Cocoro

Can be called good Japanese food, but a little bit high price, usual in London.

Cocoro is a Japanese izakaya (a la carte) style restaurant on Marylebone Lane.
A short walk from Bond Street station will take you to the southern end of Marylebone lane, where this Japanese restaurant can be found.
Lunch menu here has never disappointed me. Between 18 and 25 per person, their lunch set is not cheap, but it’s worth it.
Inside the small restaurant, you are greeted by the familiar scent of sushi rice from the counter next to the entrance. Mixture of pale and dark wood that make up of the room’s overall tone creates welcoming ambiance.
From their extensive menu, I chose salmon & salmon roe set. It seems everything on lunch menu comes with a few small side plates. In addition to the box-​standard miso soup, my side plates consisted of spicy bean sprout, green salad and seasoned soba noodle. I think the most interesting among the three was the bean sprouts, which were spiced up with some red chili and vinegar. Everything comes in beautiful Japanese lacquered plates. So that’s another way to enjoy the meal here.
Salmon slices had beautiful streaks as you can see on the pictures. I’m never sure whether to pour soy sauce on top of the fish or use a separate plate and dip each slice at a time. I tend to mix and match but this time I didn’t see a dedicated plate for sauce, so I decided to go wild and pour the goodness over the salmon directly.
My favourite part is when you pick up a few pieces (balls? Grains?) of roes, place them on a slice of salmon, and roll it up like, well, a sushi. There is something special about biting into a delicious slice of salmon and discover a layer of these salty bubbles inside. So here you are. A little secret of Japanese dining. But I’ve never seen other people eating this way. So I’d suggest you practice with caution.

Hungry and in the area so we popped in to try the ramen. We ordered one regular tonkutsu and one spicy. Out came the appetisers of salad, two small pieces of fried tuna, boiled bean sprouts and miso soup. I don’t think you should serve miso soup with a ramen set, if you do make sure it doesn’t taste like water. I enjoyed the salad, not the tuna bites, and the spouts were off (as in gone bad). Maybe it was this that set my expectations low but the ramen was decent. No where near the top 3 but the charsu was meaty and had good flavour, the egg was over cooked for me but again good flavour, the broth had decent depth and a lot of spice going on so I enjoyed it. Service, was confused at best so not a big fan. They were running a loyalty scheme and asked to join before ordering which seemed odd (maybe better to mention when asked for the bill?) but I declined as I don’t think I would be going back as a regular. If your in the area and don’t want to go far for ramen, fine but don’t think it’s worth an exclusive journey.

Top 10 Japanese place in London. Really good sushi, donbury, ramen soup, katsu curry and steak with ponzu sauce. The downstairs has the traditional Japanese seating with booths.
V. busy in the evenings so book ahead.

Great Tonkotsu ramen: love the noodles and the soup. the pork wasnt really good but i always care about noodles and soup more when im eating ramen.
Great chicken gaarage.

A plus for atmosphere downstairs where you sit in modified traditional Japanese tables. However, you only get one piece of sushi per order so buyer beware. The tuna was fishy, the hamachi delicious but stay away from the octopus balls-​its a gooey nightmare! While the sushi cuts are nice, the quality is just ok. We had no problem with service but the people next to us got into a huge argument with management about their service and demanded to a free appetizer so maybe we were lucky. Overall, WAY too expensive for what it is. Soho Japan nearby is a way better deal for much better fish. You’ll take a hit on atmosphere but you won’t regret it when the bill comes.

We found this place by chance as we were walking to a different place we had planned to go to. Since our trip to Tokyo a few months ago, we miss good Japanese food so we thought we’d give it a try. We were not disappointed!
They seated us without a reservation at the last available table. Great ramen noodles (love that toppings were presented on a separate plate) and miso soup — in addition, we shared a sushi roll and some sashimi, which did not disappoint. Service was fast and friendly — we ordered wine and water and both were brought out quickly, with the food following shortly after.
We recommend the five fish roll and the eel sashimi (I think all of the ramen bowls are good, so I won’t be specific).
Added bonus: When I discovered the bathroom had a heated seat and bidet, I really felt like I was back in Japan!

