Longtime lovers of endless bowls of soupy Japanese goodness will be in their element from this weekend as Matsudai, the pop-up and mail-order ramen chiefs finally opens the doors of their first permanent home in Grangetown, Cardiff.
The new bricks and mortar space for Matsudai - which opens on Saturday, August 6 to customers - sees the former Natwest Bank building on Clare Road, previously Lufkin Coffee, transformed into an industrial-looking space but punctuated with bright Japanese pop-art and prints from local artists and a noodle bar overlooking the open kitchen where the cooking will be done.
The brains behind Matsudai, James Chant, was after a venue in a neighbourhood with a similar vibe to where he started the pop-up, on City Road, the other side of Cardiff. After a potential home popped up in one of the arcades in town turned out not to be, the Grangetown spot appeared on the horizon.
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"We were looking at spaces in the city centre and it never felt right," said the former music manager, PR and musician. "I just wanted to be back on City Road and that's when this came up. It felt like the right space. Clare Road is noisy and multicultural and is full of terrible drivers, like City Road. It's wicked here in Grangetown, we've got a Caribbean place and a coffee shop, the Grange is around the corner and our landlord owns Legends across the road and he's always popping in.
"I've been coming to Grangetown since I was two or three years old because my aunty lived around the corner."
With seasonal menus through the summer and into winter, the rich soups and noodles will vary in style, ingredients and flavours, from summer mazesobas to tonkotsu and tantanmens, and there will always be different specials and a choice of starters and desserts too.
It's a detailed cuisine with many elements to be brought together to make a delicious bowl of food, how did James get into the ramen life?
"I never tried ramen until 2016 maybe," he revealed. "I definitely had an interest in Japanese culture and their food. So many techniques run contrary to British and French cooking... cloudy soups and boiling things to within an inch of its life. People can just come here for a hearty bowl of food. There are so many different styles it's hard to pinpoint. We do everything from complex dashis with chicken soups and light salt bases to really rich pork bone soups and tantanmen which is spicy. There's a full array of different styles."
Before opening at The Banks, Matsudai Ramen’s successful pop-up events have taken over kitchens in London, Manchester and Bristol. Not even Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdowns could slow it down; James was quick to adapt and continued to win fans by delivering thousands of freshly prepared DIY ramen kits all over the UK. But for someone who hadn't even eaten ramen until a few years ago, or stepped in a professional kitchen, how does it feel to be opening a restaurant?
"It still feels really weird, it's so far out of my comfort zone," he confessed. "Every couple of months that passes something happens that makes it even more surreal, like appearing with Uncle Roger (the TikTok and YouTube chef with 6m followers) or Jay Rayner [buying our kits] it's just very very strange.
"I was just a guy making ramen in his house, took it too far and all of a sudden... I've definitely got mad imposter syndrome at the moment," James said honesty. "There are jobbing chefs out there, worked their whole lives in kitchens and really care about food and know what they are doing and I've just swung along and started a restaurant. I find that hard to reconcile in my brain sometimes."
But for James his journey to Grangetown has been one that's come from a passion for his new craft and one he should be proud of.
"Everything about Matsudai has been serendipitous, all the timing has been perfect, it's kind of like the King Midas effect, which is very weird but the loveliest luckiest thing.
"I'm really proud of it and there's been a lot of work gone into it. But when you love doing something, and when you're drawn to do it, you don't have a choice. It's not hard work. It's just the thing that you do."
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