News

Tuesday 14th March 2023

We’re slightly increasing our opening hours Thursdays – Saturdays. Instead of 6pm – 10pm, we now open from 5.30pm – 10pm (last order 9.30pm)

Mondays – Wednesdays are still 6pm-10pm (last order 9.30pm)… for now.

Story

Ian Wheatley

Monohon Founder

I lived in Osaka for a bit in the 90s and fell in love with Japan and especially the food culture. I really loved these tiny ramen shops where they focused on only one or two dishes served up in backstreet, hustle bustle spots.

When I got back to London, I couldn’t believe how little Japanese food there was back then. Perhaps I didn’t quite have the guts to act on it though because I took the ‘easy’ route and got a job in an office. Every time a Japanese place opened up I’d go along and check it out but there were never any ramen dedicated places. I couldn’t silence the voice saying, “perhaps you should try opening your own little shop?”

Many years of corporate life later, on a slow Friday afternoon in the office, a touch hungover from Thursday night drinking, someone asked me the standard, ‘what would you do if you won the lottery’ question. I quickly realised that after a year or two of traveling and ‘consumption’ I’d start asking serious questions about what I really want to do in life. The ramen light bulb came on again and within a month I’d quit my job and was on a plane to Japan. Then it dawned on me; I hadn’t actually won the lottery.. doh!

Anyway I travelled up and down Japan for a few months eating A LOT of ramen, trying to remember the language and studying in a ramen school. I even bought a noodle machine in a rush of blood to the head moment. Back in London I spent the next 6 months making ramen in my kitchen every single day. My wife would bring Japanese colleagues home from the office on Fridays and they’d test that week’s batch and give me pointers. Then I worked in Ippudo making ramen for 6 months.

In the summer of 2015 I launched Monohon Ramen as a pop up and over the course of the next year we sold a couple thousand bowls of ramen wherever we could find a space in east London. Then one day, a nice man told me there was a restaurant for rent in Old Street and I had some more of those, ‘are you really going to do this?’ moments. A few months and an emptied savings account later, I had the keys.

Now we’ve cleaned up the place and I have hired some nice people to help me cook and serve my ramen. We’re making everything in house; the soup, the noodles, the toppings. We’re starting slow and focusing on a small number of dishes. Hopefully 1 or 2 people will come in and check us out!

Our Philosophy

Our total focus is authenticity. It’s a labour of love. Here’s a tiny glimpse of what goes into a bowl.

noodle

NOODLES

We don’t buy mass-produced, long-life noodles. Everyday we make fresh noodles in-house. The recipe is simple but much thought about. We use specialist flour from Japan (since most flour in Britain is for bread and not suitable) kansui, salt and water. Since London water is far too hard, we use softer spring water to get the right final texture.

soup

SOUP & SAUCE

Our soup is made from pork bones with kelp and shiitake mushrooms added for natural umami. It’s boiled furiously for a whole day so that the fat emulsifies into the soup giving the creamy texture and whiteish colour. We constantly monitor the soup viscosity with a refractometer (honest!) to get the right final thickness.

Our shouyu dare (seasoning sauce), for example, is made from 10 different ingredients and we measure salinity (using a different refractometer this time) to make sure the saltiness is the same in every bowl.

belly

TOPPINGS

Our chashu (pork belly) topping is slow-braised for up to 5 hours in sake, soy sauce and sugar until it’s exceptionally tender.

Our hanjuku-tamago (soft boiled eggs) are cooked for precisely 6 minutes and 10 seconds and then marinated for 2 days!

Food

SHOYU TONKOTSU

Umami-infused soy-sauce seasoning ‘tare’ with creamy pork bone soup

SPICY TONKOTSU

Shouyu Tonkotsu ramen with spicy miso pork mince

THE BIG BOY SPICY SPECIAL

Shouyu Tonkotsu large size, all the toppings, extra egg and spicy miso pork mince

MENTAIKO CREAM RAMEN

Pork bone soup with sea-salt seasoning ‘tare’ and spicy marinated cod roe topping

ABURA SOBA

A soup-less ramen. Thick, bouncy ramen noodles on a sesame-oil based ‘tare’ with lots of toppings

TAIWAN MAZE SOBA

Spicy, garlicky Nagoya style soup-less ramen

MENTAIKO CREAM MAZEMEN

A soupless ramen with Mentaiko (spicy marinated cod roe)

CHILLI SANSHO MISO

Pork bone soup blended with different miso types, chillies, sansho pepper, medium thick noodles, bean sprouts, spring onions, pork kakuni and toasted seaweed
Also contains peanut

VEGAN TAN TAN MEN

Creamy sesame flavoured soup with medium thick noodles, spring onions, beansprouts, pak choi, toasted seaweed and spicy miso-fried seitan
Also contains peanut

FAT CURRY MEN

Thick, home-made ramen noodles with Japanese style chicken curry and pickles

HIYASHI CHUKA

Chilled ramen salad with tomato, cucumber, ham, omelette strips, soft-boiled and seasoned egg, bean sprouts, spring onions

JA JA MEN

Slightly spicy, slightly sweet pork mince, baby bamboo and shiitake sauce served
over chilled fat noodles

Jobs

We are always looking for hardworking and talented people. Please send us your CV if you are interested to join our team.
info@monohonramen.com

Where to Find Us

ADDRESS

102 Old Street
London EC1V 9AY
info@monohonramen.com


OPENING HOURS

Monday – Friday :
12:00 – 14:30 (last order 14:15)

Monday – Wednesday:
18:00 – 22:00 (last order 21:30)

Thursday – Saturday:
17:30 – 22:00 (last order 21:30)

We’re closed all bank holidays.