My Japanese colleague recommended this place for my anniversary, so you think you’re going to a restaurant that is really authentic. And oh boy, it was. We requested to sit in the basement as my friend suggested, and it was all Japanese customers, served by Japanese waiters with so-​so English. The table next to us was a group of loud, drunk Japanese businessmen, with a Japanese singer doing karaōke with them. We felt we were back in Japan!
The sushi and sashimi was delicious, but the dishes are small and we couldn’t stop ordering more. We got tempura, udon noodles, meat, everything! The bill was shockingly huge but it was worth it for a very special night out.

nice noodles, good sushi,
Nice Unagi, but pricey

Tonkotsu ramen was pretty decent, though it wasn’t the best I had. The presentation was interesting as all the toppings were served on a separate plate and i got to add them to the bowl myself.
I also enjoyed the octopus karaage and shishamo appetizers. For dessert, three of us shared red bean ice cream, sesame ice cream and green tea crème brûlée. I’d recommend the sesame ice cream and the crème brûlée :)

Been here a couple of times for the ramen recently. I’ve been assured that it’s improved substantially in the last year or so in this department, although I’ve enjoyed the ramen I’ve had here both times (tonkotsu the first time, miso ramen the second time). I will say that this is, hands down, the prettiest bowl of ramen in London. Some people dislike that the toppings are presented on a separate plate, but I think the presentation works really well and, well, no one complains about the separate herbs/​beansprouts plate for phở so, well, deal with it.
My most recent bowl of miso ramen was really tasty (and thank you to Nida for giving me an extra slab of butter to melt in it), great flavour and the noodles were just right — I’m glad I ordered extra noodles at £2 a pop, although bear in mind that I am, quite frankly, ridiculous. The chashu pork is definitely the best I’ve had with ramen in London… it just melts away in your mouth and is delicious. Yup, next time I’mma get extra THAT too.
One tip which definitely earns its own paragraph: the yuzu and honey tea is DELICOUS. A++
This really should be a 4 star review, but the service was nothing short of dire when we went. Like… the staff weren’t rude, but they were so unattentive. Given the relatively small space of the restaurant, it really shouldn’t be such a trial to get someone’s attention. I rarely dock stars for poor service, but this crossed my threshold and I consider myself to be pretty damn patient. Secondly, the ramen is not cheap. £13 a bowl is steep, even if it wouldn’t be out of place walking down a catwalk. I guess the price is commensurate with its location, but even so, I needed the extra goodies. All things said though, genuinely good ramen and I will be back.

While I do think their ramen is top notch in terms of flavor, their service is absolutely horrendous.
So, our party of 5 gets seated. When we’re finally ready to order, we wait, then we wait a little more, servers are passing by us non-​stop. Then we finally try to flag someone down, and they tell us to wait. Then we wait a little more, so then we try to flag someone down again. So you get the picture… it literally took FOREVER to get someone to take our order.
Various dishes were ordered around the table, but I went for the Spicy Miso Ramen. When it finally arrived, all of its topping were separated from the noodles and broth. Not to mention, they seemed to be a bit sheisty with my toppings. I think I could have counted the little bits of corn kernels (approx 15 maybe)… which is pretty sad because I shouldn’t be able to count them (at least not without going through a lot of trouble).
Maybe I’ll return one day because the broth was really quite good. Service really needs to be worked on here. Maybe they need more staff, but I could swear I saw some staff people not doing a whole lot.

My wife had been meaning to visit here for a while, given the good recommendations she had heard. We came here for a mid-​week ramen treat after work.
The menu is massive. There are pages of sushi rolls and sashimi which look very expensive, so we flicked to the ramen section towards the back. The ramens are also expensive even for London standards (e.g.: £13 for a tonkotsu ramen).
We ordered the takoyaki for starter (one of our personal favourites from our visit to Tokyo several years ago) and each had a tonkotsu ramen. The takoyaki didn’t come in the firm balls we had expected, but it still tasted nice. The ramen, interestingly, came with all of the toppings on a side plate! You then have the option of excluding ingredients that you don’t like, but I just ended up tipping the lot into my bowl. The broth is the most important part and this was creamy and delicious. I would be nicer if it were warmer though. The pork slices were also well done, so it’s a shame that you only get two of them. The noodles were not overcooked. The volume of the bowl is greater than it seems — when it looked like I was almost done, I could still easily get full spoonfuls of broth to consume.
What brings the rating down is the service, which was forgetful and slow at times. A couple of times, they brought someone else’s food to our table. We asked the waitress for the bill, but it seems like she just forgot about it and went on to do other stuff. We called over the lady who looks like she may be the owner of the restaurant, and she sorted out the bill efficiently. The food is nice, but the experience is lowered because of her staff.
We also couldn’t help but overhear the experience of the group sitting behind us — they tried ordering many types of sushi roll only to hear, each time, that the restaurant had run out! It’s not a good look when you can’t even order certain things from the menu.

