Wined, dined and rested.

Now, you will be asking, what’s this about noodles and hair ties? Is this a post-modern take on string-like pasta? Have some enterprising Japanese entrepreneurs started serving noodles harnessed by scrunchies? Is this a minimalist reaction to scandalous ageing-hippy anarchism in relation to all things pasta? Tie it into bunches or plaits, paint it grey and remove all pictures from the walls of restaurants that serve it, while making the punters sit on uncomfortable but achingly beautiful washed ash benches?

Ah no, my curious friends. This is Bone Daddies. On its website it says it is “Japanese-inspired” – I visited their restaurant near Victoria Station in London, a ramen bar (= noodles in broth, in case you were wondering), and it gives the impression of being pretty full-on Japanese.

The atmosphere is good, lots of rock music but not so loud that you can’t chat, as many others had come to do the night I was there. It felt like a great place to be.

Each table has loads of essential equipment already in fashionable tins – chopsticks, spoons for the fainthearted, large plastic spoons for the ramen broth, a sesame seed grinder, er, a garlic press and some folded plastic sheets that turned out to be over-the-head bibs to protect the clothes from flying broth. Just how wild does this ramen venue become, I wondered? I looked for goggles, too, but there were none. Shinpads? Nah. Samurai pasta swords? Nope.

What they DO have, however is….. hair ties. Yes, I promise you – not only do they have hair ties, but they put them in a cute little jar that looks exactly the same as the cute little jar that holds the garlic cloves for you to crush with aforementioned garlic press into your ramen broth. And the hair ties are for, amazingly, your hair – if you wear it long and flick-back-able, that is. Once you stop giggling at the concept, it is pretty sensible in fact; both the Rapunzels in our party availed themselves of the hair ties in order to avoid dipping their tresses into the huge bowls of broth and noodles.

Oh yes, the food. You can choose ramen with pork or chicken broth. You could also choose a variety of other things Japanese-inspired, but we were all feeling like sticking to fundamentals. I think we all chose chicken broth options – I had the “T2” with onion, pulled chicken, nori, chicken ‘scratchings’, bamboo, rocket and shitake mushrooms plus an egg.

Julia had a “Tantamen 2” which was similar but with chicken mince, Pak Choi and chilli.

Julia’s was labelled “hot” and mine only “a bit hot”, but in a taste test mine came out spicier! The flavours were good, although not startlingly so, and the restaurant was, as I said, a pleasant place to be. The service was stupendous, with our energetic waiter full of useful advice and cheerful comments, and he really added greatly to the whole experience with his helpfulness and Japanese (or was it merely Japanese-inspired?) headband restraining his less Japanese-inspired flowing ginger locks.
If I am completely honest Japanese food has never set my taste buds on fire, and this meal was no exception, but that isn’t entirely Bone Daddies’ fault. When it all comes down to it, if I’m going to be having noodles in broth I would still always rather have something Vietnamese, like the truly tasty dishes served at the very good Phō chain in London.

So, for me, it was Bone Daddies 0 / Vietnamese noodles 1. And that is the end of the shipping forecast.