The Naschmarkt area is like the food court of Vienna. Every couple of weeks something new pops up and tries to entice the crowds. Since I am an avid Saturday morning market visitor, I noticed the upcoming opening of Soba Noodles and convinced a friend to go there for lunch. I passed it twice on a Saturday and the place was packed, so we headed there around 1 pm to avoid the usual lunch crowds.
The first thing I noticed were the Asians in here, the two guys next to me were Chinese. That boded already well for my lunch. I love it when ethnic restaurants are visited by ‘locals’, since usually they know how their food should taste. The restaurant has an open kitchen concept and the ventilation works really well. Upon leaving the restaurant I couldn’t detect any kitchen odor.
open kitchen concept @Soba Noodles
We both ordered soup with handmade noodles (other noodles choices are rice, soba or udon) but with different add-ins. My friend chose beef goulash and I had pork with fermented vegetables. There is also a daily changing lunch dish available which was on that day a rice bowl with shrimps. The weather though made my choice clear, it hadn’t been so cold in a long time and therefore a hot soup was essential.
soup with beef goulash @Soba Noodles
soup with pork and fermented vegetables @Soba Noodles
My soup was delicious, to list it as spicy needs to be disputed though. I had to add extra spice from the clearly home-made spice mix to my soup. What didn’t work for me was the overall concept and the prices. The startling speed in which the order was ready, the individual plastic tray plus all the extra plastic bowls, spoons etc. gave the place a fast-food feeling.
Which it is not. Because neither the quality nor the prices give any indication that this is snack shop. So the noodle bar has to make up its mind where it wants to go with all of this. In the end it comes to this, the soup was great. Yours, Pollybert
Soba Noodle Bar
1040 Wien, Rechte Wienzeile 37
Tel: +43 1 2865760
https://www.soba.wien/
