The Noodle House (Restaurant)

Top 10 things we learnt about The Noodle House restaurant:

1) The Great British public’s love affair with noodles is showing no signs of faltering. The Noodle House enters a crowded marketplace - just from Wagamama alone! - with the first London branch installed in the West End.

2) What makes a successful Noodle House? Here the wok is mightier than the pen. The loud crashing sounds of your dish’s ingredients flying around the wok reverberate around the restaurant. You might be in rainy London, but it feels like the street stalls in South East Asia.

3) I am not fan of door hosts touting for business, but it definitely works here as I saw a steady stream of curious onlookers filtering into the restaurant with the promise of street style exotic cuisine.

4) My journey to the Far East did take a temporary hiatus when I had a starter of hot and sour soup. It was all hot and very little sour. It was more made in Peckham than made in Phuket.

5) My faith in the wok was restored with the main course of beef char kway teow. It had that sizzle just like it came off the wok of a street hawker. As the restaurant is called Noodle House, it’s what you would hope for in a classic dish of rice noodles and thin strips of beef.

6) I’ve always wanted to travel around all of Asia. As I don’t have the budget, this is the next best thing. The restaurant serves Thai green curry, Malaysian beef rendang, Cantonese roast duck and Javanese nasi goreng (Indonesia).

7) With 17 different blends of tea, it’s also very much a tea house, especially in their tranquil basement bar area. Look out for their special food and tea matching evenings.

8) Do cocktails and noodles pair together? I am yet to be convinced. The Singapore Slipper vodka cocktail I drank lived up to its name and slipped down very easily, but you almost need a beer to wash down the oft-greasy nature of noodles.

9) The décor is perfect depending on your needs; it’s fast and vibrant upstairs. It’s an oasis of calm and cosiness in the downstairs bar.

10) No doubt, like my Far East holiday plans, The Noodle House is still a work in progress but it’s definitely a restaurant to keep an eye out for....read more