Shoryu Ramen

One of our friends was visiting from Manchester on Thursday, and being the very polite people we are we gave her the task of deciding where to eat.  She chose Japanese as there are no decent restaurants in Manchester.... we knew EXACTLY where to take her.  Neither of us had ever eaten at Shoryu Ramen before but we had both heard very very good things about it.  We aimed to eat around 7pm so the 6 of us arranged to meet at the restaurant on Denman St at around 6:30pm.  As always Sarah and I were early so stood for a bit watching scores of people wonder in and out of this place.
When everybody finally arrived we were actually seated very quickly, however it was cosy.  The table was the size you would expect for a table for four so six of us crammed round it eating ramen...well you can only imagine.  We sat and browsed the quite extensive menu for a while, and it was nice not to feel rushed as we were chatting at the same time. 
Sarah and I shared a 2 piece BBQ pork buns and 3 meat gyozas.  The buns were soft, barbecuey and full of flavour.  The gyoza's were cooked perfectly the soft filling worked really well with the slight crunch to the skin.

I then  had the Karaka Tantan Tonkotsu which consists of tonkotsu with a twist, rich and spicy fried minced pork in white miso & garlic with added garlic and chiu chow chilli oil (no BBQ pork, no sesame)

Sarah chose the Dracula (how very apt) this contained deep roasted tones from caramelised black garlic mayu, balsamic vinegar and garlic chips.






The rest of the party each chose the Dracula or the karaka tantan and gyozas.  One of the girls also ordered some tempura sprouts.  I was very excited about this as I LOVE sprouts and think they are so underrated however my excitement was not shared by everybody.  Some of us although we don't hate sprouts will only eat them at Christmas (ahem... Sarah).
Overall the food came out pretty quickly considering the amount we ordered in one go and it was absolutely delicious.   My tonkotsu was a little on the spicy side for some however I thought it was perfect.  It didn't take me long to work out why they named Sarahs' choice Dracula as it was so so so so garlicky.   For some I could imagine it would be too garlicky however for both of us it was pretty dam spot on.  I got to try one of the sprouts and they were really really good, the crunchy outside worked nicely with the well cooked sprout.  I am soon learning that you can near enough tempura anything.  We both left the restaurant really pleased if not alittle stinky (Sarah), and we would 100% go back.