Koya

Went to Koya at the weekend. Had the most amazing experience. On the Friday night it was too busy, so we decided to go back at lunch time on Saturday. The outside of the restaurant is very cool...and with people queuing to get in...you know you are on to something good in London. Food was amazing and a completely different eating experience. Staff very cool, very nice with excellent service. Very healthy, very tasty food. Restaurant filled with Japanese people..always a good sign. Would definitely recommend to go here when in London. Loved the experience and can't wait to go back.

Great place - wish it was open all day. Slightly overpriced.

I had the duck udon - hot noodles in hot broth and I was totally blown away. The duck was perfect - with what appeared to be some sort of quasi-battered coating and the noodles were excellent - difficult to eat, but great nonetheless. Personally, the prices are quite high, but the udon do tend to fill you up, at least in my opinion, because you have to drink so much delicious broth with them as well. For me, it was good value for money. 11 quid for one of the best - and most filling - Japanese meals I've ever had? Deal.

Very overpriced for what they serve there. It is not cheap, nor value for money. The noodles are good but the soup base is a big let down.

I'd much rather avoid the long queues and bad service and go to 'Nam' which is just a block away and serve cheap and tasty noodles...

Amazing noodles, but i wouldn't say it's a cheap eat. 19 pounds for noodles and steamed veg.

I'm sorry but why does everyone keep saying this place is a cheap eat. We had the prawn tempura noodles, as nice as the noodles and prawn was - there was only one prawn! For £10! We ended up ordering a few small plates to fill us up and by the time the bill came we realised we had spent about £26 per head. Contrast this to some set lunch menus you can get for £25 / £35 for 3 courses and coffee etc I'm not so sure Koya counts as good value for money. Praise for food is richly deserved though. Everything we tried we liked.

We entered the place with high expectations, but the food did not impress. Just simple eatery with value for money food. Atmosphere is very dynamic, as it feels that waiting staff just hurries up to turn tables as many times as possible. All in all, would recommend to visit, but would not come there again.

althogh there are lots of japanese restaurant in london and half of them are NOT jpanese restaurant, I can tell you KOYA is a REAL JAPANESE restaurant.
I guarantee youll like its tasty food,reasonable price, clean and more to say, friendly atmosphere.

We have been a big fan of Koya for sometime, however recently they have started to increase the prices and the food is starting to slip in quality.

The prawn and vegetable tempura was fantastic the vegetables are still brilliant, but they have now covered the prawn in what I can only state is fish and chip batter, very thick and then rolled it in the old crunchy outside batter that was the original only layer before hand. A real disappointment, guess they think it will make the prawn look bigger. But ruins the dish

I can happily recommend Koya having visited repeatedly and found the quality of food and ingredients universally high. It's without a shadow of a doubt the best udon I've had in London and good contender outside of Japan. It's reasonably priced bearing in mind the location and genuinely Japanese, down to the queuing policy (sadly). One of the seven Japanese restaurants I return to regularly.

Went for dinner with a friend - we had sea weed and beet root as starters (boring and overpriced) followed by cold udon with duck or pork/miso - mediocre and small portions certainly overpriced compared to other asian restaurants in soho. not sure how they managed to get 5 stars in the time out review...i was certainly not impressed!

The room is light, airy and spacious. Seating is comfy and not cramped, unlike many Asian eateries. But most of all, the udon noodles are spectacular! I had the tenzaru zen hiya-hiya udon (cold noodles with dipping sauce, vegetable tempura) and it was wonderful. Portions do look small for the price but I was satiated and thought it perfect for lunch, as did the three burly boys with me!

Simply the best udon I have ever had - pricey - but leagues ahead of anywhere in taste. I'll go back - if they drop the prices I'd go back even more!!

noodles are over boiled, udon soup just standard rated taste,just. because the bonito not enough the priced really high.

Noodles are good, but over priced for the portion.

Epilogue:When Ifirst arrived at the restaurant I have clearly asked the Japanese waitress how many of us are and can we wait outside. she nodded the head and the waiting began.Just because they don't have simple number cards for people waiting outside even when its pouring down for an hour, Does not mean our family have to go all the way back to the que! Soaking wet like a mice.
(We were just hiding under the roof across the street where we could see the front, we had no umbrellas).

*Lack of customer service.----> This was my first visit. I was still waiting outside for the to tell us when to come in.Never had a response and suddenly the waitress asked who is the next group.My face just got froze! She did not understand a word what I have said from the first place.Staff even told whether to leave or go back to the end of the que! when I came back and explained the whole situation(So embarrased).

