Yes, yes, I know. Another Yau institute. This one has been open for some time yet I haven’t had a chance to go. Given all the rain after the movie Kath and I went to see on Saturday, I thought warming soup would be a great way to finish the evening off. The concept is simple – cheap, noodle and soup based dishes for the masses.

To keep things cheap, think of Wagamama’s style service turned up to the 10th degree. Starters are replaced with sides, arriving whenever they do. Waiters and waitresses whisk dishes away just shortly after you’ve finished with them, and with no desserts on the menu, there is little reason for people to hang around.

When we arrived, the queue for seating was almost out of the door. It seemed like if you’re in a big group, you’ll probably wait a little bit longer since the two of us got seated in about five minutes of standing there.

All the dishes are fixed at £3.50, including all the soup noodle dishes, wok fried noodle dishes and all of the sides. We decided to have a char siu mian and a wonton mian with a turnip side dish (mooli). If you can stick to tap water, or no drinks then you will walk away spending very little money as the drinks are significantly more. I couldn’t resist the non-alcoholic cocktail called Guava Collins priced at £2.90. The drink is based on guava and coconut juices and it reminded me of my time in India. Kath enjoyed it so much she ended up ordering one as well though at

Now, about the food. I had the wonton main, served with four large wontons, noodles in a light chicken broth. The broth was fairly tasty although the noodles seemed to overpower the flavour a fair amount when you ate them in conjunction. The wontons on the other hand were simply spectacular and the £3.50 was good enough value just for them as they were plump, juicy and bursting with flavour and texture. None of the consistently pasty texture you might find in other lesser Chinese restaurants around London. The mooli dish, a turnip cake stir fried with some bean sprouts also had plenty of flavour and their slightly toasted edges still had some bite despite the sauce that now covered it. The serve isn’t the biggest you’ll find around town but for £3.50 what else would you expect?

Name: Cha Cha Moon
Found at: 15-21 Ganton St, Soho, W1F 9BN
Contactable on: 020 7297 9800
TheKua.com Rating: 7 out of 10