Ramenhead, which first opened on Parliament Street in 2022, has reopened at 75 Kloof Street as Ramenhead Izakaya, with an expanded offering built around a wood-fired oven, a sushi counter and a courtyard sake bar.
“Ramen is still the starting point for us, and it always will be,” says chef and co-owner Peter Tempelhoff, who runs the restaurant with chef Ashley Moss and service and beverage director Jennifer Hugé. Julia du Toit is executive chef, and Ryan Reyes runs the sushi counter.
The Ramenhead Izakaya kitchen team. Picture: Bruce Tuck/Ramenhead
At the back of the new dining room sits a Yamato noodle machine, the first on the continent. It cuts several styles of noodle, each matched to a broth, and the noodles are portioned by hand and rested for at least 48 hours before cooking. The tonkotsu broth simmers for 18 hours, and the tonkotsu remains a firm favourite. The thin Hakata noodles are springy and carry the deep umami broth well. The pork belly chashu is sliced thin and seared, and the ajitamago, with its jammy yolk, adds more richness. Three other slurp-worthy bowls join it: tori paitan with chicken wonton, a vegetable Sapporo with sesame miso and smoked shiitake, and hiyashi chuka, served cold.
Every table starts with otoshi, a small snack from the kitchen. In Japan it comes with a cover charge; here it’s on the house as a welcome snack.
The izakaya plates include yellowtail tataki with apple and daikon salsa, karaage with yuzu and dill ranch, and Duroc pork belly in a red miso glaze from the wood fire. The whole XL chokka, cooked over the fire and finished with white miso butter, garlic, lime and chives, is particularly brilliant. The chokka is tender, and the miso butter turns into a rich, savoury sauce around it.
Ramen remains at the heart of Ramenhead Izakaya, with four bowls built around house-made noodles and slow-cooked broths. Picture: Bruce Tuck/Ramenhead
Sushi is new to Ramenhead too. The kitchen makes oshizushi, the pressed sushi of Osaka, which is close to nigiri but a little different: the fish and rice are layered in a box, pressed and then cut, so each piece is denser and neater. There are three versions: yellowtail with lemon aioli, green chilli and coriander; tuna with grated daikon and spring onion; and grilled aubergine with corn and kosho, sesame and spring onion. The rice used is Koshihikari from Ishikawa Prefecture, cooked in Cape mountain spring water, and the fish comes from small-scale fishers in the Western Cape — sustainability being a driving force of the FYN Group.
Dessert is a short list that includes konbini sandos, the strawberry-and-cream sandwiches of Japanese convenience stores, and a Don Pedro made with Suntory whisky, for a little local nod.
The omakase (chef’s choice menu), available to be ordered for the whole table, runs through a selection from the full menu: chilled fish and sushi, tempura and karaage, a small bowl of ramen and dessert, allowing for a taste of the complete experience.
In the courtyard, Hugé pours 23 sakes, from honjozo to junmai daiginjo, by the bottle, by the glass or in flights of three or six. There are also Japanese and local beers on tap and a short list of local wines, but order at least one of her Japanese-inspired cocktails.
Christoph Karl of Guideline did the fit-out with Tempelhoff, working from Tristan du Plessis’s concept for the original shop. The 10 ramen bowls that were hung above the Parliament Street kitchen now hang at the entrance, and the neon Ramenhead sign sits above tables facing Kloof Street. A passage of charred shou sugi ban timber leads past alcoves for sake, resting noodles and merchandise.
The new Ramenhead Izakaya is darker and moodier than the original Parliament Street restaurant. Picture: Bruce Tuck/Ramenhead
Down a short flight of stairs is the main dining room, with black walls and ceiling. Along the left run panels modelled on shoji, the paper-screen windows of traditional Japanese homes, and on the right the open kitchen passes are clad in carved dark timber. Four Formakami pendants light the room. A central pillar is covered in pages of Naruto, stained with soy sauce and sealed to look as if it’s been there for ages. Meanwhile, the courtyard walls are painted in shades of miso: white, brown and red — as a playful nod to the favoured Japanese ingredient.
The new space is more mature and moodier than Parliament Street, though details like the Naruto pillar and the ramen bowl bathroom sinks stop it taking itself too seriously. With izakaya plates, sushi and a sake bar now alongside the ramen, there are even more reasons to visit, and the ramen is better than ever. It works for a date night over the omakase, drinks and small plates in the courtyard, or a quick bowl at the counter. On Thursdays resident DJs play vinyl, for those after a higher-energy yet still delectable dinner.
Bookings can be made here.
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