Yocoko Noodle Bar

If possible I would rate this restaurant 0 stars. The food was subpar, as the noodles were soggy and the chicken tasted like dirt. But worse than the food itself was the wait staff. They were absolutely incompetent. When paying for my meal, they automatically converted my bill to US dollars at an extremely high and incorrect conversion rate. I asked to pay in pounds instead, and they told me it was impossible and they wouldn’t do it. I asked them to then cancel my charge to pay another way, and they said that was impossible as well. I will never be going back to this restaurant and advise you to stay away.

Not sure why this says it’s a japanese restaurant… it’s not. It’s clearly run by lovely people who speak mandarin :) food is ok, esp for the price. Nothing fancy or exceptionally authentic. Service is fast and not much to complain at this price! (And free wifi :)

Very good choice and decent prices. Only lacking in cold drinks. Also the prices have shot up by a couple of quid recently. Still won’t deter me from return visits.
Recommended.

I love this place! I’m quite surprised at the moderate reviews, because I’ve really enjoyed it every time I’ve been. Yocoko is characterised by very quick service, great value, and a big selection of food. I generally choose a noodles-​based dish, because I love noodles, but there are definitely rice options too.
A huge bonus of Yocoko is the availability of as much green tea as you want free of charge. Combined with the genuinely excellent value on offer in the restaurant, you can easily eat and drink sub £10, which is amazing in central Edinburgh. I also prefer Yocoko over Red Box, for example, as the food comes on plates and the drink in glasses.
Definitely worth a stop.

After looking at the intriguingly extensive menu, I stopped in at Yocoko for a late night, fringe time dinner.
Inside, it’s simple. minimal and clean. It’s not going to win any design awards but it’s perfectly functional.
As I mentioned, the menu offers a very broad range of Asian dishes. On paper, this looks great but as is often the case, an overreaching menu means the quality of the food suffers.
We ordered the Japanese mixed seafood with a side of Ho Fun and Yocoko Udon. Both dishes tasted identical. Gelatinous, MSG laden and overly salty, it completely ruined the flavours of what should be seasoned fresh seafood and vegetables.
The quality of Chinese fast food in the UK is pretty dismal and, to be fair, Yocoko does offer more variety than usual but it does seem to result in some very confused cooking. As far as Chinese takeaways go, Yocoko is certainly one of the better ones in Edinburgh but that’s not really saying much.

Casual food that is always served within 10 minutes of ordering and it’s a great stop for a quick lunch or dinner. Even during the hight of the fringe I managed lunch with a friend in less than 40 minutes and that was us taking our time. The menu focuses on noodles and everything that I’ve tried has been good.
It’s very cheap for the quantity of food that you get and the service is usually efficient if not alway that friendly.

Popped in here last night on a whim as I was looking for somewhere to meet a friend and have something to eat while waiting. As it happened, friend arrived pretty promptly so we both ended up eating.
It’s a largely Chinese-​style noodle bar, which in effect means that the menu is pretty standard Chinese-​restaurant fare. Although they did offer ‘Japanese-​style’ dishes, don’t expect a Wagamama experience.
We both ordered the Japanese mixed vegetable meal, which was a tray with a bowl of rice and mixed veg — disappointingly lacking anything exotic (like mushrooms) — with a teacup-​sized bowl of salad almost drowned under a large dollop of what I assume was mayonnaisel a cup of miso soup — not the hearty, seaweed-​laced red miso that you get in Wagamama, but a thin, almost clear watery miso with stringy bits of something (egg?) through it. To finish, there was a solitary strawberry on a wee dish sitting forlornly in the corner of the tray. Very odd.
However, it was late and choices were limited here, the place was certainly busy enough, the food was hot and reasonably priced — we both also had a beer and the bill was only £16 so can’t really complain. Cheap and cheerful.

All right. I don’t know why so many people say this is a very good Asia food restaurant. For me it’s not even as good as what I cooked for myself… a nice place for a quick meal, but really, it’s not that good, compared to Asian restaurants in Asia and even those in London.

Love this place! Very inexpensive, great portion sizes, and cheap beer (£1.80)! I would definitely go back.

So splendid. On Edinburgh’s first fully snowy day I really felt to celebrate. This place is superb!!!
Starter squid
Main. … Japanese grill sea food.
The red wine is ok!
The squid brilliant with hooootttt chili fresh sliced!
The grill fabby.
Very very mild but nice. I held onto my chilis
As I love Japanese food I would have loved sake. But it is more Chinese here.
Mmmm … Japanese grill availabe.
Maybe manager can get sake in too please.
I will return!
Ps. My mains had fresh ginger! It was perfect!!!

Excellent taste. Not expensive. Cost-​effective.
I will recommend my friends to eat here.

Great food and nice service! Really recommended if you like Asian food. Tried wok noodle with chicken and bean sauce and it was simply delicious. Open until late so it’s a good choice for a late night dinner.