Popped in here for lunch because I had a particular craving for Japanese (my comfort food) and it’s the kind of food you can eat alone in a restaurant without feeling (too) weird. I was seated at a bench facing the sashimi/​fish counter. The restaurant was pretty bustling for a Monday lunchtime but service was quick and friendly.
I had a long read of the menu — it does go for some pages. I eventually settled on the sashimi and tempura set — £18. Quite pricey but I was pleased with what I got. I saw that other people were served their appetizer first, but for some reason all mine came out at the same time — the sashimi, the appetizer, the miso and the tempura. The gentleman next to me was laughing about (as was I) but I wasn’t bothered too much — just making sure I had the tempura and miso first so they didn’t go cold.
I really enjoyed the appetizer, it was three small dishes of salad as well as one with salmon. These were a light and refreshing start to the meal. The tempura was good, but not the best I’ve ever had. Some of the vegetables seemed undercooked inside and generally I didn’t love this part of the meal. The sashimi was of a better standard although I wasn’t sure which pieces I got (it was 4 types of sashimi, two of each type) and there were definitely some which I wouldn’t try again (if only I knew what they were!).
With my meal I had a yuzu and honey tea (I think) which was delicious (oishii!) and had a beautiful sweet lemon flavour to it.
I really enjoyed popping into Cocoro for lunch and next time I would definitely try the ramen after reading all the reviews here!

On vacation here in London and stumbled on this place.
Saw the picture of the Tonkotsu Ramen on the outside window and that brought us in. I’m a HUGE ramen fan after living in Japan for 15 years.
We all ordered the ramen – they have a spicy version of the Tonkotsu, so we all tried it.
It was really off-​the-​chart good. We all loved it. My daughter said it’s the best ramen she’s had in her life and my wife agreed. It’s definitely top 5 for me. No complaints.
I wish we had this place near us in California!
I can speak for any other food on the menu here beside the Tonkotsu Ramen… but I can certainly give two thumbs up for the ramen.
If you’re a ramen fan, this place will do you right!

One of the favorite ramen places among co-​workers and other foodie friends. Probably the best option for ramen in Marylebone.
Positives:
— Not super crowded. I was able to get a table right away at Friday dinner hour, this never happens in San Francisco.
— Great broth. Got tonkatsu ramen, the broth was very rich in flavour.
— Decent noodle.
— Friendly service.
Not so impressed with:
— Meat and egg. They came on the side. Pork slices was dry, and the half egg was fully cooked (I’d like to see egg yolk jigger pleeeease)
— Price. Two bowls of ramen and a small salad came to a total of 40+ pounds. Ouch.
It’s a good idea to take a friend here on a cold winter evening, have a hot bowl of ramen then hit the nice wine bar next door. I’m not so sure about being a regular though.

I can die happy now, knowing that I’ve found my favorite Tonkotsu ramen in London at Cocoro. I dragged my totally white, totally ramen-​ignorant boyfriend here on a Friday night at 9:30, and we were quickly seated with the sole purpose of warming up over bowls of soupy loveliness.
We ordered the £8 sashimi, and it was fresh, lightly dressed with fresh wasabi and soy sauce.
Next ordered the £13 Tonkotsu ramen and £13 Miso ramen.
Tonkotsu:
Noodles– JUST WHAT I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR. Most noodles at the ramen places I’ve been to here are too dry and not starchy enough, but Cocoro does it perfectly.
Soup– very creamy and flavorful, I absolutely loved it. Definitely creamier than Bone Daddy’s broth.
Egg– the only disappointment here as I wished the yolk was soft boiled
Pork– great balance between lean and fatty
Toppings– wish there were more mushrooms and bamboo, or at least options of adding more toppings like they do at Bone Daddy’s and Shoryu
Miso:
Noodles– wavy noodles, consistency was slightly al dente, loved it!
Soup– right amount of miso, delicious!
Toppings– corn and butter, just the way it should be done
Would definitely come back! I’m officially obsessed. Only gripe is that it’s expensive, but at this point I will pay anything for good tonkotsu broth.

