Muga

A new opening ramen next door to kanada ya ramen restaurant. It was quiet when we go in. Me and my friend ordered tonkatsu ramen… but ended up we both having a diarrhea next day. I think it must be the pork broth soup base is not cook well although it taste good.

The ramen at Muga was pretty solid, I quite enjoyed eating by the bar, watching the chefs cooking and deliver your order to you. But there is also a downstairs dining seating if sitting by the bar isn’t your cup of tea. Price was also very good value for money, with all ramens all under a tenner unless you want to go an extra mile to turning it into a super size bowl. Another great thing about the ramen here is they all deliver with the full package, as I found so many ramen joints out there charge you extra for any other garnishes which you would normally expect from a classic bowl of ramen.

A standard quality ramen shop. It’s a bad luck they joined the game late when ippudo, kanada ya, shoryu or bone daddies have already had their place. However, they have good deal for lunch !

Muga opened roughly 4 months ago and it is still not functioning well. We ordered Miso Ramen with thick noodle but without butter and Tonkotsu Ramen with thin noodle, and the former came without Charsiu and Nitamago, and the latter without Nitamago and Takana. There was no good communication between the staff, and the waiter hadn’t got a clue how to deal with our situation. We ended up receiving the missing ingredients (not Takana) right at the end of our meal. The noodles were overcooked and starchy — sure sign of not shaking the water off properly: absolute no-​no for ramens. The toppings were very tasty and the Tonkotsu stock was light and flavourful; however Miso stock needed more depth.
They had a small space to boil noodles, a cooker had 2 large pots of basic stocks and one gas burner to stir fry on the floor — the chef needed to crouch over it. They could only manage to prepare two stocks at a time, hence a long wait. I could not imagine how they could cope at peak times. They had a larger space at the back for cooking other dishes. They had one waiter, two ramen chefs, two chefs at the back and one manager/​waiter; only the first three were busy.
Toppings and Tonkotsu stock scored 4, noodle 1, and the service & Miso stock 3.

My new Ramen spot, close to work and still quiet enough that I don’t have to wait!
Standard ramen is £9.90 but I went for lunch. I had to read the menu to be sure. For £8.90 (so £1 less than a bowl of ramen) I get the ramen I wanted AND 4 chicken gyoza? The answer turned out to be yes. Lunch sorted!
The noodles are freshly made (you can see the machine in the back of the shop) and have a wonderful bite to them. The Tonkotsu Ramen was well made and the stock was tasty — maybe not as strong or as fatty as the one at Bone Daddies, but that can be a good thing if I want to have it more than once in a blue moon.
Dumplings came hot and crispy with a nice dipping sauce and went down just as well. A good sign of the place was that even though there were a couple of Europeans in there, the majority were Japanese, including staff and chef.
The only downside I guess is that there isn’t a table to sit at, you are on benches either around the kitchen point where the cooking is done, or against the wall. Eating and talking in a group might be difficult.

Can’t believe this little ramen gem that has been gone un-​notice compare to so many other ramen place in London that is so talked about.
We started off with agedashi tofu (Japanese deep fried tofu) served in tempura sauce and topped with minced radish and ginger. This is a very light flavour dish which I felt was a nice starter.
The yaki-​gyoza is grilled chicken dumpling. It was nicely cooked with one side having slightly crispy texture and another side had the soft pastry texture.
Muga has four soup bases to choose and each one has ita own toppings, with all including half Japanese marinated egg and charshu pork. There is also a fifth soup base that is marked as suitable for vegetarians.
I tried the Tonkotsu which is one of the stronger flavour soup base. This is good for those who really like strong flavours. I preferred the Shoyu which was the other soup base we tried. This was one of the lighter flavour soup base. I was actually surprised by the beautiful presentation and the quality that it just as good as the other ramen restaurant in London.
We completed the meal with dessert, trying the Japanese pancake filled with sweet red bean and served with ice cream. Also the mochi ice cream served with soyabean powder and a sugar syrup.
Being near to Haymarket this makes Muga ideal for a pre-​theatre dinner. The price for a ramen is resonable and competitive to the other places in London.

I’m still a newbie at the ramen experience. I’ve actually tried this dish just once before coming here and I don’t remember quiet well its taste.
What I know for sure is, after coming to Muga, that It won’t be the last time I eat here.
This dish is supposed to be eaten warm, and despite we are in the middle of August, I ate each bite with pleasure and didn’t mind the heat.
The noodles were the most delicious part of my meal and the meat was also well-​cooked. The ramen was a bit too salty which is great because that is the way I actually eat my meals.
The interior is very simple, but in a nice way and it makes you feel comfortable while you eat. The staff is friendly and didn’t mind answering my million question about their menu. They suggested me Mochi ice cream which I’m not completely sure what it was made of, but it was the most pleasing thing about my day. It was like a rice cake stuffed with vanilla ice cream and sugar syrup.
Had a wonderful lunch there.

So I came here with Wendy L who found a deal on their facebook giving us a free drink and gyoza (ended in June sorry guys!). She read about it in a blogger’s page since I do not believe their PR advertised in the usual foodie websites so they are a lot more low key than the other ramen openings, otherwise I think they would have queues as well!
As it was, we went for lunch and we were the only patrons! WOW private restaurant! Service was fantastic and we felt like just the right amount of fussing over was given to us, if we required any explanations they were duly given.
Onto the food: —
Gyozas were nice and hot, LIKE.
Ramens — presentation and soup was great! Wendy really liked my ramen’s broth haha!
Chashu pork — lovely and very good taste, properly marinated not just the sauce poured over it!
As per Yee’s review, it hasn’t knocked anything off my top Ramen places, but it’s up there with the best. Especially if it remains an undiscovered jewel, might as well come here when other places require queuing! (Still haven’t been to Kanada-​Ya because of fear of queues!)