FAQ

Sorry, we don’t take reservations.

Why don't you take reservations?

I’m really sorry, we don’t take reservations.

There is a very real and not insignificant cost in running a reservation system. First you have to pay someone to administer it. That takes more time than you might imagine as people chop and change their requests over time. You have to play tetris with the tables as well when groups of different (and changing) sizes make requests for ever changing times. The biggest cost of all is that rather sadly, somewhere between ⅓ and ½ of people don’t show up for their bookings. Or they do but come late. Or with a different number of people than they requested. Then we have people showing up on the night, standing in the queue and being told there is no space when the restaurant is actually half empty because we’re holding tables for people who may or may not show. With a small restaurant of only 32 seats, paying London rents (and I have to pay my staff enough so that they can afford London rents!) and UK taxes, we really need to be full as much of the day as possible or quite simply we lose money.

Sorry for the long explanation but I hope you can see why we run things this way. I’m sorry if you have to queue too long for a table.

Do you have a table big enough for my group?

Please remember we need your whole group to be here before we can seat you in the restaurant.

  • For groups of 2-3: most of our tables are for 2 people but they can fit 3 and very often do.
  • For groups of 4-5: We have 1 table that fits 4 or 5. At a cosy squeeze it can, and often has fit 6 people. If you want that table, the only way to nearly guarantee getting it is to arrive before we open at 6pm (5.30pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday). Then you can be first through the door and have your pick of tables.
  • For groups of 6+: 6 is the most we can sit at one table. The table that fits 6 has 2 tables of 2 in very close proximity. If you got those as well, you could have 10 of you very close together if not exactly at the same table.

Failing that the counter sits 9 in a row.

When are you busy?

Post corona customer flows are not as predictable as they used to be. During the cold weather, we are pretty busy most of the time. Evenings 6-8.30pm we are likely to have a queue of people waiting to get in.

Thursday – Saturday evenings, we open at 5.30pm and the queue often forms before we open and often contains more people than fit in the restaurant. If you want to be in the first wave that gets in when we open, best to arrive at least 10 minutes before we open.

What is your queueing policy?

We have a really small space and have thought very hard about how to use it best.

We ask that your whole group is present before you take your table.

When we first opened, we allowed people in to wait for their friends and very quickly found the restaurant ‘full’ with half-full tables; meanwhile fully ready groups waiting in the queue got miffed.

We believe it’s quicker, fairer and nicer for all if we do it this way. We hope you understand.

Every day, people tell us, “can I have a table for 2/3/4 – my friends will be here in 1 minute”. To be fair to everyone, we ask your whole group to be here before entering.

Can I bring my dog?

Small, well-behaved dogs are totally fine and welcome. Anything larger or unruly just doesn’t work in such a small space I’m sorry.

Do you have any gluten free options?

I’m really sorry, no. We are a noodle shop, everything we make is with Japanese wheat flour. Some places do sell gluten free noodles but so far, i’ve not tasted any good ones.

If you are not coeliac but gluten-intolerant and small amounts of gluten are ok, we can substitute rice for noodles in some dishes – assuming we have enough rice left.

If you are coeliac, that won’t help I’m afraid as every dish has soy sauce.

Is your meat certified halal?

It isn’t. Our butchers have told us some items are halal but their suppliers can change so I can’t say for certain the meat is always halal.

Are you open tonight?

You can always check the opening hours of the day on google:
Monohon Ramen on Google Map

In general our opening hours are:

  • Monday–Friday lunch: 12-2.30pm (last order 2.15pm)
  • Monday–Wednesday dinner: 6-10pm (last order 9.30pm)
  • Thursday – Saturday dinner: 5.30pm – 10pm (last order 9.30pm)
  • We are closed on: Saturday lunch, all day Sunday and bank holidays

and,

  • If there is a bank holiday on Friday and Monday (i.e. Easter, Jubilee, Coronation, Royal Wedding) we’ll close the whole weekend
  • We close for 2 weeks around Christmas / New Year

Apart from that we’re open – unless there is some unforeseen problem like a power cut or staff shortage. We usually announce that on social media.

Do you deliver?

We don’t deliver and don’t use Deliveroo or any other such service.

We do offer click and collect take away here: https://goodeats.io/MonohonRamen

MONOHON — a slang term in Japanese meaning, ‘the real thing’.

Email us at info@monohonramen.com

102 Old Street, London EC1V 9AY

APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE BUT WE DON’T TAKE RESERVATIONS

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST