At this time of year we often turn to food that will warm us inside and out.

Sure you can turn to the conventional comfort foods of London. Fish and chips, pies, Roast Dinners but why not be a bit more adventurous?

Gyoza Bar is a new restaurant that has just opened in Covent Garden on St Martin’s Lane and has a menu packed with comforting food all the way from Japan.

Gyoza (Japanese dumplings) and Ramen (noodle soup) make up the bread and butter of this menu and both are too good to neglect….

So order both!

Like most Japanese restaurants, the food comes when it’s ready (and rightly so) – so don’t enter into this dining experience thinking you can pace your self with a starter then a main.

It ALL arrives at once and it’s the type of food that fills you to the brim, in a good way.

My friend Nick and I both tried different ramen noodles, I opted for the chicken while he opted for the pork belly, both in a pork broth (you can ask for vegetable).

It arrived at our table pretty quickly, and not long after so did our selection of gyoza. We decided to opt for a selection of ALL the flavours. Because, you know, why not!

Each gyoza was an explosion of flavour and despite not knowing which each would be, like a sort of dumpling roulette, it didn’t take us long as the taste of each packed a powerful punch.

Pork, chicken, salmon, vegetable, and a soy gyoza which was perhaps the only one we struggled to identify. And only then it was because it was a totally new flavour for us, but tasted incredible.

The ramen was FULL to the brim of vegetables, noodles, tender chicken and beansprouts it was a struggle to eat it all as the broth and noodle combination filling me slowly but surely. But it’s hard to choose between the gyoza and the ramen here because both are so irresistible and total soul food – and that was before we’d begun on dessert which was crispy fried ice cream.

Words don’t do it justice so I’ll just leave this here…

If you’re not one to compromise, save yourself all day for a trip to Gyoza Bar and try EVERYTHING.

For those with smaller appetites you may want to choose, but choose wisely as there’s an awful lot on the menu that you won’t want to miss out on.

Price : Incredibly reasonable for central London. 

If you fancy visiting, check out their website for a full menu or for a work lunch order on Deliveroo.