Koba

11 Rathbone St
London

W1T 1NA

Another day, another J. Our weekly lunches resumed this week since J is finally in London again after being flung around the globe recently. Koba caught our eye as we were walking past and since they were doing very reasonable lunch specials, we went in. For 6.20, I got a bowl of kimchi jjigae (a spicy tofu soup) with pork, a bowl of rice, and three little banchan (bean sprouts, kimchi and courgettes). J ordered the dolsot bibimbap, which came with the same banchan. I was happy to see banchan included - one of my pet peeves about Korean restaurants in England is that they expect you to pay for each banchan - and the mains were delicious. My jjigae had lovely pieces of silken soft tofu swimming in a fiery red hot soup, with very thin slices of pork belly mixed in - perfect for this gray weather we're having, though it made me sneeze uncontrollably a few times due to the spicy kick. J approved of her bibimbap - we'll have to come back to try the Korean barbecue.