Dinner for five at Naru, Shaftesbury Avenue

Last night I went for dinner with my lovely family to nosh on a cuisine I hadn't tried before: Korean. We went to Naru on Shaftesbury Avenue. After having roamed the end of Shaftesbury Avenue I know well, around Neal Street and Cambridge Circus, I realised that it was the other end I needed to be. Past the Shaftesbury Theatre and on to a little promenade of restaurants, shops and smart houses, to number 230. Naru is somewhat typical-looking of an Asian restaurant - small, opening into a dimly-lit restaurant with fresh flowers and many tables, unfortunately on this night, not filled up - there were three other sets of diners.

As I went in, the waitress ushered me to our table and put down huge leather-effect menus, ready for when the rest of the party arrived. At each place we had thin, silver chopsticks resting on elegant porcelain stands. Once the rest of my clan arrived we ordered Jasmine tea, which was beautifully sweet and aromatic, made from fresh Jasmine flowers, steeped in boiling hot water. I was once told by someone, 'Never trust a restaurant which has photos of the dishes in the menu.' Well, Naru has photos of the dishes, so I was a little bit apprehensive of the quality of the food that was going to come my way - but my brother, who suggested the place, told me to 'just you wait and see'. And wait and see I did. Because the food was magnificent.

To start with we all ordered different starters, so we could share. I ordered Kan so sae woo (prawns lightly fried in batter, with a sweet chilli sauce), my sister-in-law ordered Gun Mandu (homemade vegetable dumplings), my brother ordered deep fried boneless chicken, mum ordered potato noodles (more on them soon) and dad, smoked duck with mustard relish. Although they were billed as starters, the mound of food that came was anything but started-sized. As a family of foodie aficionados, we love to feel there is value for money, and this place certainly provides that. All the starters were delicious - perfectly cooked and, in the case of the prawns and chicken, extremely spicy - my cold that has been brewing for the past month came and went with a good few dollops of sweet chilli sauce! Mum's potato noodles sound very odd, but were a wonderful surprise, of soft, flavourful, super thin noodles made from potato flour (not actual potato, which I initially thought). They came with mixed stir-fried vegetables, crunchy and sweet, the perfect accompaniment to the soft noodles.

Then came the mains. Mine was an absolute sight to behold. I ordered Hae Mul Bokum, which is mixed seafood in a sweet and spicy sauce with glass noodles. What came to me (pictured) was a most impressive feast of the sea, with a whole, giant scallop resting in a (not 'its') shell, with squid (or calamari, as they call it), mussels, prawns and crunchy vegetables in another potent sweet and spicy sauce. 

My mum and sister-in-law had a special, extremely hot (sizzling, as my mum soon found as she went to touch it, ouch) metal pot filled with rice, beef or tofu, vegetables and an egg yolk on the top. You mix the ingredients all together in the pot in order to make the equivalent of an egg-fried rice dish. 


My brother had a pork, soupy stew, and my dad had the most delicious and tender ribs of beef (on the bone, fingers crossed it wasn't horse...) in a wonderfully rich gravy, with brown and wild rice and vegetables. 

The meal was accentuated with top ups of hot water for our tea, which was a delight. The service was good, when we had it, but the waitress was far from attentive. She stood at the bar which was round the corner and didn't check on us other than when she was taking orders or producing food or drink. This is preferable to the much too over-enthusiastic waffling you sometimes get at restaurants (every five minutes being asked if 'everything is ok?'), but, when my mouth was on fire and there was no sign or hope of water, service did fall a little flat. The food did come quickly, and when we did speak to the waitress, she was polite and charming. I would highly recommend Korean food, and in particular, that of Naru Restaurant. 

Naru Restaurant
230 Shaftesbury Avenue
London
WC2H 8EG
www.narurestaurant.com

Images: Lucy