Koya

Koya feels great to be in, especially when it’s pouring with rain on Frith Street. There’s a nice long bar, with intriguing things in jars left on the counter in front of you. Salted fresh dates? Intriguing! The team are quietly industrious back there, pouring and frying and straining and scooping. I’m lucky enough to have been to Japan, and Koya really does conjure the spirit. It helps that 80% of the customers today are Japanese.

We choose two bowls of hot udon noodles; mine is the saba smoked mackerel and Maureen’s is the special; girolles and onsen tamago. Which is cute: tamago is egg, and onsen is a Japanese natural hot spring spa resort. So it’s a very lightly poached egg.

Udon with girolles

Maureen’s stock did well with the egg yolk stirred into it. But really I feel they should have gone for some cheaper mushrooms on their special, if that meagre pile was the amount of girolles they felt they could spare. Of what there was, they were tasty with a piquant Japanese pepper sprinkled over them.

£11 a bowl, and I did leave kinda nicely satisfied. But in all honesty, as much by the warm atmosphere of the place as by the food. I’m coming back, because I have to try the pork or beef udon. I need to know whether we just didn’t pick the right dish to get the best experience here.

Salted fresh dates

Spicy tuna roll

Anyway, so, Zaibatsu often gets called out as one of the best options in Greenwich; good value but good quality Japanese food in a little shabby parade-of-shops outfit with a friendly sign announcing “CASH ONLY” and a very cheerful steamy bustle within on a day when it was tipping with rain outside.

Sadly the food is actually just okay. Not horrible. Just… not worth mentioning. I’m only reviewing it because it often gets called out as one of the best options in Greenwich and frankly it just ain’t worth your time.

Black cod tempura

The spicy tuna roll worried me a little. The tuna inside was so soft that it’s texture was more like paste than fish. That’s… not right? I mean, I’m still standing, so it was fine. Just unpleasant. To be fair, the unagi nigiri was just fine. Decent bit of sticky eel.

The salt-and-pepper spare ribs were weird. The main taste on the ribs was cinnamon and sugar, and the meat was fall-apart soft but also entirely dry. The lazy fry-up of onion, golden garlic flakes and chilli served with it was, well, lazy.

This was about £16 each. And if you went with something more in the comfort food like, like a donburi, then your meal would be even cheaper. But when my conclusion is “it’s a cheap way to fill a hole” then I’m not really reviewing anything much, am I?

Greenwich & Blackheath, you continue to disappoint.

Weird spare ribs