Wagamama Tantanmen Beef Brisket Ramen

Wagamama tantanmen beef brisket ramen costs £19.60 and carries 713 kcal, which makes it the most expensive bowl on the wagamama ramen menu, and it earns the position. Slow cooked beef brisket sits over ramen noodles in an extra rich chicken broth with menma, kimchee, spring onion, coriander, chilli oil and a tea stained egg. Tantanmen is Japan's take on Sichuan dan dan noodles, and wagamama keeps the spirit: warmth and depth first, raw heat second.

The brisket is the point. Braised until it gives up entirely, it shreds into the broth as you eat, so the bowl gets richer from top to bottom. Kimchee brings the sour funk that cuts through all that fat, menma adds bite, and the chilli oil sits on the surface in red beads you can stir in or avoid. The tea stained egg is wagamama's version of the ramen egg: soft boiled, then soaked in tea and soy until the white turns amber and the yolk stays fudgy. Split it into the broth halfway through and the last third of the bowl turns thicker and rounder than the first.

At 713 kcal and roughly 36 g of protein, the tantanmen sits in the middle of the ramen list for calories despite eating like the biggest meal on it. The salt is substantial, above what the NHS suggests for a full day if you drink every drop, so the broth is where restraint pays. Allergen wise it lists gluten, wheat, egg, fish and soya, with no vegetarian or gluten free marking.

On the question of how much is the tantanmen beef brisket ramen, £19.60 is the standard figure and location pricing moves it slightly, with central London and airport sites at the top of the range. Against the gochujang pork belly ramen it is the deeper, less sweet of the two big meat bowls, and against the grilled chicken ramen it is a different meal altogether: half as heavy on the menu page, twice as heavy in the spoon. Order it with beef brisket and kimchee gyoza if you want the theme carried through the whole table, or balance it with something light: the high five juice on the drinks list does more against this bowl than another salty side would.