Soi Noodle Bar

We've got the Night Noodle Markets to thank for the appearance of the new Soi Noodle Bar which opened in December in the Canberra Centre. Last year, co owner Adam Elchakak brought his Sydney restaurant chain Thainabox to the inaugural, and hugely popular, markets at the Enlighten festival in March. Canberra reportedly piqued his interest so much that he decided to open a restaurant in the capital. And thus we have Soi, a venture between Elchakak and fellow Sydney restaurateur Hao Chen.

The menu does range widely - a build-your-own noodle soup section, Japanese chicken, pad thai, and more tumbled together in a sort of pan-Asian miscellany. The interior is modern in a sort of faux Wagamama mode - windowside bar seating, benches along the wall and a big takeaway counter. The end of the room is dominated by a stylised portrait of an Asian woman in soft peony pink and calligraphic black.

OK, so we're ordering from across Asia, which is usually a lesson in "jack of all trades and master of none". But chef Moon Young Park proves himself versatile enough to tick a bunch of different Asian cuisine boxes. He is Korean but has a deft hand with the Japanese dishes. To that end, a row of takoyaki octopus balls are thinly crisp outside with a soft, gooey interior, each piece bearing a curl of octopus tentacle inside. There's quite a bit of filling vs octopus but they're a fine enough example of the genre.

The chicken karaage could be a touch more deeply fried, but is still deeply soft and flavoursome under a fine breaded coating. They're good little nuggets.

Best of all is the wagyu beef cheek with a mound of wild rice - strands of melting meat so tender they pull apart at the touch of a single chopstick. It's overlaid with a dark caramelised sauce that's so sticky and smoky it's like Tokyo by way of Georgia, but you could also go with the additional blob of horseradish-imbued kewpie mayo. This is a surprisingly (and deliciously) luxurious dish, far beyond your usual noodle takeaway shop offering.

The Thai offering we try tonight is a little less impressive, though colourfully arrayed with vegetables - a pad see ew that's generous portioned but not as satisfying as that wagyu and the fried chicken. There's no liquor menu - you'll have to BYO - but there's an array of Asian-tinged non-alcoholic drinks such as mint and watermelon slushies. Soi also does a brisk to-go trade, so it's more of a quick and easy casual joint.

Soi Noodle Bar is cheerfully casual but it's also a steep cut above the usual generic Asian takeaway joints that infest the city - a couple of dishes hit some big notes  - and it will be interesting to see what might transpire in March if the noodle bar comes to the Night Noodle Markets.