Art (and food) at a halal Filipino ramen spot in London

Filipino ramen isn’t something I try every day. My wife Rocel loves ramen, so we would grab some at nearby Japanese spots on occasional rainy days back in Manila. Now that we’re in the UK for a year, I’ve been on the search for Filipino fusion spots while my wife was on the lookout for more hearty soups to combat UK weather.

When I signalled to social media that we were in town, a bruv from another muv at the Adobros recommended a Filipino ramen spot called Ramo Ramen in London’s Soho district. I added it to my list of Filipino food spots in the UK to try.

When we were back in London I wanted to do a two-stop Filipino food crawl with Rocel to maximize our short stay in the metropolis. The plan was to try Donia and then Ramo Ramen, both turned out to be owned by London’s Filipino restaurant power duo Omar Shah and Florence Mae Maglanoc.

At Donia we bumped into said-power-duo member Mae, who was a gracious host and told us more about the delicious Kaldereta pie we had at her new restaurant. I’ll likely write about that too later. She shared a bit about Donia, and we started talking about her husband’s restaurant Ramo Ramen. The Adobros actually recommended the Kare-kare ramen there, a ramen inspired by the classic peanut-base ox-tail and vegetable stew dish from Ilocos. But Mae recommended we also try the Sinigang ramen, so we decided to have that first instead (I’ll just come back again for the kare-kare ramen!)

Food for hungry eyes

When we arrived at Ramo Ramen, I couldn’t help but notice all the cool anime-inspired art on the walls and signs. As an artist, I pay attention to art put up at a restaurant. Just like a restaurant menu, art on a restaurant wall is just as curated. It can be an indication of a chef’s or owner’s taste in the visual, in addition to their preferences in flavor, or lack thereof. In this case nothing was lacking, as I’m a sucker for Filipino-inspired art found outside the Philippines.

I’ll have to ask them who were the artists behind these framed works. Aside from the mix of Japanese and Filipino-inspired art and graphics on the walls are monkey and ramen illustrations with the words “Manila, Tokyo, London” on them.

Loved the line work on the art, and the minimalist typography applied. I make Filipino food art in a children’s book theme all the time, so it’s cool to see how other illustrators portray food in fun and quirky ways.

Who doesn’t like monkey samurais in a Filipino ramen shop?

Sinigang ramen and mango peach pie

The creme de la creme of our visit to Ramo Ramen was the food. The Soho branch we visited has two floors of eating space, but it was nearly full when we arrived. And many of the tables had at least one order of the sinigang ramen.

The sinigang ramen was a hearty bowl of seafood tamarind broth topped with whole grilled king prawns. This was perfect because I love seafood sinigang; one of my personal favorites is making sinigang with pompano fish at home. But Filipinos also enjoy sinigang with pork. Ramo Ramen’s sinigang ramen also has roasted tomatoes. Tomatoes are another typical ingredient in sinigang and another source of sourness for the dish, but having it roasted along with the grilled king prawns was a nice touch as it added a smokey flavor to the ramen as well.

So what makes this ramen, or Japanese? Well of course the hakata noodles, and a topping of nori, enoki mushrooms, and an nitamago egg which apparently is a delicious soft-boiled egg marinated in special seasonings. It was all very delicious and my wife and I scarfed it down, I myself sucking as much soup out of the shrimp heads as possible without embarrassing myself.

For dessert we had Ramo Ramen’s answer to Jollibee’s Peach mango pie: Mango peach pie. It’s basically a house-made (non-fast food/commercial) version of it, with a nice harmony of crisp cinnamon sugar on the outside with a sweet mango and peach filling inside. The cherry on top, or in this case mango, was the mango cream side it came with. We didn’t know whether to dip the pie or drizzle the cream on top of it, so we did both.

To wash it all down we had their Tarsier calamansi gin and tonic. Tarsier calamansi citrus gin to be exact, which is one of the gins concocted by Sherwin Acebuche and Tim Driver. The citrus gin is a mix of lime flavors from calamansi, yuzu, and kaffir limes, in addition to jasmine. I enjoy gin and tonics, rum and cokes, and margaritas when in the mood for cocktails, so this was a nice way to enjoy one of my go-to no-frills drinks. With a nod to my mom’s home province of Bohol no less.

When in London

The saying “When in Rome…” might still apply when visiting London since it was a previous Roman trading port in the 1st century. Almost 2000 years later, London is home to a mix and hodgepodge of people, food, art, and history. When in London, do as the Londoners do and enjoy the ever-changing variety of shows, art, history, and food. And check out one of my new favorite Filipino fusion spots I’ve tried in-between my previous lives in San Francisco, Manila, and now the UK: Ramo Ramen and their sampoloc-smacking sinigang ramen.