Koya City.

Koya City

Shuko Oda's udon comes out of Koya's own noodle workshop, and this is the branch with 60 seats and an evening booking sheet.13

Why go

John Devitt left a City trading job and opened the first Koya in Soho in 2010 with head chef Shuko Oda, and the two of them built this Bloomberg Arcade room as the group's first new site in four years.1 It seats 60 against Soho's 25, split between a low counter along the kitchen and tables, and unlike Soho it takes bookings in the evening and at weekends.1 The menu is organized by how the udon arrives: hot noodles in hot broth, cold noodles in hot broth, cold noodles with a cold dipping sauce, cold noodles with a hot sauce to pour.1 Koya say they are still the only restaurant in the UK making udon by the traditional Japanese method, out of their own noodle workshop, which is the house's claim and nobody outside it has tested.1

Order this / avoid

• Order: the pork tonkotsu with cabbage and a fruity miso sauce, which Hot Dinners called a dish exclusive to Koya City and is a must-order, evening-only dish at 12.80 on their visit.1
• Order: the chicory salad, wonderful salad with the leaves coated in a miso dressing so good we'd eat it on its own, and topped with slices of candied clementine.1
• Order: the ten mori, two huge prawns as well as courgettes covered in the lightest tempura batter imaginable.1
• Avoid: turning up at the top of the City lunch hour. Harden's regulars say best to go at an off-peak time to avoid the queue.2
• Avoid: planning around one dish at midday. The lunch card is stripped back for the rush and several plates are evening only.1

What locals & experts say

• Harden's survey diners, on the group: Love the udon, sitting at the single long counter. The same guide records that portions are perfect for the price and they don't 'cheap out' on the protein, and calls the breakfast the definitive zen breakfast both in Soho and at this branch. Those lines cover Soho, the Bloomberg Arcade and Koya Ko together, so they belong to the brand rather than to this door.2
• Harden's editors, when it opened: a sibling to the cramped but cool Soho Japanese famous for udon noodles opening in Bloomberg's new City HQ.2
• Hot Dinners, on the udon here: as good as it's ever been.1

Good to know

• Which door this is. Koya trades at three London addresses: Soho at 50 Frith Street, this room at 10-12 Bloomberg Arcade, and Koya Ko on Broadway Market. The pin is the arcade.3
• Booking: evenings and weekends take reservations here. Soho does not.1
• Drinking: a wide sake list, running from 7.80 for 90ml to 110 for a bottle of Diashichi Minowamon on the visit, plus three whites, three reds and Kernel beer.1
• Getting there: the arcade runs between Queen Victoria Street and Walbrook. Bank exit 8, Mansion House and Cannon Street are all a few minutes away.1
• Prices quoted here are from the branch's opening-era test drive.

Verdict

could-visit — Shuko Oda has been making udon by hand since the Soho room opened in 2010, and this City branch runs the same dashi and the same noodle out of a bigger kitchen with 60 seats instead of 25. What it buys you over the original is a booking and a chair: the arcade room takes reservations in the evening and at weekends where Soho is walk-in only, and the extra covers absorb the Bank lunch rush that Harden's diners say you should still time around. It also cooks a few things Soho does not, including a pork tonkotsu with cabbage and a fruity miso that the visiting Hot Dinners critic called a must-order and evening-only. The honest limit is that the group's best-loved room is the small one, four editions of survey feedback treat the three sites as one thing, and nobody has written up this door on its own. Go for a bowl and a breakfast, not for an occasion.