Explained the whole situation to the Owner(?)Manager(?) and his reluctant attitude was so disappointing. What should I expect, he has a long que of customers still waiting prouldly in front of his store..

Food-----> Japanese standard (Nothing more or less). I can say myself have tried good thousands of Udons in my life(I am 30 years old), But I really cannot understand why this place is so overrated! Really makes me laugh when I read the other reviews. The noodle, soup and toppings are just standard rated taste which you can easily find in typical 'udon stand' next to any Japanese rail station. If you do not believe me please try this place with your Japanese friend.

Price: 38% is just a bubble of the whole dining experience at this place. One Udon and beef Gyudon was almost 30 quid with two drinks(Coke and tea).

I really do not know how long this place will last

I ordered prawn tempura - tempura being one of my favourite memories of japanese food. It too came submerged in soup, so that what would have been lovely light flavoursome batter had soaked of the prawn and fallen as a tasteless sludge to the bottom of my mini cooking pot

Just amazing! Go for the mushroom hot broth with walnut miso!

Been 2 times now...brilliant noodles,,,but way way overpriced!
You can get a full meal at Satsuma fro the price off one dish here!

Ahh cheer up chum!

Ate a delicious meal here tonight. Was both tasty and reasonably priced. Service was good and speedy and the atmosphere convivial.

Sorry, but I'm not buying this...Had a quick lunch there today, but it was a bit disappointed. I ordered Gyudon (beef don), but the rice was so sticky and moist, dipped in beef sauce, tastes a bit like congee...

An excellent meal. Try the hot curry broth with hot udon. Service was extremely quick and very friendly. The only downside was the queue beforehand (45mins) but it was worth it.

Superb. All my Japanese friends agree with me that this is the best place for udon in London.

We had to wait an hour in the rain for seats (on a TUESDAY!) but it was worth it! Very fresh, authentic flavours, no fuss, good service, food arrived promptly, reasonably priced. What more can you ask for?!

As someone mentioned before, the soup is quite light (Western-Japan style) but it was none the less delicious. The Onsen Tamago were delightfully cooked to perfection and the tempura was spot on - not too oily, and definitely not soggy; perfect!

I am so happy London finally has a decent udon-ya. I am distressed that I will have to queue everytime I go!

Udon is one of my favorite foods so I was very excited about this new restaurant. I had cold udon in hot broth with prawn and vege tempura. Yum it was delicous! All the ingredients tasted very fresh and the prawn was huge.
Service was great, the restaurant was very busy with a queue outside when we left.

The meal with a beer was about £16 per person.

I will definitely be coming back here

I had 'tenzaru'(the photo above), cold udon with separate cold broth, which would most suit for a warm summer day, accompanied by a basket of gigantic prawn tempura and veg.
Texture of udon was just right, not too thick, smooth and chewy. The dipping broth was also perfect, not too salty umami packed dark beauty added with optional chopped spring onion, sesame seeds and grated ginger. Very authentic.
Tempura batter was air-light. Such a joy to bite on.

More straight forward prawn tempura udon(hot in hot) that one of my fellow diners had was also very good, honestly prepared again with a bigger-than-a-bowl sized tempura prawn on top. This person is quite fussy about noodles from western part of Japan, but we agreed this is probably the best udon you can taste in London.

I have to note that the broth is light western Japanese style. Although drizzling gallons of soy sauce is the last thing recommended!

The third dish the other person had was a veggie friendly walnut miso and mushroom udon (hot in hot), which unfortunately none of us were keen on. Clearly it it very difficult to recreate the broth without fish stock... The strict veggies might want to look for elsewhere.

Staff were very friendly, the service was surprisingly speedy despite of being so busy.

I am sure this place is one of the very few authentic Japanese eateries. No fuss, just good food.

I am Japanese and a Udon lover. And I say "this Udon was fantastic!!". The texture of the noodle was just perfect, not soggy, but not chewy, either. It’s "al dente". Beautifully done! I had "Saba" (smoked fish meat with green leaves). It was just nice. For the moment while eating this Udon, I was back in Tokyo. Well, I felt like it.

Other dishes were nice too. Lenkon salad came with crunchy deep-fried Lotus roots, mixed green leaves and tasty but light salad dressing. Very healthy dish. And "Buta-no-Kakuni" (Japanese Pork belly) was so tender that it just melted in my mouth. The mustard balances the sweetness of the pork. Genuinely it's a beautiful dish.

This is the Japanese restaurant I would like people to know! I've always wanted people to know that Japanese food is not only about Sushi. There are so many other dishes I would like people to know. Koya is one of a few REAL Japanese restaurants in London I can recommend to my friends. I will go back definitely!