Ramen Dayo
MAYBE not the most likely choice for a Mother’s Day meal especially after that awkward moment or ten when we wander confusedly up and down Glasgow's Queen Street. Me with a map and compass – OK, a Google map – at the head of my mutinous family.
Thinking to myself, uh-oh, it’s bloody moved again, and I didn’t even book, and it’s Mother’s Day.
Then realising we are actually standing right outside it. Hurrah. And merely have to negotiate this grungy-cool pub entrance into a deep, dark, kind of homespun, basement. There's paper lanterns, a giant screen projecting a Japanese cartoon movie, some wobbly tables, no cuddly toy but an awful lot of people all eating…whilst simultaneously looking at their mobile phones.
After all this...and after ordering a drink called Pokeman Sweat, or something like that, and another Japanese drink in one of those old school bottles where the lid is a marble you pop back into a glass channel, which amuses the boys no end, the food arrives.
Fortunately Mrs Mackenna, who rolled her eyes at the thought of ramen for Mother's Day tea, is fond of gyoza. Kind of like dumplings, these arrive seared to bubbling on one side and rammed with juicy pockets of pork, chicken and vegetables. By now we’ve got the vibe, too, which is young, cool and just a little bit out there, man. The staff are relaxed and friendly and all around us we are lulled by the gentle sounds of slopping and slurping as our fellow diners dip their glistening coupons ever deeper into soupy bowls of ramen.
This, if you don’t already know, is one of Japan’s most popular dishes. But if you, like others, roll your eyes at the thought of yet another bowl of gloopy gruel with a few chopped spring onions sprinkled atop, then you, like others, are about to get a surprise.
For a start those wafer-thin slices of chashu pork belly that float serenely near the surface of our ramen bowls? Crikey. Creamy, sweet, salty, melting.
As I am Daddy Bear, I automatically order the most expensive thing on the menu: the Deluxe Dayo! This not only comes with its own exclamation mark but also contains double everything including two ajitama, or flavoured soft-boiled eggs. These are so startling good that everyone else at the table immediately looks into their bowls to find their own. Alas, they don’t have any.
Unless you are flying Deluxe Dayo! tonight a single ajitama weighs in at a surprisingly salty £2 extra. Each.
Now before we disappear down the culinary rabbit hole that is the menu description at Ramen Dayo, No1 son has incoming news that the movie a surprisingly large number of tonight’s diners are actually watching is Spirited Away. In a minute the little girl’s parents are about to turn into pigs. Oh-kay.
As for our food? Can the whole Ramen Dayo concept be possibly boiled down to simply this: stock from roasted pork and chicken bones is simmered for 20 hours. Hurrah!
To this is added: marinated stringy kikurage mushrooms, thin chashu pork belly, spring onions, and ramen noodles becoming Tonkotsu. Add miso base? It becomes Tonkotsu miso. Hurrah!
Add Mayu black garlic oil and crisp garlic? Tonkutso Miso Black. Double everything plus an egg? Deluxe Dayo!
Fresh chopsticks, please, plastic ladles all round, begin slurping. And slurp away we do until eventually becoming slightly weary of the whole process.
Frankly, some people can get a bit carried away about tonkatsu broths becoming all reverential about the rich, creamy and a highly flavoured liquid produced by the boiled bones. The broth here at Ramen Dayo is no doubt properly made, reasonably flavoured, but we’re not blown away by it.
We are, however, enjoying the freshness of the whole concept and the off-beat underground pop-up restaurant buzz of the current setting. And that’s more than enough for a pretty fun night out.
Menu: Tonkotsu – painstakingly simmered Japanese broth with noodles, chashu pork belly and more. Authentic. Kind of slurpy. 4/5
Atmosphere: It’s a pop-up that changes location. This time in a pub basement with a Japanese movie playing. Big fun. 4/5
Service: Relaxed, friendly and in the groove kind of place where they’ll steer you in the right direction, if you want. 4/5
Price: A deep, dark bowl of sloppy, slurpy pleasure will set you back around £8. Not bad overall 4/5
Food: It’s all about the whole freshly prepared package which if nothing else is wholesome and different. 7/10
23/20
Ramen Dayo
73 Queen Street
Glasgow
0141 328 3202
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