Bone Daddies Victoria - Restaurant Review

Cuisine: Japanese
Style Points: 3/5
Location: Victoria
Price: ££
Overall: 4/5

I love Japanese cuisine and have had my fair share of sushi, ramen and bao buns over the last few weeks! It’s a cuisine I could never get bored off. So when I heard that Bone Daddies was serving up a world’s first, a duck egg ramen made with a broth of duck bones, I made sure I had a reservation in the dinner diary.  

Bone Daddies is the brainchild of chef Ross Shonhan, who has a strong passion for Japanese food and wanted to share his own unique take on the cuisine. I was certainly looking forward to tasting the end product and when we arrived at Bone Daddies in the trendy Nova area in Victoria there was already a queue outside and when we left there was still a queue - a surefire sign that the food has to be good.

It’s a very casual place with a steady flow of customers and canteen style seating and I really liked the feel and vibe of the restaurant. I also love the fact that there are hair bands and aprons on every table for those of us who want to avoid any messy mishaps when it comes to slurping noodles!

Food?

Before we tasted the duck egg ramen, or Ducckotsu, the Bone Daddies special of the month, my guest and I decided to try some of starter dishes. Guided by our lovely server, we opted for the fried chicken with yuzu kosho mayo (£6.40) and a selection of bao buns - fried chicken with kimchee, pickled carrot, lettuce and kimchee mayo (£4.75), chashu pork with red chilli, pickled carrot, lettuce and sweet chilli soy (£4.75), and miso aubergine with miso, pickled carrot, lettuce, sesame and mayo (£4.00).

The fried chicken was delicious and I could see why it was a crowd favourite. Piping hot with a crispy seasoning, there was plenty of it and it was even better when dipped in the moreish yuzu kosho mayo. I adore bao buns and could happily eat a dozen at a time and these bao were especially tasty.

The fried chicken had a lovely spicy kick from the kimchee and a great crunchy texture from the carrot and lettuce, the pork chashu was beautifully tender and moist and worked perfectly with the sliced red chilli and sweet chilli soy.

However, my favourite has got to be the miso aubergine which had a nice chunky piece of perfectly cooked aubergine and an incredible flavour of miso that was just harmonious with pickled carrot and crunchy lettuce. It was just simply delicious and I’m so glad our server highly recommended it.

To accompany our dinner, I had to go for a Japanese whisky (solely to help my sore throat I assure you...) and I was recommended the Yamazaki which was incredibly smooth and had a nice rich smoky flavour. My guest tried the frozen yuzu margarita with tequila, triple sec, yuzu, lime and agave syrup. Of course, I couldn’t try any due to my sore throat but my guest described it as an ‘alcoholic slushie with a really nice kick of tequila.’ You can take that to mean that he liked it!

Finally, the main event. I of course mean the Duckkotsu, a Duck bone broth with confit & crispy duck, a Clarence Court duck egg, sliced spring onion, and bamboo & roasted leek oil (£13.00.) My guest went for the Crispy Duck Aburamen (no broth) with pickled padron peppers, roast corn and duck fat (£13.00).

The Duckkotsu was wonderfully creamy from the duck bones that were boiled for at least four hours to create a really rich broth that had an almost peanut like flavour to it. It was a real joy finding little bits of crispy duck meat between my chopsticks as these were full of flavour and gave some added texture to the dish. Clarence Court are of course synonymous with high quality eggs and the perfectly cooked duck egg that accompanied the dish was incredibly creamy and really gave the broth another dimension of flavour. It was a really tasty ramen and also deceptively filling as I struggled to finish the whole dish.

The Crispy Duck Aburamen was another standout dish and again I’m glad our server highly recommended it! The flavours of the crispy duck fat with the charred corn were fantastic and the silky smooth noodles had a nice sweet miso type sauce that really enhanced the flavour of the dish. I’ve never had Aburamen before but I will certainly keep an eye out for it in the future as I was really surprised by the depth of flavour in the dish even without a broth.

To finish off our lovely meal we decided on some green and jasmine tea (£2.50 each with unlimited refills) as well as some traditional Japanese Mochi ice cream, which is essentially ice cream encased in a sweet rice dough. There are a variety of flavours to choose from including traditional Japanese flavours like green tea and yuzu, to more contemporary flavours like salted caramel and hazelnut.

We tried Coconut, Mango, Hazelnut and Green Tea (£1.60 per piece.) Each piece was roughly a golf ball size and had nice enough flavours. I must admit, I’m not the biggest fan of mochi but nonetheless I enjoyed the flavours and would recommend the green tea and hazelnut flavours.

Price?

I think the prices are very reasonable with starters ranging from £4-9 and mains from around £9-£13. A ramen alone with very filling and you could quite easily eat and be full for under £15.

Overall?

Although I had heard great things beforehand, this was my first time dining at Bone Daddies and I have to say the food and the vibe of the restaurant were both fantastic.

The queues are definitely justified and I can’t wait to go again to try some more dishes from the menu as well as some of the ones I have already earmarked as favourites already.

The Duckkotsu is available till the end of April - book your table and give it a try!
Address: Nova Development, 9 Sir Milton Square, Westminster, London SW1E 5DJ
Closest tube station: Victoria

Special thanks to Bone Daddies for their hospitality!