Tonkotsu Mare Street — Restaurant in London

Despite good rating and great reviews on Google, we were not lucky at all with the experience at Tonkatsu on Saturday lunch time. Me and two of my friends ordered their signature Tonkatsu ramens and homemade kimchi to share, with three bottles of Coke to accompany our food. Our waiter seemed to ignore us a lot even though the restaurant wasn't busy at all and when we asked what she could recommend from the dishes we were given a neglectful answer, which made us uncomfortable for asking at all. Whilst waiting for our 3 Cokes to arrive our kimchi was served first and when the drinks arrived the waiter spilt everything on the floor flooding the entire table with Coke and ice cubes, with all the glasses broken on the floor. And it wasn't the case, we understand, accidents happen and we didn't make such a big deal out if. The problem was that the table was not cleaned properly after and we were left sitting with our feet on the wet floor, waiting for our drinks to arrive again. We also kindly asked the waiter to change the kimchi, because she seemed to ignore the fact that it was flooded with coke as well... And then our ramens came before everything was properly cleaned and changed. Sadly, we all didn't enjoy our meal at all and we were never asked if we are as well. We decided to finish the kimchi (which was the best little bit of this whole experience) drink our Cokes and go somewhere else to have dinner. After finding our waiter, bare in mind we would catch ourselves sitting in the restaurant without any staff surrounding us at all, we asked for the bill, and when it arrived we were never explained that additional small charge is for charity, which we happily paid but just like the whole experience we were left in the unknown. It's a real shame, despite the nice atmosphere, I wish I could say we will be coming back, but their signature dish Tonkatsu ramen was very poorly made (completely different from some other images of the ramen up here) and more importantly the service was very apathetic and neglectful.

Hope our review will be heard and we are looking forward to your explanation of what happened Tonkatsu,...

Had a not so great experience compared to most diners. Visted at 5.30pm on a Saturday, and even though we had no reservation, the staff were very welcoming and found the two of us a spot on the counter. Food was good, but it was 15 minutes after we ordered that our drinks arrived, 45 minutes after we'd ordered for a small dish of 5 gyoza to arrive, and 50 minutes for the mains (2x chicken katsu), even though the pickle side dish had arrived 25 minutes earlier. Another can of beer was ordered when the mains arrived but wasn't brought to us until after the main had been eaten, which somewhat defeated the object of getting another beverage. We could tell that the staff had noticed our food wasn't coming, and were chasing the kitchen for it, but it would have been good to have been kept informed of any delays. The restaurant was never more than 2/3 full at any moment, which is how an efficient restaurant should be run, but it seemed the kitchen was slammed with lots of delivery orders, although no one else seemed to wait quite so long as we did for food. What finally grated was the 12.5% service charge, which is described on your bill as "discretionary" and "optional" but was anything but that, as the bill was presented to us followed by the card machine for the full amount. I will always leave tip, but didn't really feel the full 12.5% was merited in this instance and would have appreciated some acknowledgement of how long we had to wait (and which made us late for our evening event). I guess we were...

Walking into Tonkotsu I was surprised and impressed by the beautifully thought out design of the establishment. Great atmospheric lighting and seating arrangement create a warm and welcoming ambient, which in returned increased my anticipation and expectation of the food.

It shouldn't have.

We had ordered 3 Tokyo Ramen and a portion of chicken kar-age.

The Ramen was by far the greatest disappointment, the noodles were well undercooked and by far the lowest quality I have had the misfortune to taste, the pork belly stripes were tasteless and overly fatty and the heart of any ramen the broth... I lack the words to describe my disappointment.

The chicken kar-age by far the best item with rich and aromatic flavour, still fell short of expection. The reason being the taste of double fried oil, which definetly didn't aid the overall review.

After paying and before exiting the establishment I noticed a member of staff about my thoughts, she explained that everything is produced externally and mearly put together at the establishment, which frankly explain the poor quality. The employee offered me 3 free gyoza tickets, I really appreciated the gesture but it's a waste considering I won't be returning.

For anyone looking for a beautiful venue with and amazing ambient, with great drinks and the worst ramen possible to find in London look no further, Tonkotsu...