Restaurant Review – Bar Soba Edinburgh

Now there are many good things about midweek but last week the highlight for us was a visit to Bar Soba Edinburgh on Hanover Street for an Asian street food feast. We had seen tasty looking pictures from their new menu launch and had spent all day browsing the menu. Both ensured we were building a good appetite and by the time we arrived we were more than ready to try out some of their new dishes.

Andrew the resident chef at Bar Soba popped out to have a quick chat with us and to help us choose. He explained that they’ve moved away from the intense chilli flavour and have put more thought into the dishes using a variety of spices and tailoring the dishes to individual tastes. They’re keen that rather than being blown away by chilli your blown away by the different flavours of the dish and that includes right down to the garnish used. With all dishes cooked fresh and to order they can tailor the hotness of the dish to your tastes.

After speaking to Andrew the dishes we quickly changed our minds and ordered a few dishes he recommended. We ordered one of our favourite dishes – fried chicken gyoza dumplings, and also one of the new dishes to the menu –cheeseburger spring rolls.

The starters were the tasty sort of food we were looking for. The fried gyoza were the perfect crispiness and full of flavour. The cheeseburger spring rolls appeared and we weren’t quite sure how they were going to work out. One mouthful later and we were pleasantly surprised. The beef mincemeat and cheese were well seasoned and the crispy pastry kept it all in place. We were glad we tried them and would definitely order them again. If you don’t believe us then you should give them a try.

Taking on board what Andrew said to us we opted for two of his favourite dishes, always keen to try new things we couldn’t wait. Mr E choose the Singapore Street Noodles – wok fried noodles with chicken, king prawns, sticky pork and chilli omelette with curry, ginger and garlic. I decided on the crispy Shanghai pork – black bean sweet and sticky sauce, spring onion and baby corn with sticky rice.

And as if we hadn’t already had enough we ordered some of their super Thai fries – loaded fries topped with peanut sauce, Soba mayo, sriracha chilli sauce, crushed peanuts and fried shallots. To cater for my delicate tastes they loaded the fries to one end and sprinkled mine with paprika.

Both dishes were epic. The Shanghai pork was a massive portion and boy am I glad it was. The black bean sauce was thick and sweet and worked well with the other flavours of the dish. The pork was crispy and soft all at the same time and with a great big helping of sticky rice with it, I was in heaven. Across the table Mr E was tucking into his Singapore street noodles. There were lots of sounds of approval coming from him and when he’s too busy eating to talk you know it must be tasty. The noodles had the right amount of kick and the chicken satay was great. He quickly cleared his plate, along with most of the chips and still had room for what I couldn’t finish. When Mr E is cleaning his plate like this, it’s a great sign. A top tip from the waiting staff is to order the super Thai fries for £1 more you get basically double the portion.

Overall, we loved our dishes. The fresh flavours all worked together well and the dishes we tried were packed full of flavour. There wasn’t a bad thing to say about anything we had and the service was great as well. The staff checked in to make sure everything was OK and were never far away when needed. Mr E also loved the fact that along with chop sticks there is a knife and fork on the table just incase you need a little help. We had a lovely evening and Bar Soba is now definitely on our radar as somewhere to meet friends, have a few drinks and enjoy great food.

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Bar Soba | 104 Hanover St, Edinburgh EH2 1DR | Tel: 0131 225 6220 |

Twitter: @BarSobaEdin
Facebook: @barsobaedinburgh
Instagram: @barsobaedinburgh