Noodle Bars in London

[camp_dick]

I got just what I wanted at a noodle bar called Samurai on Panton Street early on Saturday evening. I was walking through the West End to catch a bus on Haymarket, thinking about miso ramen and kind of regretting not having stopped off at Satsuma in Wardour Street for their salmon ramen, or the HK Diner, lower down, to try their vegetarian Shanghai noodles (anyone been?)

But, lo and behold, there's this place I've never seen before, empty at six o'clock with a sushi bar in the front and just what I want on the menu. Nipponese, with crossed swords on the walls and Geisha-like waitresses. I had v.acceptable veg tempura with a correct, warm dipping sauce; salmon miso ramen with spinach and some worrying pickles lurking like unfunny slugs; plus two beers, all for twenty squid. No waiting.

I was the only person in the place at six o'clock. As I scarfed the tempura, three theatrical types came in and ordered tea for four before being joined by - ta, ra! - Victoria Wood. Large as life, like, but dead natural. Two of her mates had Yasai Yaki Soba and the third had a soup ramen dish. Ms Wood stuck to tea and talked about 'the show' (presumably, Acorn Antiques, the Musical). From what I could earwig across an empty dining room...

So, anyway. My Revised Top 3 West End Noodle Shops are now:

3. Ryo - formerly known as Hamine - on Brewer Street. Proving that you can take the pork off the miso ramen, but you can't take the lustrous jewels of pork fat out of the soup. No matter how you pile on those beansprouts you KNOW you're pigging...

2. Satsuma in Wardour Street. The noodle bar wagamama could have been, if it was run by the Tong and not by fat white guys in suits. Looking somewhat sloppy these days, but still a first rate salmon miso ramen and good raw fish (if you are that way).

1. Samuari in Panton Street: real Japanese, prompt service; good noodles and tempura, looks like the sushi might be OK, bento boxes; (used to be) empty apart from Victoria Wood and her mates.

Chewing over:

* I've never sat down in Soba. Or Miso. They just look clueless.

** Haven't done 'shag-ya-mama' for donkeys. Can't be any good, can it?

*** HongKong Diner; WTF?

Edited February 27, 2005 by camp_dick (log)

[Hallie]

I'm so totally embarassed to admit this but I actually like Wagamama. Like you, I boycotted it for about two years and then got dragged there for a work lunch. I was so surprised to see that they had re-vamped the menu a bit and added a few more interesting things. I had a lovely, lightly tempura battered piece of hake with soupy ramen noodles which did not disappoint. Obviously, this is not the place to go for strict Japanese. Its new menu is a bit more fusion - with a number of Thai inspired dishes. They've also added desserts to the menu. Basically, I'm now more than happy to go there, but Roka it ain't - nor am I kidding myself that this represents anything other than a reliable lunch.

I was at Satsuma about two weeks ago with a friend. Yes, much better than Wagamama - hands down. But something really worries me about that place - the state of the toilets. If the adage; you can judge a restaurant's kitchen by the cleanliness of the loos holds true then I'd be a bit concerned.

[UkFoodie]

Satsuma all the way!

[camp_dick]

I stopped by Satsuma the other day, craving miso ramen, and found that they no longer serve soup noodles and haven't for, like, a year. Can it really be that long? I settled for yaki soba, but told the waitress I'd be taking my business to Samurai in future. She replied that she lives in Panton Street and had assumed that Samurai can't be any good, because it's run by Koreans!

[battleofthebulge]

Satsuma.

Udon noodles.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

and their white wine's not bad, either.

[origamicrane]

ryo!!!

no other noodle bar stays open tiil 3am

[battleofthebulge]

Where's ryo?

[origamicrane]

Where's ryo?

←

84 Brewer Street

[origamicrane]

i know its not the west end

but some of the best noodle dishes i think are the vietnamese restaurants down in Dalston.

Tay Do is the best all rounder down there

I think Song Que is the best for pho(but nothing else)

or if you want the best value cafe east down in Surrey Quaye is excellent looks like a greasy spoon cafe (well it is during the daytime) but they serve a damn fine beef pho.

Edited August 5, 2005 by origamicrane (log)

[circeplum]

I got just what I wanted at a noodle bar called Samurai on Panton Street early on Saturday evening.

i really liked samurai. a class act. the home-made gyoza were phenomenal.

x

[Ian]

One of my best friends opened Samurai as head chef but recently moved on. It's good to know standards are still being maintained.

All the best,

--

Ian

[camp_dick]

One of my best friends opened Samurai as head chef but recently moved on.

So, is he Korean or what?

[RickBehl]

My vote for best Japanese noodles (ramen) goes to Hamine on Brewer St. They do fantastic Cha-Shou ramen. Soupy ramen noodles in a great stock topped with slices of roast pork. Delish !

Rgds

Rick

[camp_dick]

My vote for best Japanese noodles (ramen) goes to Hamine on Brewer St. They do fantastic Cha-Shou ramen. Soupy ramen noodles in a great stock topped with slices of roast pork. Delish !

←

You can't be that much of a fan - and evidently didn't bother to read this thread before posting - or you'd know that Hamine changed its name to Ryo several years ago

[RickBehl]

My apologies, just skimmed the topic before posting !

