After a recent visit to the Isai Ramen restaurant, I went to another popular place specializing in this Japanese soup – the bistro BON Fresh Ramen & Soba in Prague’s Anděl district. In its menu, a hungry visitor will find around thirty dishes that will reliably satisfy their taste for good Japanese food.
For an appetizer, I chose chicken karaage for 135 CZK (about 5.40 EUR). Small pieces of marinated chicken meat are in this recipe coated in a mixture of flour, starch, and spices and then fried. The karaage was beautifully tender and juicy, and the flavored mayonnaise went great with the dish. This dish is considered a basic meal in Japanese izakaya (pub) restaurants. In Japan, it is also a popular street food.
For the main course, I chose Tonkotsu ramen for 239 CZK (about 9.60 EUR) on the staff’s recommendation. Tonkotsu ramen is characterized by a rich, creamy pork broth. It is usually prepared for several hours until the broth acquires a strong taste. The tonkotsu ramen was complemented by wheat noodles, slices of pork, a soft-boiled egg, bean sprouts, corn, spring onions, and sesame. A perfect meal that I would recommend to everyone.
The second ordered soup was Tantanmen ramen, also for 239 CZK (about 9.60 EUR). It is a ramen with a very spicy broth, minced pork, a soft-boiled egg, bean sprouts, sesame, and spring onions. It was also flavored with mayu oil, which is an oil made by cooking garlic and ginger in oil. The resulting product has a dark color and a strong smoky taste, which is used to add depth and complexity to the broth. Again, a perfect and very tasty meal.
Mochi is a Japanese dessert made from sticky rice that has been steamed, ground, and worked into a sticky dough. The dough is usually shaped into small round cakes, which can be filled with sweet or savory fillings, or eaten plain. Mochi is a versatile ingredient in Japanese cuisine. There is mochi ice cream, mochi filled with sweet bean paste, grilled mochi and mochi is also used as an ingredient in soups or stews. The mochi with matcha paste for 69 CZK was great (about 2.80 EUR).
But the mochi filled with sesame paste for the same price was dangerously close in taste. If you really like mochi, you can easily buy them in Asian food stores, for example in Prague’s Sapa in the store Tamda Foods.
In the restaurant, you can have for example also a non-alcoholic yuzu lemonade for 89 CZK (about 3.60 EUR). Yuzu is a citrus fruit originating from East Asia, specifically from China and Japan. It is a cross between a tangerine and a lemon, with a distinctive, complex taste that is a combination of sweet, sour, and floral tones. Yuzu is often used by Michelin chefs for its exoticism and its use is versatile. The lemonade was great.
The interior of BON Fresh Ramen & Soba Bistro is stylized into the environment of a Japanese street with food stalls. The walls are covered with corrugated sheet metal combined with wood, tables are placed on firmly connected crates of bottles, and the walls are covered with clippings from newspapers and manga magazines.
Seating is available on stylish plastic chairs without a backrest, which are not very comfortable. You probably won’t spend long hours visiting the bistro. But that’s not the point. It’s about the great Japanese food you get here. BON Fresh Ramen & Soba has branches in Prague besides Anděl also in Letná and Vinohrady. I will gladly return to it for ramen again.
Bon appetit!
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