Worth your attention right now

I came to Tenmaru with mixed reviews ringing in my ears. Two Japanese friends who have lived in London a long time told me it was one to seek out; two others waved it away as nothing special. So I walked in with my heart going a little faster than usual, wondering which camp I’d land in. The weather was good, so we took a table outside. My companion — who had arrived in London from Japan just eleven months earlier — was about to have their first bowl of ramen since leaving home.

Then came the first mouthful of the Tori Paitan (£16.90), and the nerves settled. It is light — assari — and genuinely delicious. The noodles carry the soup well, clinging to it rather than sitting apart from it, and the chicken, cooked sous-vide, is gently done and stays moist. This is a bowl even someone who knows Japanese ramen would happily call good. It would not feel out of place in Japan.

My companion, for what it’s worth, came away happy too — not a bad way to break an eleven-month ramen fast. And taken as a whole, Tenmaru is more than worth recommending. On the strength of that chicken paitan alone it sits, without question, among the most genuinely good, authentic ramen you can find in London.

Walk-ins are the norm; budget around £17–24 a head for a bowl with a topping or a drink.