tonkotsu
Shoreditch, London
Island kitchens are operationally challenging. Dish washing, prep, staff areas (the "dirty boring stuff") still needs to happen invisibly. Making that work required careful choreography of staff movement and service flow while maintaining theatre without sacrificing function.
The other challenge was delivering a paired-back aesthetic on a startup budget. There's a counterintuitive truth in restaurant design: showing less often costs more. Every material choice and junction becomes critical when you can't hide behind decorative layers. The chopstick installation alone required calculating weight loads, suspension systems, and lighting integration, all to create something that feels effortless.
This was also Tonkotsu's first move outside Soho, where diners choose purely on food quality. In Shoreditch, the space itself needed to be a draw: design in its own right, not just a vessel for ramen.
Tonkotsu wanted every customer close to the theatre of cooking, with their sustainability values woven into the space itself. Our answer was an island kitchen, bisected so diners could move through it, with all seating arranged around the action. Above, a ceiling installation made from reused chopsticks creates a sculptural canopy, subtle enough that you might notice it as texture first, only realising mid-meal that you're looking at thousands of suspended chopsticks.
The material palette is deliberately restrained (just four or five key materials) allowing craft and detail to speak for itself. Where some restaurant work layers textures, Tonkotsu is about precision: how materials meet, how light catches surfaces, how restraint creates warmth.
Tonkotsu Shoreditch performed exceptionally well and redefined what the brand could be: a beautifully curated space that elevated theatre and craft to the same level as the food itself.
More significantly, it cemented a relationship with their development lead who has since brought us to subsequent ventures (one of several clients who've become advocates). For us, it demonstrated range beyond being known for one thing.
Tonkotsu showed we could work with equal confidence in a different register: contemporary restraint, craft expressed through precision, a space where every detail is deliberate because there's nowhere to hide.
Tonkotsu came to us at a defining moment. After establishing themselves with a handful of intimate ramen bars in Soho - the kind of tight, energetic spaces where diners sit shoulder-to-shoulder over steaming bowls, they were ready to move into their first purpose-built shell. This wasn't about refreshing an existing space or taking over someone else's restaurant. This was a grey box in a new Shoreditch development, waiting to become their flagship outside of Soho.
The challenge was translating what made Tonkotsu special - incredible food, theatrical preparation, an almost visceral connection to the craft of ramen-making - into a larger, more polished space without losing the soul that had built their reputation.
From the owners:
“I have worked with MorenoMasey on several projects and have been impressed each time. Rod and his team have great processes to ensure excellent communication flows between their team, the various contractors and me and my colleagues. As a firm they are particularly good at dealing with more technical and mentally challenging projects. On top of this skill set is a fantastic design aesthetic.”