Soho Korean & Japanese Street Food — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

Soho initially caught my attention due to the unusual menu it sports - an even split of traditional Japanese and Korean streetfood dishes. It’s difficult to withhold preconceived notions of mediocrity when one sees a menu like this. I like to think that any sane restaurant frequenter would agree that it is generally best for an establishment to offer a small but perfected assortment of dishes as opposed to a broad and unpolished one. To my delight, Soho’s dishes are not marred by culinary diversity.

Of the opposing cuisines, the Japanese half of the menu isn’t quite as impressive as its Korean counterpart. Newcastle already has a very strong Japanese food scene thanks to renowned establishments like Fujiyama and Hanana so competing with these behemoths likely wasn’t their intention in the first place. Now that’s not to say that their Japanese menu is bad by any means; their Korean menu is simply better. My staples here are any of their kimchi dishes with their Kimchi Ramen being my personal preference. For the price of the dishes, I was initially expecting meagre portions, especially after reading that they specialise in “small plates” and “big flavours”. The former of these statements is simply untrue as all dishes I’ve had the pleasure of indulging in have been quite substantial.

Possibly one of the more interesting aspects of Soho is their unofficial transition into a cocktail lounge in the evenings. As the day grows later, the establishment’s clientele shifts to a younger demographic - and their drink menu certainly reflects this. Many of their specialty Asian-style cocktails are weighted heavily towards a sweet or sour palette, sporting vibrant colours but low alcohol content. The drinks are lovingly prepared, admittedly, but the ingredients don’t reflect the price.

Overall, Soho attempts appeal to anyone and everyone by doubling as a restaurant and a bar, whilst serving both Japanese and Korean street food. Usually, this obvious lack of focus and identity would be a recipe for disaster for any restaurant, however, Soho somehow manages to pull it off...

The restaurant is clean and visually appealing- really nicely decorated, you definitely can feel like you are in a higher end restaurant and it is a very pleasant experience simply just sitting at the table. When it comes to prices, the menu offers cheap and affordable options which is greatly appreciated as it can fit all budgets.

What caught my attention was the intriguing fact that this restaurant offers a split menu with Japanese and Korean food which is a nice option to have in Newcastle when you can't decide which cuisine you would rather enjoy that day.

Another reason this restaurant caught my attention was because they have Ja Jang Myun on their menu, which in my experience is a difficult find. Despite this fact, I have actually not ordered this meal during my visit and have instead ordered Yuk Gae Jang and a Tuna Temaki Roll which are both pictured in my photo.

The soup has stayed hot for very long and it made me fall behind when eating this dish so the company I had with me had to sit there waiting for me to finish- even so, I had to take the rest of the meal back home. The soup did taste nice, not as flavourful as I wanted it to be but the spiciness level was pleasant as it was not the type that you need to chug milk after. The temaki was also tasty and fresh but I feel like it could be more flavourful in some ways.

I have not come back yet to this restaurant despite the pleasant experience, however, writing this review has made me wonder why haven't I visited again? Unable to find a reason as to why I decided I definitely will be coming back soon to try the other dishes their menu has to offer and I am looking...

Used Uber eats to order a birthday meal - we had been wanting to try for a while, perhaps it was good we hadnt...!

Food is on the expensive side, but happy to pay for quality....except thats not really what we got. The momos are essentially gyozas - which is dissapointing and also misleading - expecting something steamed only to get something fried. The duck baos were good. Our main issue lies within the 2 curries we ordered - one chicken and one pumpkin katsu. They sent the chicken katsu with the advertised rice and as a curry dish - expect there were bits of undercooked chicken. The pumpkin one however came with no rice or sauce....so we called the restaurant to try and resolve. They said they would send out the full dish and pick up the pumpkin here - perfect - fine. Lady on phone seemed unbothered by undercooked chicken. 35 mins passes - they advise they will not be sending anything out - so the incorrect pumpkin we had actually recieved has now been sat in a tupperware since it left their restaurant an hour and a half ago.....so now cold and soggy? Again...no mention of the undercooked chicken. They have also only mentioned the pumpkin issue to uber- meaning the ticket is now closed and we cannot raise any other issues.

Dissapointing - unfortunately couldnt reccomend food or service -...