Ramen Seto

19 Kingly Street, W1B 5PY

Not so many posts recently. Not through lack of motivation to blog, but a bit of a period of austerity, attempting to gain and lose some pounds in the appropriate areas. So when we were thinking about somewhere to eat prior to seeing Sean Hughes at Soho Theatre (who, as an aside, was pretty awful) I fancied trying to keep within budget.

We thought about dim sum or sushi, so I had a quick look through Mr Noodles, who didn't let us down with this suggestion. Despite the rest of Soho being absolutely heaving, when we turned up they had a few tables free upstairs, and we were soon ensconsed with the menu.

The Menu:
Probably not the most authentic Japansese menu, the emphasis was mainly on the ramen. I was fairly tired, having had a very tough week at work, so the rest of the menu was, to be honest, a little bit of a blur. I know there were some rice and noodle dishes, and some sushi, but the details were vague.

Rather boringly, we both settled on the seafood ramen. The waitress suggested some gyoza to start, which tempted Mr PP, but I decided just to stick with the ramen.

Our Meal:
The food was fresh, hot and quickly delivered. I pinched one of the gyoza, which were freshly cooked and very tasty. So much so they disappeared before I could photograph them. Shortly after two very large bowls of ramen arrived.

The ramen was absolutely delicious. The broth was very flavoursome - light but with a lot of body as well. The noodles were well cooked and there was an abundance of seafood. My only slight criticism was that personally I would have loved some more greens, but that was only a minor point.

The whole experience is definitely very cheap and cheerful. All the drinks (including the glass of wine) are served in individual bottles, and it's very much like a traditional cafe in decor. Tables are set next to each other in short rows (which led to us having considerable food envy of the table next to us - next time one of us definitely has to have the chicken teryaki).

For the two of us the bill came to £23.10 including drinks (but not service).

What we liked:
The service was brisk and very efficient, but not at all rude. The food was delicious and quick, but they never attempted to rush us out either. Overall good value for money.

What we didn't like:
Honestly, not much. It delivered absolutely what we expected, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Our main annoyance was that the tables are just too close together, and Mr PP had to keep getting up to let people in to the table behind us.

Will we be back?:
Definitely. Good value, and from what we saw on the other table, plenty of other interesting looking dishes. And I do really want that chicken teryaki ...