CoBa
Sadly, this restaurant is now closed.
244 York Way
London N7 9AG
Nearest Transport: A bit of a walk from Kings Cross Underground or Caledonian Road Overground
3.8 Yummy stars
Price ££ Dinner: Starters - £6-£8; Mains £10.5-£15 with separate Lunch Menu (at time of writing
☏ 07495 963336
Australian-inspired Vietnamese BBQ dishes
BBQ Pork Noodle Salad at Coba
Buzz factor 3.5/5 stars
Food 3.9/5 stars
Value for money 4/5 stars
CôBa Restaurant sits in the corner of crossroads in the vicinity of the newly developed Kings Cross area of York Road. Though quite a walk from public transport, it is a convenient location for a bite to eat before or after visiting Kings Place and Kings Cross Theatre and many other places nearby. The décor is simple and has the trendy industrial but roomy feel. It seats 50+ with the bar at the back.
Following the trend of welcoming walk-ins, the restaurant currently accepts only dinner reservations.
The service was attentive but not intrusive. The staff were friendly and helpful.
The menu claims to be Australian-inspired Vietnamese food. The chef patron is Damon Bui, who is of Vietnamese descent and has apparently been inspired by his mother’s cooking back in Australia. After a successful run of supper clubs, he opened CôBa Restaurant in October 2015.
The menu is pretty short and has a BBQ theme, though you can still order your usual Vietnamese rolls. Their Beef Pho was fairly average as the soup base lacked depth. I suppose that I was comparing their Pho with what I had in Vietnam, the experience of which I have not been able to re-live in London yet….. However, there are many other dishes here that were well worth having.
The prawn toast, which I had heard about, did not disappoint. In fact, it was one of the best things among the dishes we ordered. The toasts deceptively hid a good amount of minced prawn – all deep fried and served with as mildly spicy mayonnaise. We really enjoyed their Papaya chicken salad which was pretty spicy. The original version comes very hot. Do ask the waiter to tone down the heat if you can’t take very spicy food and want to be able to speak afterwards.
Their BBQ Pork and BBQ Chicken noodle salad with lemongrass, fried tofu, mint, red chilli served with nuoc cham sauce (a garlic chilli dipping sauce) were also delicious and really refreshing. The BBQ meat had an intense flavour which blended well with the noodles and the mild chilli dipping sauce.
Definitely worth a visit and going back to!
