#koyasoho

A long long time ago now, JW posted a video of Crave.tv’s interview of Shuko Oda, head chef of Koya Bar (see video here) and following that, I visited to check out the English Breakfast Udon (read about that here).  Now, it’s been going strong all these years since and when I was craving udon the other day, it seemed the perfect opportunity to go back and visit.

It was a super hot day so we were looking for something refreshing.  Starting with a seaweed salad was perfect.  It was light, zingy with a citrusy dressing and nice and cool!  Very simple but very good!

Considering the crazy hot weather, we both went for hiyashi udon which are cold noodles and then with a cold broth to pour over it.  I went for the saba which is mackerel that came with a bunch of leaves on top.  Hiyashi udon on a hot day goes down really well.  The noodles are super bouncy because they’re cold and the broth is just really cooling.  The fish was fresh and full of flavour as well.  It really hit the spot!

My friend ordered the mushroom and shiso.  This looked really good too with the mushrooms marinated in what looked like a soy based sauce. 

We also ordered some tempura.  It came with 2 prawn and a bunch of veggies.  It was really well fried, light and not oily at all.  The prawns were good and fresh as well.

The last thing we ordered was a special of fried sardines.  They’d been butterflied and then panko crumbed.  It came with a runny mayo type sauce and a pickle sauce.  The sardines themselves were really good but with the sauces, it was really good!  The sourness of the pickle and the creaminess of the mayo really complemented the mackerel.  This was super tasty!

As far as I’m concerned, Koya Bar is still one of the best noodle places in London.  The udon really is amazing and the side dishes are also pretty damn good!

Koya Soho, 50 Frith Street, W1D 4SQ