The Slurp Shop - Bristol Food Review

Posted on: 2017-01-13

Our rating:

The team that brought us Sticks & Broth and Khao & Bao on Baldwin Street have added another winning restaurant to their ever-increasing ramen empire with The Slurp Shop on Denmark Street, just behind the Bristol Hippodrome.


Opening a few weeks before Christmas, the new venue inhabits a hitherto unused corner of the Wah Yan Hong Oriental food store, and when my dad and I ducked inside out of the relentless rain on a cold, rainy Thursday lunchtime for a much-needed pit-stop, the place was already doing a healthy, brisk trade. 

The Slurp Shop - Bristol Food Review

It's a small but perfectly formed spot that has been utilized well with a few colourful Japanese murals adorning the space to liven up the whitewashed brick walls, while there's a smattering of exposed Edison bulbs and a few tables and stools for diners in desperate need of their noodle fix. 

 

A tad on the chilly side, I had to keep my coat for the duration but the imminent arrival of my ramen quickly vanquished any coldness with food that was not only sensationally delicious but also fabulously hearty and warming. 

 

Divided into ramen (which straddles the £9-£10 mark), 'small bites' priced between £4-£5 and add-ons such as pork belly (£2) and press tofu (£1.50), it's a short, concise menu, as is the drinks list which offers a selection of beers, wines, soft drinks and tea. Diminutive the menu might be but, as we were soon to discover, the portions and the flavours are absolutely epic. 

The Slurp Shop - Bristol

From the five ramen dishes on offer, I plumped for Sloppy Joes (£9.50), a massive, deep black bowl full of marvelously soft noodles swimming in a red miso pork bone broth and topped with spicy dan dan minced beef, menma, corn and kale and topped with spring onions, bean sprouts, soy egg and nori.  

 

My dad opted for Porky (£9.50) which consisted of pork bone broth, slow cook pork neck chashu, roast garlic oil and kale and similarly generously topped with spring onions, bean sprouts, soy egg and nori.

 

On such a grim, nippy day, this deep bowl of ramen-based awesomeness was the perfect antidote and expediently dismissed any winter chills. We certainly didn't have difficult adhering to the restaurant's 'Get your slurp on' tagline either, using the large ladle-sized spoons in conjunction with chopsticks to scoop up the noodles to almost comical effect. 

The Slurp Shop - Bristol Review

Ramen struggled to stay on our spoons like a mass of confused, discombobulated worms as we dutifully slurped, splashed and sucked our way through the seemingly endless bowl of deliciously warming delights. Dad's glasses steamed up at regular intervals thus rendering him in an even greater state of noodle-chomping bewilderment, while my shirt received an intermittently judicious splattering of the sensationally rich, piquant broth as I enthusiastically tried to wolf it all down.

 

The meat in both our ramen dishes was faultless; my spicy dan dan minced beef packing a suitably zingy punch as well as being sublimely tender, and my dad's generous slabs of pork were expertly cooked and literally just fell apart.

 

Between all this, we sporadically chomped on chicken gyoza (£5) from the 'small bites' list, five sumptuously moist, tender steamed dumpling parcels plunged headfirst into the accompanying salty, tangy black vinegar/soy dip. 

The Slurp Shop - A Bristol Review

Service was polite, slick and professional and during the whole time we were there the staff were certainly kept busy and on their toes with an unremitting, steady stream of diners wanting to either eat in or take away. 

 

Word of mouth is obviously getting around, and with the quality and quantity of the food on offer here it's not difficult to see why.  It might be January when people may be inclined to eat more healthily - and it certainly ticks the box in that regard - but this is first-class fare you can eat and feel good about any time of the year.

 

Boasting genuinely supreme, plentiful top-notch food using well-sourced, authentic ingredients, this is another gastronomic feather in the cap and culinary triumph for the Sticks & Broth gurus, and it deserves to do well.

 

Atmosphere 4/5

Service 4/5

Food 5/5

Value 4/5

 

The Slurp Shop is located at 13 Denmark Street, Bristol, BS1 5DY. For more info please visit their Facebook Page.



Article by:

Jamie Caddick

Jamie is a writer, blogger, journalist, critic, film fan, soundtrack nerd and all-round Bristolian good egg.  He loves the music of Philip Glass, the art of Salvador Dali, the writings of Charles Bukowksi and Hunter S Thompson, the irreverence of Harry Hill, and the timeless, straw-chomping exuberance of The Wurzels.  You can sometimes find him railing against a surging tide of passing cyclists, or gorging himself senseless on the Oriental delights of a Cosmos all-you-can-eat buffet.