Restaurants / Reviews
Woky Ko Kaiju – restaurant review
Tantanmen is a style of ramen that comes from a Chinese recipe appropriated by the Japanese, according to Woky Ko Kaiju owner Larkin Cen, who grew up above his parents’ Chinese takeaway in Cardiff.
So for this ramen – easily the best £12.95 you will spend on food in Bristol this year – Larkin has used a Chinese recipe. Ground pork belly and mustard greens are the main components of the solid part of the dish, with the noodles then added to a spicy, numbing broth that dreams are made of.
Larkin recommends using the wooden spoon in one hand and chopsticks in another. “But there’s no shame in using the fork,” he told me soon after I tucked a napkin around my neck to protect a brand new shirt from spillages caused by excessive slurping.
is needed now More than ever
The tantanmen ramen at Woky Ko Kaiju: “easily the best £12.95 you will spend on food in Bristol this year”
Woky Ko Kaiju, on the second floor of Cargo 2 above Squeezed and Meat Box, is the third Woky Ko to open in Bristol, with the original in nearby Cargo 1 and a second on Queen’s Road in Clifton. A fourth could be opening in Cardiff in 2020.
A robata grill forms the centrepiece of the small kitchen, which is expertly headed up by John Watson, formerly the head chef and owner of the much-missed No Man’s Grace on Chandos Road in Redland.
All the toppings for the trio of ramens currently on the menu are cooked on the robata grill; with the shiitake mushrooms among the sokuban (sides) also taking their turn on the grill as well as being roasted in garlic soy sauce.
As well as the sides, smaller dishes include yasai (seasonal vegetables), niku (seasonal meat dishes) and sakana (seasonal fish dishes) – with John carefully skewering the orders on Friday lunchtime before their turn for some heat.
Among the niku, the negima yakitori (£4) are grilled chicken skewers cooked in Woky Ko’s own tare sauce. An equivalent of this sauce sometimes passed down through generations is a sourdough starter. It’s what gives each restaurant its unique flavours and at Woky Ko contains star anise, bay leaves, liquorice and more.
This was delicious but nothing on the kamo dango (£6.50), with the duck meatballs the size of golf balls accompanied by ketchup made with fermented plums; wonderfully cutting through the fat of the duck.
The negima yakitori (top) and kamo dango (bottom) are among the seasonal meat dishes at Woky Ko Kaiju
The juice from the fermented plums, known as umeboshi, made a return in a set custard dessert (£4) that had a blowtorched top like a crème brûlée.
By this stage and with the help of a couple of two-thirds of Asahi, I could just about feel my mouth again after the numbing effects of the tantamen ramen.
Come the summer, Woky Ko Kaiju will be sharing a spacious terrace with Hangar 25 from the team behind the likes of The Ox, Milk Thistle and Bambalan, which will undoubtedly become one of the most sought-after eating and drinking spots in Bristol.
In the same way that this meal got better and better, so have Larkin’s restaurants in Bristol, with Woky Ko Kaiju taking it to an extra level of brilliance.
Woky Ko Kaiju, Unit 25, Cargo 2, Museum Street, Wapping Wharf, Bristol, BS1 6ZA
0117 403 8050
Read more: My Bristol Favourites: Larkin Cen
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