Koba: Rathbone Street

We went to Koba about a month ago have heard rave reviews about it and having never been to a Korean in London. In the summer I went to Seoul and instantly fell in love with their food so I wanted to see whether the best of London could match up to the standard.

Koba is situated on a side street, once you go in you see the bar and further into the restaurant a few tables, we chose to sit at the bar. We spent ages looking through the menu as it was so difficult choosing what to eat, in the end I ordered some version of chae (stir fried vermicelli), sorry can't remember the whole name and Kalbi, whilst my dad had a special set meal which included some small dishes, stone pot rice and bulgogi. I also ordered a drink which had cinnamon in it.

Service was slow and our meals took ages to be served so it was a bit boring sitting there looking at other people eating. When we were finally served I was amazed by the size of my chae! (that sounds odd) I honestly didn't need to eat anything else after that but I came to eat kalbi so I had to stuff it in! The chae tasted very nice though. My cinnamon drink was refreshing but a bit too strong I'd say (and a bit too small!). After devouring our side dishes it was time to eat the meat! The waiters grilled the meat in front of us, which I find cool but a bit pointless at times. My dad decided to take matters in his own hands, I don't know if he was doing it right but the meat did get kind of burnt! Despite the burnt kalbi and bulgogi it tasted very nice and was succulent. However I do advice eating a lot of korean side dishes, which I love, along with the meat or it could be a bit too much to swallow. I liked the egg side dish and the bean sprouts were ok too. I like kimchi but I always need a glass of water beside me in case it gets too much to handle.

I don't really remember the price, I think it was around £30 but it was definitely a nice meal. I'd consider going back but there are a few more Korean places I'd like to try beforehand - my dad however still isn't a huge fan of Korean good :(.