Another Friday, another trip to my second home, London. You know I always feel good when I step onto that train at Bath Spa, watch the city roll out, and feel the excitement slowly creeping inside of me for another weekend in London. This time, I was stopping at Tottenham Court Road, just a couple of stops on the Lizzie line from Paddington, to meet my girlfriend and grab dinner at a noodle house. She was already in the queue (I’ll get to that in a minute), so she requested a blank Street Mels Matcha Iced Oat Latte on my way to her (yes, she definitely sounds like a wanker). Matcha in hand, I took the short walk to Soho, and that’s where this review starts.
The Noodle Inn
Viral trends are funny things. As someone who has little to no interest in being on social media, I usually leave it up to my missus to find interesting things to do, especially in London. Enter: The Noodle Inn. Yasmin had mentioned this place a couple of times, the first a few weeks ago. The noodles had gone viral on various platforms, and Yasmin was keen to try it. As a massive foodie, I never need much persuading and will try anything, although I’ll admit, I did struggle to get excited about noodles. I have nothing against them, but how good can noodles really get? To me, noodles fall into that category of food that’s fast, convenient, solid, and tasty—but I’m hardly going to have a “foodgasm” over them like I would with other cuisines.
I had been pre-warned by Yasmin that there are no reservations, so we would have to queue up. Fine by me, particularly as Yasmin was getting there before me, so she’d hopefully have done the bulk of the waiting, and I would have a shorter time of it. How disappointed I was going to be. There’s a Ying and Yang to viral trends, as there is in life. I can’t begrudge a restaurant enjoying its moment in the spotlight, and post-COVID, if there’s a place that’s now having people wait around the block for it, then more power to them. Unfortunately, the Yang of this is waiting in long lines.
The Waiting line over the other side of the road… at this point your look at at least an hour…
I rounded the corner and saw the Noodle Inn, then saw the queue stretching out. It wasn’t so bad—about 10 meters long—I figured we’d be in for a 15-20 minute wait, maybe. But something was off. I couldn’t see Yasmin in this line. I checked my messages, confirmed the restaurant was the right one, and then looked across the street. To my horror, there was another line, four times as long, reaching the corner of the street. And nestled in there, smiling away at me, was my Yasmin.
Now, firstly, this was fine. My excitement at seeing my girl after a week apart took centre stage, and damn, she looked good. I joined her in the line, outside a sex shop, and slowly, over the next hour and 10 minutes, we shuffled forward, first through the second line outside the shop, and then eventually inside. Some highlights and hacks. First, there were the wild Karens, who became incensed when someone unknowingly joined the queue outside the shop, not realizing it started across the street. Instead of letting the waiter/line master do his job (which he did very well), they were ready to blow a gasket. Trust me, it wasn’t going to happen. Second, a great hack: a couple behind us decided to pop into the Wetherspoons opposite and grab a couple of pints while waiting. Great idea, just remember to ask for plastic cups, or risk being berated by the bar staff when they come to collect your glasses and swap them for plastic ones.
The Food
We finally made it inside, and oh, it felt good to take my backpack off and settle in. There was a great atmosphere—busy, steamy, alive with the thrum of a working kitchen and happy patrons slurping and sloshing their noodles. As we entered, you could see the open kitchen, with seating around it, which was a nice touch. Everyone has a view of the chefs stretching the noodles out amidst intense bouts of steam. It actually reminded me of Spirited Away, one of my favourite films. We were seated in the corner, and as we’d ordered outside, we didn’t waste much time before the food arrived. We went for cucumber salad, deep-fried prawns, knife-cut noodles, and oil-soaked noodles, along with two beers.
Starters:
The cucumber salad was fresh, crunchy, and tasty. The dressing was lovely, with the toasted sesame oil providing a wonderful base note for the sharpness of vinegar and the warmth of chili to shine through. Fresh is the word that best describes this dish.
The deep-fried prawns in wasabi mayo were also good. The batter was crunchy and flavoursome, without being soaked in oil. The prawns were fresh, not rubbery, and packed with plenty of flavour. The wasabi mayo was an added delight, the spice of the wasabi hitting your senses just as it should.
Mains:
Firstly, we both absolutely loved the huge China bowls the noodles came in—white china with blue patterns. They looked fantastic and would go well on any mantlepiece at home. But let’s get to the food. The chili oil spill noodles with braised beef brisket came served on the bone, and looked absolutely fantastic. The beef slid effortlessly off the bone, and as we were in a viral restaurant, I can only imagine how many reels are out there showing people doing the same. The deep red sauce lapping against the knife-cut noodles promised a depth of heat and flavour just waiting to be dived into. And damn, I was excited.
But here’s the kicker: we were given chopsticks, fine. What wasn’t fine was the huge brisket of beef—how on earth were you supposed to tackle this with two wooden sticks? Worse still, the knife-cut noodles are very thick and become quite stuck together, making them almost impossible to eat. Now, before anyone starts calling me an ignorant Brit, I eat with chopsticks all the time. I’ve eaten Indian food with my hands as per tradition and always respect it. However, looking around the room and seeing the splash marks on the wall reassured me that this was a difficult task many diners had faced before me. Yasmin, being Yasmin, asked for forks, and despite a little side-eye from the couple next to us, we had a little more luck. But honestly, what we really needed was a steak knife—or a saw. What made me feel better, though, was a table of four who had the waiter cutting the beef up with scissors. I’m not sure if that’s an acceptable request, but it would’ve made things a lot easier.
Back to the dish: The beef was tender and tasty, and the oily dressing was rich, packing a lovely punch of spice and flavour in equal measure. There was some fresh corn in there, which added a nice crunch and depth of flavour. All in all, the dish was pretty damn good. That said, I found the noodles claggy, and due to the difficulty of eating them, I often found myself with either a mouthful of claggy noodles or a mouthful of beef—not a nice mix of both.
The Verdict
Hmm, I’m unsure on this one. I’ve always said I’ll be as honest as I can on this blog, and I’ll do the same here. Personally, I think the hype comes from the look of what you’re getting, not the actual substance. The big white china bowls, the massive piece of braised brisket on the bone, and even the queue that makes it onto so many reels all feed the fire. If you’re an Instagrammer or TikTok-er, then I get the hype. But based purely on the food, it’s just a noodle house—a very good noodle house, but still just noodles that are decent enough, not something worth queuing over for an hour.
I hope this place continues to do well. The food to me is easily a 7/10. I’ll certainly be back in the future, but hopefully at a time when the queue is more like 10 minutes, not 70. And next time, I’ll definitely be asking for the scissors service!
Price: £75.00
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