Paris has a much improved ramen scene that’s really developed over the last few years. What was once a short list of spots around the rue Sainte-Anne has spread across the city, and the standard has risen with it. Toy is certainly the most interesting arrival in quite some time.
It’s a small restaurant on rue Saint-Nicolas, a quiet street tucked behind Bastille in the 12th. The kitchen is run by George Black, a fellow Brit who built a reputation through a series of pop-ups before finally finding a permanent home. He pumps out modern, creative bowls of ramen – it’s not traditional but it’s very good.
Toy’s creative approach may not be for purists or anyone after a thick, rich tonkotsu broth. But if you like ramen and fancy trying something a little different, it’s well worth the trip to the 12th.
Worth a visit Modern, creative ramen rather than traditional near Bastille. Reservations, Ambiance & Service
Toy is small and tables are snapped up days in advance. Reservations are taken online and I’d strongly advise booking. They keep a few walk-in spots, which is how I ended up going, and I waited around 40 minutes for a table on a Saturday afternoon.
The room is pared back and modern, more of a counter-and-tables set-up than a traditional Japanese ramen-ya. It’s a nice modern spot with an industrial, minimalist vibe – all very east Paris.
Service is quick and friendly, although the wait for food was on the longer side given the small kitchen. Note that the drinks menu is relatively small and the wine offering is natural only.
The Menu & Food at Toy Ramen
The menu is short and it’s all about the broths. The base is a smoked eel dashi, which is used in their non-veggie bowls: a shio (salt) and a shoyu (soy). There’s a white miso version for vegetarians, built on mushroom and coconut oil, and in summer they’ll usually have a cold ramen on too.
The eel dashi is really what sets Toy apart. Most ramen in Paris uses pork or chicken base broths, and building the base around smoked eel gives it a savoury, faintly iodine depth you don’t find elsewhere in the city.
We kicked off with their Singapore fried chicken (€12), finished with nori, mayo and a sort of homemade tonkatsu sauce (sauce pruneaux). For me it tasted more like a traditional karaage than anything you might find in Singapore but regardless, it’s very good. Perfect cook on the chicken and great depth of flavour – a lovely start.
For the ramen we took both the shio and the shoyu. The shio is the lighter, more delicate of the two, with the shoyu carrying a bit more depth and umami from the soy seasoning.
The noodles were well cooked with a nice bite. The soy-marinated egg was jammy in the middle and well seasoned. One very lovely and unusual addition was the prawn and pork dumpling. Juicy and perfectly cooked, this really made it for me.
Each bowl came with a couple of slices of incredible pork neck chashu. The fat marbling gives great flavour and keeps each slice very juicy. Interestingly, it’s seared on an indoor Japanese BBQ which adds even more flavour to the meat. The only issue with this is that after a bit of agitation from picking up the noodles, the crust starts to really leach into the broth. This leads to a rather overpowering smoky flavour in both bowls – interesting at first, but by the end that’s all you taste.
My Verdict
Toy is doing something genuinely different. That smoked eel dashi is a real point of difference in a city where most ramen follows the same template, and the attention to every element in the bowl is obvious.
My only gripe with Toy is the effect of the BBQ chashu on the broth. The smokiness it imparts overpowers something delicate. That said, every other element was spot-on – the pork included, it’s delicious in its own right – resulting in a genuinely unique and interesting bowl of ramen.
If you live here, you’re a ramen nerd, or you’re on a repeat trip and fancy something that isn’t French, it’s well worth the journey out to the 12th.
I paid for this meal in full. This review is entirely independent.What to know before you visit
- Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
- Book online, and do it early – tables go days in advance. There are a few walk-in spots, but expect to wait (40 minutes on a Saturday afternoon for me).
- The broths are built on a smoked eel dashi: shio and shoyu versions, plus a white miso vegetarian option with mushroom and coconut oil.
- Cold ramen usually appears on the menu in summer.
Address: 21 Rue Saint-Nicolas, 75012 Paris
Website: https://www.instagram.com/toy__paris/
