Aidan B.
Yelp
The wife and I went to Bar Soba for our anniversary dinner, as we had been several times before and always came away thoroughly satisfied.
We ordered Pad Thai Spring Rolls, and Pork & Lime Leaf Samosas to start. The Spring Rolls came with "Hanoi Dipping Sauce", and sadly, were not as flavoursome as I would have expected - they tasted of deep-fried-ness more than anything else! The dipping sauce was sweet and sticky, but overpowered the spring rolls because of their aforementioned lack of flavour. Without the dipping sauce, this would have been a dish to forget. The Samosas were even more flavourless. All we could taste was the general-meat-mince flavour inside, which was somewhat unpleasant. There was not a hint of lime leaf about them. However, the Spiced Apple Puree served with the Samosas made them much more appetising. Both Spring Rolls and Samosas were wonderfully crisp, but quite greasy, and - without the expected aromatic asian flavours bursting through - were really quite disappointing.
For mains, we ordered an old favourite of mine, Nasi Goreng, and Basil Chilli Chicken. The Nasi Goreng was plenty flavoursome, a good mound of spicy rice alongside 2 chargrilled skewers of minced chicken. To those of you who have had Nasi Goreng before, you will know it comes with a fried egg on top of the rice, and it is intended so that you break the runny yolk on to the rice to bind it together, for easier grabbing with chopsticks. Unfortunately, my egg was overcooked and had a hard yolk, so was utterly pointless. The chicken skewers were incredibly succulent and tasty, smothered in satay sauce. It did taste a little as though the coconut milk in the sauce had not been fully cooked out though - it had that slightly greasy, fatty texture to it, but was nonetheless very tasty. There were also no shrimps in the Nasi Goreng - whenever I've had it in the past, it has had shrimps in it which boosted the flavour a little - and they were sadly missing.
The Basil Chilli was tasty and more than a little spicy. There was a nice range of vegetables in the sauce - peppers, mange tout, and pak choi, but sadly some were overcooked and had turned a little mushy. The sauce was also a little runny and quite greasy, but overall it was tasty and filling.
Overall, we had expected so much more, as we have had very positive meals here in the past. The service was very good, and the atmosphere also very cool as always, but it feels as though Soba has let standards slip. The food was beautifully presented as always, but the fresh, vibrant flavours we expected were lacking in several dishes. Don't get me wong, the meal was not bad, but it seemed that every dish was maybe half-way to being really good. There aren't that many places serving this kind of Asian-fusion food, and if Soba could just bring the standard back up, it would really be fantastic. It's nearly there, and has the right ideas and a huge, inspirational menu, but it just doesn't deliver the goods the way we had hoped.