Matsudai Ramen, Grangetown, Cardiff restaurant review

It’s fair to say that James Chant’s Matsudai Ramen has had a meteoric rise since it first popped up in Cardiff in 2019.

Their big-flavoured bowls of Japanese noodle soup have garnered praise from national restaurant critics like Jay Rayner and Tom Parker Bowles and there have been ramen kit collabs with Youtube star Uncle Roger and MasterChef winner Tim Anderson.

Matsudai’s ramen kits provided me with more regular nourishment than any other home delivery during the pandemic but I was always hopeful that they'd eventually open a bricks and mortar restaurant.

Located in an old bank in the heart of Cardiff's Grangetown, Matsudai’s modern and vibey interior is centred around an open kitchen and ramen bar. I’m a big fan of counter top restaurants where a seat at the bar transforms a meal into a performance.

On our visit during a two month long “soft launch” period, Matsudai’s compact menu focused on three types of ramen - tantanmen, nikko shio (described on their menu as a clean and complex summer ramen) and shiru-nashi mazesoba - with vegetarian, vegan and dumplingified versions available too.

To go alongside the ramen, there’s a selection of small plates, desserts, cocktails, beers and rather lethal sounding boiler-makers.

Small plates arrived at the same time as our mains meaning it was all hands on deck to ensure everything was enjoyed at maximal freshness. Fortunately, I’ve never been one to dither when it comes to getting stuck into a meal.

The clear standout of the small dishes was a mountain of triple-fried oyster mushroom karaage (£8) with a hyper-crisp grease free crumb and impressively meaty texture. Accompanied by a bowl of dreamy Coronation-esque curry mayo, this vegetarian dish was an upgrade on the excellent chicken version which I ate at one of Matsudai’s pop-ups.

A beansprout salad (£5) provided welcome lightness compared to the rest of the dishes. Dressed simply with chilli oil, spring onion and sesame, it was very enjoyable but the crisp sprouts would arguably have benefited from an additional dimension of seasoning.

Salty and crisp nuggets of chicken skin (£2.50) scattered with seaweed salt certainly lived up to their bar snack billing. A bowl of these and an ice cold beer would make me a very happy man indeed.

Onto the main event and a soup-less shiru-nashi mazesoba (£12) combined thick wavy noodles with a lovely al dente bite; a deeply meaty chicken and lamb ragu with a good thrum of chilli; and a deliciously creamy and savoury sesame, soy sauce and soy milk base, which provided a lovely coating for the noodles.

Mrs G was advised to stir the bowl 30 times to ensure all the sauces and toppings (including egg yolk, sweet pickled cucumber, fresh red onion, fermented bamboo shoots and greens) had mixed together effectively.

My tantanmen (£13), a Japanese version of Sichuan’s fiery Dan Dan noodles, utilised many similar elements as the soup-less dish. A rich chicken broth (which didn’t seem quite as intense and chicken-y as their tori paitan) was bolstered by the addition of the spicy chicken and lamb ragu and a sesame-soy sauce tare. Combined with its various garnishes, including a fudgey-yolked egg and beansprouts, it was a deliciously spicy and decadent dish.

A pair of swirls of beautifully tender chashu pork belly (£2.50) provided excellent side-action. Frankly, if any menu has the option of additional pork belly then it’s something I’m not going to turn down.

Onto dessert and as we’d missed out on the last slice of banana chocolate cake, we shared a roasted green tea creme brûlée (£6). Despite its lack of a proper shatteringly crisp sugar top and its slightly unappetising greeny-brown colour, the thick and creamy roasted tea-twanged custard was lovely.

It’s always great to see a Cardiff success story and Matsudai Ramen is exactly that. There’s been a ramen shaped hole in Cardiff’s dining scene, and James Chant’s debut restaurant has more than filled it.

The Details:

Address - Matsudai Ramen, 183-185 Clare Rd, Cardiff CF11 6QS

Web - https://matsudai.co.uk/pages/restaurant-2

Telephone - 029 2022 6510