The Soi Noodle Bar is a perfect spot for a pre or post movie drink and casual meal. Located in the Canberra Centre close to Dendy, parking is easy and it’s open every day until late.

Not licensed, it very helpfully offers BYO wine at $3 per person.

You can choose from differently sized Japanese, Thai and Korean dishes to suit your appetite and budget.

It’s great value, offering a 25% discount for Canberra Entertainment Book holders.

Service is swift.

The decor is chic, with some very impressive branding…

…that even extends into the kitchen!

Soi Noodle Bar has  a friendly atmosphere and it’s the kind of place you can chat to fellow diners. At the table next to us we met Tam, Minh, Jenny and Tam who were lovely.

They are studying at ANU and enjoying Canberra, especially its food culture.

When it came to the menu, I loved the interesting mini-dishes especially the soft buns (3 for $15, $5 each for any extra).

These buns are teriyaki chicken, but the soft shell crab, spanner crab, prawn tempura or lamb all sounded great too.

Other great choices were the spicy edamame beans $5….

….and the delicious miso eggplant $10.

One order of each of these would be perfect to share between two with a glass or two of wine ($18 each including corkage or $13.50 with the Entertainment Book discount).
However, there’s also larger main meals on offer like the..

SLOW COOKED BEEF CHEEKS With salad & black rice $24

Or if you’d like, you can create your own noodle, curry, ramen or rice dish from a range of ingredients for around $14 (vegetable) to $19 for combination meats.

Serve sizes are very generous, ideal for sharing.

GREEN CURRY
Thai green curry with coconut milk zucchini, eggplant, green beans, bamboo shoot & sweet basil (medium spicy)

RAMEN – Chicken broth ramen noodle soup, topped with the meat of your choice, wakame, nori, chopped shallot, bamboo shoot, boiled egg and fish cake.

PAD SEE EW – Stir-fried thick rice noodles with Chinese broccoli, egg & sweet soy sauce

YAKIUDON – Udon noodles with soy, oyster ,fish sauce, cabbage, chopped shallot, onion, carrot, mushroom, egg and topped by bonito flakes & sesame oil.

The staff were friendly and accommodating.

They even sent us out some complimentary slushies to try –

LYCHEE SAKURA – lychee, lime & mint, 

COCO-MANGO – coconut, mango & mint, 

WATERMELON SUIKA – watermelon, mint & lime 

Usually $6 each they were a perfect way to end the meal.

Soi Noodle Bar ticks all the boxes for me and will be my ‘go to’ pick when I’m heading to the movies.