Opening next month, Wonton Charlie’s will be an 18-seat restaurant that will focus solely on one dish: wonton noodle soup.
Drawing inspiration from Hong Kong’s noodle bars, Wonton Charlie’s will serve a deliberately concise menu that allows diners to customise the Cantonese cuisine staple.
Egg noodles will be made fresh each day from high-gluten flour, lye water and egg yolks to achieve a signature springy, chewy texture. Wonton options will include fish skin, said to be unique to Hong Kong dining culture and made using fish in the wrapper dough and filled with seasoned pork; prawn; and pork with the option to add on fish balls.
Diners will then be able to choose to have them served in chicken broth, made with ginger, spring onion and dried shrimp, and flavoured with chicken fat, or fish broth made from fish bones, dried shrimp, sesame oil and flounder powder, a distinctive ingredient in Hong Kong noodle soup either with broth and noodles, or lo mein-style with noodles tossed in a fragrant soy, ginger and garlic dressing.
Also available will be crispy fish skins to snack on, sour plum tea, free hot tea, and local beers.
Wonton Charlie’s is part of hospitality group 6 of 1, which also operates Mr Bao in Peckham, Daddy Bao and Good Measure in Tooting, and Master Bao in Westfield London.
“In Hong Kong we found the intimate, functional and honed in focus at these noodle bars so inspiring and wanted to bring that energy to our site in east London,” says Frank Yeung and Abhinav Malde, co-founders of 6 of 1.
“It felt important to give the dish the same level of respect it’s given across the city, so we have worked hard to make sure every element can be made in house, to achieve that same obsessive level of attention and delicious outcome!
Wonton Charlie’s opens on 7 November.