Nice to know you are a fan too. Actually I went there recently and never even noticed the name change. Just had one thing on my mind on that rainy evening, that one thing being the Cha-Shou ramen !

Rgds

Rick (who will try and read a bit more of the previous posts before posting)

[Raj Banerjee]

Thoroughly agree with Tay Do Cafe in Dalston Kingsland - was there this evening and had the pho and the cold noodles with the grilled minced pork - delish! The minced beef with lemongrass starter is also a fave (tho not a noodle - sorry, off topic!).

I am so excited to hear about Ryo and Samurai...I live in London and eat at these sorts of places all the time, so its nice to hear confirmed favourites.

Someone was asking about HK Diner and I have to admit that this is the place I stop off at 3am after a night out - they are awesome, even when one is sober. It is a cafe tho, so I would stick to the chinese cafe staples - the one plate meals focussing on bbq/roast meats with rice or noodles or soup noodles. My favourite is obviously Sam Siu Fan (3 roast meats - roast duck, roast pork belly and char siu pork on rice, but, depending usually on the number of beers, I may well have it with crispy chow mein - we all know the grease is good for soaking up the beers right???)

As for other noodle places, it seems too obvious to mention (and you all may disagree) but I do love the char kwetio at busaba

Crispy chicken chow mein at Golden Palace in Harrow (5mins from the Ma and Pa's place) is my fave chicken noodle dish tho...thoroughly recommend the place for everything, tho it most often gets lauded (and rightly so) for its dim sum.

Cheers,

Raj

[camp_dick]

I tried the new wagamama @ South Bank. It looks good: a smaller unit than their optimum, but nicely done out. Things started well with promptly delivered spicy carrot juice. Mmm. Then, quickly, came veg gyoza which were flaccid, only seared on one side, and fell apart upon contact with the dipping sauce. They didn't taste of much, but I was hungry so I scarfed them down. Then, quite a long wait. Why? I thought the idea @ wagamama is to cook items as soon as the order is received and to dispatch them as soon as they're cooked, so why am I gazing around the room, wondering where my noodles are? I've ordered Yasai Itameru (v) (you might detect a theme emerging here ) which is flat white rice noodles in a coconut based soup with stir-fried pak choi, tofu, red onion, beansprouts, sweet potato and coriander. Again, it's not very good. It is as described on the menu, but completely uninspired. The soup lacks that lip-smacking slurpability imparted by the judicious use of lemongrass. The stir-fried veg were poorly chopped, so that I encountered big fat slices of red onion were I would have preferred slivers. It wasn't bad, but it was dull.

I noticed that there were no Oriental faces in the kitchen. In fact, no Orientals were visible in the entire unit, among staff and customers. The waitress advised me on the pronounciation of 'itameru' but I bet she's been no nearer Nippon than I. Which is not even close! I ignored the dessert menu - an innovation since my last visit to wagamama in 1998! - and called for the bill, paid it, and then waited bloody ages for my change. Eventually it was delivered to the people sitting immediately next to me. An appropriately clumsy end to a totally so-so experience. So what? Well, the reason I'm telling you all this is because, according to Zagat, wagamama is the most popular restaurant in London! I mean, I know Zagat sucks and nobody really bothers with it, but how can a place so mediocre be so acclaimed?

Terry Durack has his own 'lowest common denominator' theory and it is true that I may yet return to the very same waga unit to try their salmon miso ramen, since it is handy. I was struck by how close the experience Durack describes mirrors my own. So at least wagamama is consistent

Edited October 4, 2005 by camp_dick (log)

[muichoi]

Agreed Wagamama is not great..but how many sides do you think Gyoza are MEANT to be fried on?it's not fair to criticise things for not being what they're not meant to be-very common though!

[camp_dick]

Agreed Wagamama is not great..but how many sides do you think Gyoza are MEANT to be fried on?it's not fair to criticise things for not being what they're not meant to be-very common though!

←

Ouch! My point was that these dumpling were barely cooked at all and fell apart befeore I could stuff 'em in my mouth. There was a note on the menu, saying you could request them to be deep fried.

[Ian]

Sadly I noticed last week that Samurai has closed.

All the best,

--

Ian Fenn

Chopstix Media

http://www.chopstixmedia.com/

[circeplum]

that is a genuine shame...

[origamicrane]

Samurai in panton street is closed???

was just there like 2 weeks ago!!

The gyoza good but not as good as ryo.

Chilli beef ramen was pretty tasty and actually was chilli

but the cuts of beef were a little on the tough side.

Think i got a few photos somewhere.

The sushi chef was really friendly too.

On the night I was there a group of Essex girls complete with white stilettos

were getting a little rowdy and ended up doing a multiple lesbian snog-a-thon.

this naturally attracted the attention of the group of wu tang clan look-a-likes on the next table who promptly joined in!!!!

Why did my girl friends insist on leaving just as it was getting interesting!!!!!

come on it was free!!!

[MobyP]

Has anyone seen, been to or heard of a small Japanese place just off Earl's Court Road? I walked past there the other day, on one of the side streets (a couple of doors down from a Thai supermarket) and it looked very intriguiing.

[origamicrane]

which end of the road?

you not talking about addie's thai?

121 earl's court road?

[MobyP]

No, it's about 50 feet off Earl's Court Road. Definitely Japanese.