Jjambong @ Koba (Korean), London

{Update Mar 2010 - Returned here for Korean BBQ after invite from Catty and it was damn good - please go to Off The Blog 2 for mini-review} 

It's been a good few months since I last wrote about soup noodles and compiled Part 1 of my guide to London's finest. My first noodle tour took in most of East Asia with one notable exception, Korea, so I thought I'd kick off Part 2 of my guide with a trip to Koba. This trendy Rathbone St eatery is in the heart of Fitzrovia so it isn't cheap. Fortunately, they have a keenly priced special lunch menu from which I plumped for jjambong (£6.50). This bowl of mixed seafood soup with udong noodles was an easy choice. Well actually it was the only choice being the only soup noodle dish on the lunch menu.

I'm no expert on Korean food so I had no idea how this dish was going to turn out. Nevertheless, I was a little surprised to be served up a bowl of lurid red soup noodles. It reminded me very much of spicy flavour Nissin Ramen ! I knew this soup was going to be spicy and I admit to being a giant wuss because I thought it was too spicy. There was also an aftertaste but I couldn't work out what it was until I read this and discovered that jjambong is a Korean-Chinese dish flavoured with doubianjiang (spicy bean paste).

Now I'm sure if I were a homesick Korean then I would have loved this dish. But I'm not and I found these noodles a bit hard work. Notwithstanding the "in your face" spiciness and bean paste aftertaste, I realised that I'm not a big fan of thick udong in soup. I prefer thin noodles in soup and I think thick noodles work better in stir-fries.

My griping aside, this was a generously proportioned bowl of noodles with lots of seafood including mussel meat, squid, and baby shrimp supplemented by a single king prawn and a large mussel on the half shell. There was also plenty of udong and veg like carrot, onions, and peppers.

I liked the ambience of the restaurant and service was efficient. The special lunch menu is excellent value and my meal cost only £9.30 including tea and service. My only regret is that sometimes I wish I was Mr Rice rather than Mr Noodles as that would have allowed me to try the bibimbap ! 

Verdict: Whilst I didn't overly enjoy the jjambong, there's plenty of choice at Koba and I'd like to return to sample their Korean BBQ, which looked fantastic.

Other Stuff: It's no surprise to learn that Korean udong is the same noodle as Japanese udon. There's much debate between these old enemies on who invented these thick wheat noodles but they can stop arguing as they originated in China where they're known as cu mian.