A friend from work took us here after she’s been cruising London’s ramen joints with a Japanese friend trying to find the best one. Muga, we were, promised was the place they’d settled on.
The décor is very cool and minimal with an open kitchen — we sat at the bar so could see right into the action.
The staff were really friendly and helpful and gave us one personal tips on the food.
I had the tonkotsu (pork) ramen and it was REALLY good. Lots of great flavours, a good base broth with really tasty char su pork on top.
At 9.90£ it’s not a cheap lunch but it is amazing ramen I’d that’s what you’re after.
As a bonus there’s a Japanese whisky bar in the basement — we’re planning a trip back to check that out.

Wow, another ramen shop. I never thought the day would dawn when it’s possible that the London ramen scene would have too many players
The trouble with entering the party late is that regular partakers of ramen will already have their own ‘best of’ list and you’ll have to work hard to dislodge their favourites. On my list are Bone Daddies for best/​richest tonkotsu broth, Ippudo for modern take on ramen (the Akamaru modern), Kanada Ya for most authentic bowl of original Japanese ramen and Koi Ramen for best value
Muga is located on the little secret foodie Panton Street which had some other good independent restaurants. Its location a stone’s throw from the tourist hub of Leicester Square may seem ideal but not many people walk down this side street. Certainly, it has opened without the fanfare and long lines outside places like Bone Daddies and Kanada Ya. That could reflect ramen fatigue (surely not!) or perhaps a less well oiled PR machine
I only heard about Muga from a food blogger who ate there. Arriving at the opening time of 6pm meant I only had the company of 4 others. Service was quick from the waitress and I elected to sit at the kitchen counter, which turned out to be an average experience. Perhaps it was the extreme heatwave but there was a lethargy about the kitchen
They offer a range of soups for the ramen including vegetarian but I opted for my favourite tonkotsu. The standard £9.90 bowl gets you 2 pieces of chashu, half an egg and sone veggies including pink pickled ginger, which brought to mind Shoryu’s ramen. The broth was satisfyingly rich if not as rich as Bone Daddies’s and hence the pitfall of coming to the party late — you will get compared to people’s current favourites. There’s a choice of thin or thick noodles but no choice of how hard you want them
I also had some kara-​age — 4 pieces for £4.90. Lovely crispy coating over moist chicken thigh but the meat was a little salty
A very good addition to the London ramen scene but they don’t displace my favourites

Neeeeeeew ramen! Thanks to Becky H. for notifying me about this one ^_​^ Muga’s a new ramen bar in Piccadilly Circus, ostensibly Japanese-​run (their website still has a Japanese phone number on it…), doing shio/​shoryu/​miso/​tonkotsu ramens with a decent selection of side dishes. Nothing new, but hey, I’m always looking to add new places to my rotation. The interior is pretty slick minimalist (complete with lots of bar seating) and there’s an open kitchen.
Although I wanted to order one of everything, I eventually narrowed it down to the Nanbanzuke, korokke (potato salad was sold out), and I had a tonkotsu ramen whilst my dining partner went for a miso. First up, the nanbanzuke: this is fried whitebait in a vinegary sauce — I love this dish and have previously made it with chicken. The flavour of the dish was great and the whitebait were nice. My main gripe with this was that the whitebait had been sitting in the vinegar for a while so they didn’t have any crunch — it’s one of Francis’ (host of Cooking with Dog) main tips for making this dish. The korokke were ok, could have had a crispier outside and a touch more tonkatsu sauce and the inside needed a bit more flavour.
For the ramen: you get a choice between thin noodles and thick noodles, so I went for the thin noodles; unfortunately, you don’t get a noodle hardness choice :(the tonkotsu had a decent flavour — it’s not as rich or thick as a lot of the other places, but I thought it tasted pretty decent. The egg and the pork were done well, and I liked the pickled vegetable and mushroom toppings. My noodles were a bit overdone though, and that’s something I really want to see addressed. Granted, I like mine extra hard because I’m a tough guy, but these were still just a bit too much on the soggy side. I liked my sample spoonful of miso — again, not as heavy as places like Sasuke, but a good flavour (this one had a distinct wine-​esque taste I found). We finished off with yuzu and black sesame ice creams which were, as you can guess, pretty good. Their mochi come topped with kinako and I’d love to try these next time I go.
This is a 3.5 star review and I’m tempted to list it as 3*. It’s a toughie. Their food has potential, but it need a bit of refinement here and there; certainly, it has a way to go before it measures up to Kanada-​Ya or Sasuke. Currently, it seems to be in a similar bracket to Shoryu and I hope that they can step it up a notch. As it is, it’ll be interesting to see how they do, especially considering that it’s not on a high-​traffic street. At £18 per head, it was fairly priced (the ramen is under £10 a bowl), and the staff were friendly (including one who used to work at Sasuke — mutual recognition). I’ll definitely come back here in the next month and see how they’re getting on and I hope that they’ll give me reason to keep coming back.