I had no idea there were so many places to have ramen around London. We were tempted by all the other dishes and ordered some takoyaki, sushi and ramen to share. The sushi was delicious and fresh. The takoyaki, it was okay — I wanted it to be bigger and fried a bit more. Now for the ramen, we ordered the spicy option. I dunno, I thought the broth was a bit too salty that I can barely appreciate it.
The food is a little on the expensive side — just wished the food was a little better.

Das war vermutlich das japanischste Restaurant, in dem ich je war. Allein die Besucher waren überwiegend Asiaten und ein Großteil der Karte war in Schriftzeichen geschrieben. Eigentlich wollte ich die scharfe Ramen, aber die Kellnerin guckte mich an und sagte «Das ist vermutlich zu scharf für dich.» Na ok, man sieht es den Leuten wohl schon an, wer scharf verträgt und wer nicht.
Ich bekam die Suppe und die Zutaten separat, was von der Optik wirklich etwas hermachte. Nachdem ich alles untergemischt hatte und die Zutaten augewärmt waren, konnte ich auch essen. Die Suppe war lecker, aber haute mich nicht wirklich aus den Socken. Die Vorspeisen, die zur Mittagszeit inbegriffen sind, waren auch lecker und waren auch wieder wunderschön angerichtet.
Lediglich die Atmosphäre und die Freundlichkeit des Personals fand ich nicht besonders einladend. Alles in allem aber ein gutes Restaurants, das abends bestimmt angenehmer zu besuchen ist als mittags, wenn es brechend voll ist.

I snuck back for more ramen today. The lunchtime menu is more reasonable — although the ramen is still expensive at £13 for normal and £14 for spicy broth, the set meal does also include a selection of 3 appetisers and a couple of slices of orange with your bill and crucially, there’s no minimum £20 charge. The only blot with service was that the waitress asked whether I wanted rice (included in the set meal) but never returned with it.
I did also order some sashimi and can report some top grade super sweet scallop and wonderfully rich unagi (eel)
However, the main reason for my update is the toilet! The unisex toilet has one of those famous Japanese toilet seats with controls for warm water jets etc. I wasn’t brave enough to try it but if you fancy trying one in London, head to Cocoro!

Nom nom happy nom!
I was actually pretty worried about coming here…
3 different Japanese people told me that this is the best ramen in London… so they hyped it up a little… then when i mentioned ‘Cocoro’ to other friends, I found out that I seem to be the only person that didn’t know about this famous ramen. So I had high expectations.
You know when everyone tells you something is brilliant, when you finally get to see it/​try it, it is a big old let-​down that can’t possibly live up to your expectations? I was really worried that would happen here… I might have been saddened by unhappy noodles.
But No! I was pleasantly surprised by the ramen’s authenticity and sheer deliciousness! Yattaaaaa!
We must have arrived on a particularly noodle-​y day because by 7:30pm, the only ramen flavour left on the menu was tonkatsu (!) I had been dreaming of tonkatsu ramen all day, so didn’t mind. It appeared with the delicious milky-​looking soup and all the trimmings.
*More amazing-​ness*
The drinks menu had everything!
Beers: Asaki, Yebisu, Kirin and Sapporo
Shochu (sake): They had pages and pages of the stuff! Both the Atsukan hot-​sake and sooo many types of decent Shochu to drink chilled.
Umeshu (plum wine): There was a whole page of umeshu to choose from! It was £6 a glass, so not cheap… but Oooh I want to try some more!
*The less good bits*
— They have a strange rule about spending at least £20 per person.
— The gyoza, were nice, chunky and filling… but not very Japanese.
— They forgot to bring the extra seasonings for our ramen until Kevin asked them about it (even though we had 8 bowls of ramen at our table — doh!)
It might be hard to bring Japanese friends here… they would be shocked at the price for what is essentially cheap, happy food. However it was sooo nice to have decent ramen that Cocoro still gets 5 stars from me.