o-cha (hot japanese tea)

This is our first vist back here after the inauguration of our blog, it's finally fallen off the "talk of the town" urbanspoon London top ten.  So I can write about it, and not feel guilty about being awarded silly urbanspoon points.  Speaking of which, they seriously need to work on their algorithm to reward those that discover up and coming joints, and not reward those that jump on the bandwagon.  Anyway, yes.  The better half is a Tokyo-ite.  So she knows noodles, and her fave is the udon.

Quail and aioli

So, to give the short answer first, these are the real deal.  Udon take time and effort to create, and when they run out of noodles to serve - they just plain run out.  There's no quickly whipping up another batch to satisfy the drooling customer.  Hours of work have gone into this dough.  Is that the right word?  Dough?  I need to look that up.  Regardless, these are the best udon you are going to get in Britain.  That's a bold statement, and one that I have absolutely no empirical evidence to support - but that's how these noodles, and the environment of Koya, make you feel.  Like it's the real deal.

Deep fried Tofu

The last couple of times we've been, we've been seated next to super loud nasally Americans for some reason.  Now, don't get me wrong, I love America - we both lived there for close to a decade - but hey, can you just turn down the volume a notch or two pleeeease?  I'm sitting right next to you.  Anyway.  No beer this time for myself, they serve good old Kirin (made under license) or Echigo (as seen at Yashin a few weeks ago).  You certainly pay the price for the latter - over £8.  but worth a punt if you want to feel like you're going properly Japanese.  We both ordered a classic personal pot of o-cha (hot Japanese tea).

Kizami

We've tried the pork belly to start before, and I would recommend that to all and sundry.  But, today we went for a couple of items off the specials menu - deep fried tofu, and another dish of deep fried quail with aioli.  The tofu was delicious.  Of course this was "proper" tofu, not your dodgy supermarket stuff, deep fried just enough to coat the surface of the cubes with a layer of fat, then served up with a soy based sauce, watercress, spring onions and ...?  The quail was a little fiddly, but I enjoyed it.  The aioli was overpowering, and maybe was unnecessary.  A few greens were served in the bowl, which added a welcome change of texture.

Buta Miso

Onto the main course - the noodles.  The better half went for her regular Kizami - hot udon in hot broth with fried tofu and spring onion.  I went for Buta Miso - again, hot udon in hot broth, with pork and miso.  The noodles are what it's all about.  Soft, but satisfyingly spongy.  Just an absolute delight to consume.  Served hot enough to burn, it's quite the challenge to wait long enough for them to be comfortably edible.  I usually just end up hurting myself instead.  Last time I had the Buta Miso, it was a touch too salty.  This time it was perfect.  For the first time I actual beat my champion noodle eater of a wife.  I'm still working on my "Tokyo slurp" though.  It's one noodle at a time for me.  No room for sen-cha ice cream after that lot.  We toddled off to have a look at the W hotel instead.  Which was rubbish.  it's 2011, not 2001.  Seen it all before.  Sorry, I digress.  Best.  Noodles.  Ever.