SOBA Asian street food in Cork

22/08/2025: The food the service and the whole experience was amazing. Thank you so much

13/08/2025: I ordered the Beef Rendang, a dish I fell in love with while living in Flores, Indonesia working as a dive instructor. It’s a dry curry with big chunks of beef infused with a paste made from roasted coconut flakes and spices. What I received did not match my expectations at all, more of a wet curry that lacked any real complexity of spice or depth of flavour. This was the main issue but it was also way too salty. I mentioned it to the lady at the point of sale and to be fair she did offer to have it redone for me and that was very kind but I already had a long day and was just exasperated by the whole thing. I got a lime and cut the salt a bit that way but left most of the sauce uneaten. The meat was not chunky and tender as expected for this iconic dish but rather small, quite tough and also kinda hard to find. Again, this dish should have big cubes of beef marinated in Rendang paste for several hours. On the up side, service was prompt, the rice was well cooked and the Heineken 0.0 was ice cold and crisp. Despite a disappointing meal this time I would be happy to give them a second chance based on service and atmosphere alone but I would not order the Rendang again as it simply isn’t a Rendang based upon my personal experience; having cooked the meal myself from scratch. Had it not been for the very pleasant nature of the lady serving me this may have been a more severe appraisal. It has a lively atmosphere too so they are definitely getting other things right. Then again, maybe I’m just wrong to expect an authentic Indonesian meal, in a little village, in the arse end of Cork