Koya Japanese Restaurant City of London - (Near City of London, South East)

4 /5 Thai Hoang: The starters we ordered were a major let down: The cucumber & seaweed salad was bland and watery with no real taste, the fried prawns heads again had no seasoning and tasted of nothing other than oil (had to season myself with the chilli powder provided on each table) and finally the ‘special’ grilled octopus was again bland and appeared to just be boiled not grilled. However the udon dishes themselves were amazingly delicious. I had ordered the spiced cumin lamb udon - the amount of flavour that packed was top quality. Will be back to just try the other udon dishes for sure. Service was quality and attentive and the vibe of the restaurant was great!!

1 /5 lincoln chan: What a big disappointment on my visit. I cannot believe the price and the quality presented are so bad. Start of with the starter. The portion is so small and its barely a bite to share between people. And they charge 9.9 for some veg which is still freezing cold = straight out from the fridge. It doesnt even cost much if you double the portion. Pork belly is the only normal dishes, however its still not tender enough. A good pork belly should not even need to use your teeth to tear apart, it should be melting in your mouth. The grill octopus - I cannot believe how rip off this dish is charging people £17.10 for 5 pieces of chewing gum considering how thin the slices are. The veg next to it is seasoned with some miso, mustard, yuzu lemon and it is so salty, it is almost sea water salty and you cant even finish it with those jam thick sauce. Given £17 you should at least give a leg of octopus instead of few pieces of chewing gum to serve to your customer especially it doesn’t taste good at all. The udon is also big disappointment charging 16.90 for a small udon, rockets coriander, and a small scoop of lamb mince. In terms of portion, I cannot believe how small it is. We paid £17 and you give me a scoop of lamb mince that probably cost you less than 10p??? Rockets and coriander - what kind of japanese culture serve these two with udon? You just put some cheap veg to make the colour looks good on the udon? The udon itself is not even marugame quality and they sell it for just less than £6. I have rarely given any restaurants a one star review in my entire google review journey but this is definitely one of the most overrated, overhyped, overpriced, undeserving restaurants that I have ever visited. It is a disgrace to the Japanese culture if you serve this kind of food to any customer. I would not ever visit again and I strongly suggest the management need to review their price, quality, quantity. What a big disappointment. Overall we spent more than £36 per person for these.

5 /5 William Smith: Nourishing, warming udon. Comfort in a bowl. Highly recommend. Went to Koya (City of London Outlet) for lunch on Sat 17/12/2025. No reservation. Turned up and had to wait around in the front lobby area for maybe 15-20 minutes. Venue capacity doesn’t meet demands, staff a bit clueless on how to handle the constant influx of people, lots just standing around. First came the tonkotsu pork. Crunchy but not sharp, juicy but not soggy, firm but not rubbery. Portion size was pretty good too and the salt on the side is a nice touch. Only problem is it cost £20. Honestly, I don’t think it was worth £20. Even for London that’s too much. Next came the beef udon. I only got beef because the pork udon was sold out, turned out a blessing in disguise. Beef was tender and fell apart, with a strong depth of flavour. The noodles were springy and al dente, broth rich and warm. Portion size of both beef and noodle was also good. The £16.50 price tag is very reasonable. I got tempura prawns on the side. I was initially sceptical of the huge batter idea, but I came around; adding batter to broth and eating it is a carby delight, a guilty pleasure. No such thing as excessive. For £5? Not great not terrible price, worth it. Service was decent, although not noteworthy. Atmosphere was quite cramped. Price was ~£40. This is quite a lot higher than it should have been in retrospect but most of that is driven by the tonkatsu pork, which isn’t good value for money. If you want a higher quality, fancier udon, Koya is a safe bet. Alternatively, if you want a far cheaper but almost as delicious udon, try Marugame near Liverpool Street Station.

5 /5 Cal Mendes: What a place this is! From the moment you walk through the doors, you’re transported to an authentic Japanese restaurant. We were greeted by a friendly member of staff and we sat at one of the bar tables. From here you have a full panoramic view of the open kitchen, watching everyone busily prepare food. Everything was cooked with precision and care whilst presentation was second to none. The food was delicious, and well seasoned with a range of different sauces and herbs for accompaniment. Nothing was over powering on the pallet and everything was cooked to perfection. I recommend if you get the chance to also sample their Sake tasting board. 3 small shots of different sake to try. Personally I’m not a drinker, but I found these samples to be amazing and I’m glad I had that experience. The duck in their duck kamo was tender and melted in the mouth. Would definitely look to come back again next time in London.

5 /5 John Joseph Gutierrez: With the cold weather setting in, my wife and I were looking for some comfort eats in London and came across Koya serving authentic and creative takes on udon noodle soups from Japan. We started our meal with slow braised rice wine pork belly and agedashi tofu from their specials menu. We followed the starters with thin-cut pork belly served in udon noodle soup. The flavors from the pork and udon were absolutely delicious! If you’re looking for good udon and braised pork belly in the city with Japanese cuisine flavors, I highly recommend Koya.