50 years in the business it not something to be sniffed at, so big respect to Shoryu Ramen’s Tak Tokumine, who’s bucked the trends by continuing to serve accessible Japanese food in his 11 branches, 10 in the UK, and one in Oxford’s Westgate.
But how to celebrate? With the new Takumi Menu featuring dishes inspired by Tak’s story and some of his personal favourites, themed around the nostalgic kissaten cafés of 1970s Japan where food and conversation were meant to be enjoyed slowly.
Interest piqued, we popped in over the weekend to enjoy Tak’s nostalgic culinary journey, adding all sorts of new dishes to our gastronomic repertoire along the way.
If you haven’t been, Shoryu is at the bottom of the Oxford’s Westgate escalator, by the food hall, and accordingly set up for shoppers and visitors keen to stop by for some valid Japanese food, and hence always busy. We’ve visited many times over the years, but on Saturday night were looking forward to something a bit different, the menu involving much googling.
Parking ourselves down and immediately ordering some of the exciting sounding drinks, our Japanese journey began – the Kissaten influenced melon cream soda float – as found in retro coffee shops all over Japan – with ice cream and a maraschino cherry – which was a garish bright green and perfect for those with a sweet tooth. The Doburoku Yuzu Pina Coladayo – a Japanese twist on a Pina colada, made with sake, also went down a treat, the ceremonial pouring from the ceramic bottle into tiny cups much more exciting than your bog standard cocktail, and perfect for sharing.
Moving swiftly onto the nibbles, the incongruous sounding Shima spam tempura (£8.70) is inspired by Okinawan comfort food and served with a spicy teriyaki dip. Salty, crispy, salty, sweet and incredibly moreish it had a really smoky tang, and we would order it again in an instant, everyone fighting over the last chunk.
Then the street food based Kaki oyster fry (£10.50) – popular at Japanese festivals – the oysters encased in a panko crumb with tartar sauce, the seafood clean and succulent, the crumb crispy and hot. Another novelty which we relished.
We threw in the spicy takoyaki as well because there were fur of us dining – the classic octopus balls a common Japanese street food served with benito flakes on top, aonori seaweed and beni shoga, spice, fresh chillies, spicy Japanese mayo and Okonomi sauce, the tastes layered with different flavours and textures, the balls doughy and fluffy.
We also threw in a side of braised pork belly bao buns, which were huge, soft and bouncy, framing a generous piece of pork, alongside the lettuce, cucumber, spicy sauce and Japanese mayo. Delicious.
Starters done we moved onto the mains, the much feted wagyu sukiyaki kamatama with raw egg yolk and noodles, (£25) – thinly sliced premium marinated wagyu beef on a bed of futomen noodles, topped with double raw egg yolk, a benito dashi sauce and spring onion. Hailing from the island of Kyushu, it’s a creamy, brothless summer ramen, where you break the yolks and stir them through to make a silky sauce, like a raw carbonara. It was a massive portion and again hugely unique. (see main pic)
Then our first ever tsukemen with two different broths for dipping, akin to a deconstructed ramen, the futomen noodles served separately from the broth, alongside a plate of delicious pork belly and pickled mushrooms. First up was the Earth broth served chilled with a toasted creamy sesame flavour, and the Sea – niboshi sardines layered into the warm, pork bone tonkotsu broth – ensuring a deep, savoury and intense flavour, the pork so tender it melted in the mouth. And while it’s about twice the price of some of the day-to-day ramens you can find at Shoryu, it was a really engaging and fun dish to try.
Still marvelling at all the exciting and novel dishes on offer, we silently applauded Tak for continuing to educate us about Japanese food and pushing us out of our comfort zones. The Takumi Menu is a treat well worth saving for.
The Takumi Menu runs at Shoryu Ramen in Oxford’s Westgate throughout the summer. Go to https://www.shoryuramen.com/stores/82-oxford