Been here a few times now & I’m not sure if it’s the festival frenzy but I don’t think it’s as good as it was when it first opened. Yes, it’s still cheap and the portions are big but the flavour seems to have gone downhill and the portions seem to be mostly noodles and rice and sauce and less meat/​fish/​veg.
There’s the service too, we ordered starters on my last visit that never came. The drinks were wrong. It wasn’t that busy either.
I’ll give them another shot but maybe I need to find another noodle bar…

I concur with most reviews here and so I try to keep it short. It was my 4^th time in 6 weeks that I went to this Noodle Bar. The highlights:
1 — Price: Cheapest in central Edinburgh eg. Starter Chicen Wings + Noodle + coke was 10 Pounds
2– Variety: Around 100 different items to choose from. Menu very organised and categorised, indicating which is spicy and which is veg and from which country each dish originates, and what type of pasta/​rice they have, and if wet or dry, etc etc etc. — it’s not that much a hit and miss as in other cuisines. Btw, don’t expect Pizza and Burgers though!
3 — Speed of service: Drinks within a minute, Starter 5 mins, Main course 10mins (often I have not yet finished my starter, but I am not picky on this)
4 — Location: Very central in South Bridge close to Biblos and Cow gate
5 — Environment: Always with lots of people, if lucky you get the sofas
6 — Food quality: Very delicious, all four times I was satisfied. Once I tried the chicken with Lemon Sauce — wonderful
7 — Portions: Noodles, Rice, Pasta, etc abundant, very filling.
8 — Green tea free of charge (Never heard in Edinburgh!)
What can be improved
The service is not always 4-​star and maybe the management needs to have more Scottish waiters (with that extra smile, and courtesy) of get the asian ones (including the management) some tutorials of service for UK customers. They waiters seem to suffer with chaos-​attack when there is a lot of people, kinda confused. Don’t expect a set table and for astrange reason the cutlery is always one napkin and one fork (where’s the knife Bruce Lee?)
It is a very popular Noodle Bar, and always full of people during peak hours and weekends (and fringe festival) so it is not forth-​granted you find place to sit immediately.
I haven’t tried the heavy dishes (meat, fish, duck and set menus etc.) but I am quite sure that are also delicious.
If they just improve the service and can find a way to make the place larger, it would have more five-​stars.
Highly recommended, I am going again to try a wet noodle dish (from what I’ve seen, the size of a face-​washing basin/​bowl!)

I’m going to give this place four stars because it’s consistent. It’s fast and definitely cheap. I work very near to this place and whenever I come I order the same dish — #40. It’s a egg fried noodle dish, with veg, pork, and chillies. It’s tasty. Once I ordered something else off the menu and I didn’t like it. I’ve since proclaimed to never deviate from #40.
Once thing to note is that the service isn’t great. And yes like others, I hate that they don’t offer me chop sticks either. However, this hasn’t (and won’t) stop me from not coming. I’ll be back from lunch again in the near future!

A super quick bite
A nice little noodle bar
Lunch can be busy

If you’re hungry and no longer want to be hungry you could do a lot worse than come here.
Big portions and cheap.
Super fast service (at 16:30 on a Friday anyway). So fast in fact you might find your order arrives before you do*.
No Katsu Curry though. What the hell!
Still if you want a cheap, filling, hot winter meal I recommend the 39 (or was it the 36?), whatever, the satay chicken stir fry with noodles.
I do have hair all over my jacket sleeve but I think that was my fault for keeping my jacket on during a haircut, in fact I’m sure it was my fault, it seems unlikely that there is some sort of recently-​cut-​hair spraying apparatus secreted about the restaurant. Oh god it’s all over my phone now…
*This probably won’t happen.

Oh my. I just had a joygasm while scarfing down chicken ramen. That plate of food was seriously tasty, enough for two people and less than a fiver. Amazing!
This is a cheap and cheerful place. No airs and graces. Tables are packed in, it’s really busy and noisy and waiting staff are brisk. And yeah, there’s the ridiculous chopstick thing…
Worth it for the scran I just ate though. Will be back.

If I had even the slightest shred of self respect, I wouldn’t come here. But I’m currently the duke, so make of that what you will…
The service is terrible, the place is always cold and giving forks to Western-​looking folks and chopsticks to Asian-​looking people without giving you the choice is annoying. And just giving you one napkin. Is there a napkin shortage I haven’t heard about? Just put the napkins and cutlery on the table and let us do it ourselves! That would mean fewer encounters for the rude staff to endure too. «One fork, one napkin and one menu,» as John Lee Hooker didn’t sing. Sort it out!
So why do I go back? The food. Absolutely delicious. Under five pounds for a tasty stir fry or soup, with free green tea. Of course I always spend more as I can’t resist the crispy chilli beef strips for a starter (see photos).
It’s just the kind of place that Edinburgh needed — no frills, cheap and cheerful noodle house in the centre of town. The menu is a crazy concoction of various Asian dishes, but it’s better than Wagamama and half the price. The Singapore noodles (with the option of ho fun rather than vermicelli) are fantastic.
I was going to give it 4 stars for the food, but last time I had to eat with my coat on because of the cold and one of the staff was incredibly rude (though the other was very nice). But I’ll keep going back for the food. ..

Checked out Yococko to grab some food on Sunday. The place was absolutely heaving, and we were in a massive rush to get to see a show. We got our lunch, and we got to see our show, so happy days all round.
Yocoko seems to me to be your typical noodle bar, with fast service and food, perhaps not with the quality of a five star restaurant, but it will be something that keeps you going. What I had was the seafood satay noodles and what I received was a barrel-​load of noodles with a healthy enough portion of seafood and vegetables on top. I couldn’t even finish half of my plate. It certainly kept me full til dinner. Would I call it top notch food? No, but it filled our bellies while we fought the Fringe crowds.