Kanada-Ya

Exemplary and authentic tonkotsu-style ramen noodle soup, care of Kanada Kazuhiro, whose family business produced its first bowl of home-made noodles and pork broth in Yukuhashi (southwesterly Japan) in 2009, after Kanada had given up his job as a keirin competition racing cyclist. This simple operation produces a rich and somewhat murky (but not greasy) pork-bone broth (cooked for 18 hours) and a choice of four noodle textures (soft, regular, hard and extra hard) — plus very fine onigiri (Japanese rice balls) — in a small corner space that just about accommodates 24 low-level stools. Queueing is inevitable at this fourth outlet of Kanada's expanding but integrity-rich enterprise following two restaurants in his native Japan and one in Hong Kong. Opened in September 2014 and located on a corner directly opposite architect Renzo Piano's brilliantly colourful Central Saint Giles development, about three minutes east of Soho. Just a month after Kanada-Ya's arrival, London's first Ippudo (the Starbucks of Japanese noodle bars) opened immediately across the street. There's a second Kanada-Ya outlet at 3 Panton St, just off Haymarket, and a third in Upper St in Islington. Plus Soho (just off Carnaby St). Tube stations: Tottenham Court Road and Holborn.