the staff as you enter the restaurant even if it did seriously irk one of London’s more popular bloggers
I went for the Akamaru Modern, where the basic tonkotsu is augmented by garlic oil and Umami Dama paste. I added a seasoned boiled egg. My ramen arrived commendably quickly in one of their signature small based bowls
It was an excellent bowl of ramen. Fantastic stock. Not too much bean sprout filler (I’m looking at you here, Shoryu). Soft pork with nice rim of fat. Chewy noodles. Perfect yolk on the egg. Ippudo slips into second position behind Bone Daddies in my table of favourite ramen places in London
The menu is currently smaller than the one in New York but it’s a good idea to start small and expand
Welcome, Ippudo!

Went for the grand opening on 10÷10÷14. We’ve been to Ippudo in New York (East Village and Midtown West) and Japan (Kyoto) and I want to start off by saying that the ramen was just as good as what we’ve had in both other Ippudo branches. Consistency is what we are looking for when it comes to Ippudo and the London branch totally delivered. Out of the popular New York ramen places (Ippudo, Ivan Ramen, Hide-​Chan, Totto, Minca, Yuji) Ippudo is still our favorite for ramen though we love Yuji’s mamezen.
Anyway, I digress. When we found out Ippudo was coming to London we knew we definitely wanted to go. The space is really gorgeous, with floor to ceiling windows on all sides of the two-​story restaurant. We didn’t get a chance to see the upstairs but they have an open kitchen with bar seating for 7 as well two, four and large group tables on the ground floor.
Luckily, Adam was able to be at Ippudo by 6pm and had been told that it would be around a 30 minute wait. It was the grand opening so there were some kinks, though I’m sure with time these will be resolved. As we waited for our table at the bar, we noticed there were two bartenders but the service was incredibly slow. It took over 30 minutes for my cocktail, the Shogalicious (£7), which consisted of aperol, fresh grapefruit, ginger and lemon all topped with prosecco to be made. We actually got seated before I received my drink. Totally a staffing/​opening day issue as much of the time was spent finding ingredients/​finishing prep work that I’m sure will be fixed but something to mention. However, we found that once we sat down service and wait time for food was much less than at the bar. In terms of the drink, it was quite refreshing and had a great ginger taste. Worth the wait (sort of).
If you aren’t interested in waiting at the bar, they are able to call/​text you when your table is ready so that you can go to one of the places nearby for a drink instead. The bar is quite small and narrow, with seating for less than 10, so it’s nice that they have this service for those waiting. By the time we were getting seated, the hostess was letting people know the wait was over an hour. Still better than New York’s 2+ hour wait!
We were seated at the bar that looked into the kitchen; however, the seats and bar were lower than the open kitchen so you can’t see the whole cooking process (if that is something you’re interested in). The menu has some items that we hadn’t seen on the New York menu and the two that really piqued our interest was the tako wasabi (£3.80) and the homemade pickles (£5.00). The tako wasabi consisted of raw baby octopus with freshly chopped wasabi (two kinds) and was fantastic. The portion is small, so I would recommend that each person order one. The octopus was fresh and went well with the two kinds of wasabi. We quickly gobbled this up.
The homemade pickles (konbu-​dashi pickled tomatoes, celery, radish, cucumber, pepper and lemon paired with a sweet plum wine jelly) was the only miss of the night. So… odd and just wasn’t the kind of pickles we would have thought of when one thinks Japanese. We had assumed that it would be tsukemono, such as takuan (yellow daikon pickle) and kyurizuke (cucumber pickles), but what came to the table resembled more of a crudite platter in terms of the way the vegetables were cut. The konbu-​dashi pickling just wasn’t to our taste, a bit too sugary and vinegary reminding us more of an Italian pickle than Japanese. Lastly, the whole cherry tomatoes had a very odd texture.
Of course, we had to also have the signature Ippudo Pork Hirata Buns (£7). Just like home. They tasted exactly like what we had in New York and brought us back to nights at the East Village Ippudo. The pork belly was tender and flavorful and went well with the slightly spicy mayonnaise while the lettuce lent a bit of crunch. The soft and slightly sweet bun was a perfect vehicle. We could have eaten 5 of these but had to save room for ramen.
They currently have 4 types of ramen, with two being vegetarian broths. Our favorite from New York was on the menu, the Akamaru Modern (£11), which we both ended up getting. We hadn’t had ramen in such a long time that we decided to go a bit topping crazy and both added a seasoned boiled egg (£1.50), seasoned bamboo shoots/​menma (£2.50) and takana leaf mustard (£2). This was heaven. The noodles were cooked so that they still had a bit of bite and the broth was rich and so satisfying. The The seasoned boiled egg still had a slightly runny yolk, which is exactly how we like it. The bamboo shoots were good and added some crunch to the ramen. The takana leaf mustard (which came on the side) added some spiciness to the dish and Adam loved how salty it was though it was a bit too salty for me.
Ippudo was exactly as we remembered from New York. What you crave on a cold winter night and where we will be weekly through the cold and wet London winter.