Started writing this article in the queue for the soft launch of Kanada-Ya’s second store located at number 3 Panton Street. I actually thought people were queuing for Pizza Express but had asked the shorter queue at the door if I needed to queue in the street opposite the store… Yep I did. Hungry. Tired. Have no kitchen for about two to three weeks because of renovation works happening at home. So the next best thing was to take up this offer. ^_^

Well the ramen phenomenon has not ended just yet. Kanada-Ya still tops all the ramen places located in London so far… This seems to be the first time Kanada-Ya has opened a second store in the same country. Sorry Hong Kong and Japan – you have far too many ramen stores!! Fact: I have not tried all the ramen shops in London but still think Kanada-Ya is the best!

Kanada-Ya 2 – London Panton Street

The second soft launch was offering a 50% discount once you signed up for the newsletter. Yipee! This second store offers 56 seats with an upstairs plus you can book tables at this venue… will that mean store number one will have fewer customers and less queuing time? That’s very likely! Oh yes, then I might go there more often… we’ll see.

Started queuing from around 6pm on the Thursday evening… was STILL QUEUING after about 15 minutes and the smell of the soup was just killing meeeeee! 

30 minutes later… still queuing… (well better than last year when we queued in the rain)… 

45 minutes. 😦 queuing is a mechanism to make people more angry and hungry… But at least the restaurant staff decided to give out free hot green tea shots. So needed it because it was getting cold. My Japanese is a bit rusty (still not good basically) but I did hear the Japanese owner thinking that we might want to use the toilet… Heheheh. People from out of nowhere started asking why is there such a long queue, one guy asked is it really that good…? (That’s an absurd question to ask when you see hundreds of people queuing in 3-4 days)… I replied out of courtesy (as no one answered) and said yes it is! Recommended the Original Ramen… Mister, you must try it even if you LIVE right opposite the store!!!

1 hour later. So sad. Stomach is hungry. And it started to rain. Queue behind me was getting longer and longer and I think some people gave it a miss and was hoping to queue early for the final day.

After 1 hour I started talking to a Japanese lady who I met in the queue and was standing behind me… We queued for another hour. So sad. 

Finally we got in and the Japanese lady and I shared a table. It was ok with me. Felt like I became instant friends with her. Heheh. We ordered our food and started talking about our names, my real name is…… Lol! As if I would give my name away. 

Ordered the karaage (because I was hungry)… better than Bone Daddies. Less salty, bigger pieces, I used my hands to dig in. I could have had more of this! 

And I ordered the new additional ramen I never tried before called Gekikara ramen… a spicy ramen containing the same ingredients as the original ramen but with some additional spicy pork mince. The soup was how I remembered it from the first time I tried Kanada-Ya… Heheheheh. Love it! I forgot to ask for an extra egg… 😦 

Ta-da!! Wished I finished my soup, but felt a little shy eating in front my new friend. >_<""

Finished!!!