Monday 2 November 2009

Soup Noodles in London - Part 1

It's time to take stock on my soup noodle odyssey which has taken me from Southern China, through Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, back through Hong Kong before ending up in Japan, all without leaving Zone 1 ! If you want to check out the original review, just click-through on the restaurant name.


Of the six places I tried, there was only one winner, Song Que, a Vietnamese caff on the Kingsland Road in Shoreditch. Their pho tai nam - a generous bowl of beefy soup, rice noodles and two types of beef (rare steak and well done flank) was truly memorable. Other dishes such as goi cuon (summer rolls) and bun (rice vermicelli) are also very good here.

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Chinatown is a great place for soup noodles and my favourite for Cantonese classics like wonton noodle soup and their signature dish of king prawn dumpling noodles (pictured below) is Hung's.


If you don’t fancy Cantonese noodles then Malaysian/Singaporean eatery, Rasa Sayang is a good option although their prawn noodles (pictured below) were a bit disappointing. Their fried fish vermicelli is a better soup noodle option. One place I won't be returning to is HK Diner where their fishball noodles quite literally left a nasty taste in the mouth.


Ramen Seto is an unpretentious Japanese caff and I enjoyed their chicken negi ramen although I'm left wondering if my intake of red wine the night before enhanced the experience.


Another place, I won't be returning to for soup noodles is Busaba Eathai - £10.50 for tom yum talay is criminal especially for such a meagre portion.

With a couple of exceptions, I've enjoyed my soup noodles tour but it's time for a breather. In the meantime, I'll be blogging on some other topics but I will be back on the soup noodle trail in the New Year - any suggestions for Part 2 are most welcome.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, nice summary. My mum hated her wonton noodles at HK Diner recently, but I liked both the beef brisket ho fun and the roast duck ho fun. Will have to try Hung's next. I haven't been to Busaba in years. It was never that good to start off with, but I really want to go to Song Que for the first time ever...

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  2. Helen - Your Mum is very smart! I can't believe you've not been to Song Que but then again there are so many places in London, I've not been to yet.

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