After walking around Picadilly trying to find a restaurant called Toku with little success and getting hungrier by the minute, I ended up giving up and heading to Kingly Street to try another one called Ramen Seto. I’d been past it several times before on the way to Donzoko and I’ve never been able to work out if it was authentic or not, sometimes full of Japanese people, and many other times full with obviously not Japanese people. The restaurant is pretty small, maybe fitting about 20 people though since it was quite late by the time I got there, the lunch rush would have been over.
The menu offers a standard selection of Japanese dishes including sushi, tempura, gyoza, some “don” dishes, and of course ramen. Since I always like to try the quality of sushi, I ordered a sea bass nigiri sushi in addition to the Pork Katsu Curry and Miso Soup set. I really can’t say that the sushi was anything very special though I was suitably impressed that they’d put a slight touch of wasabi between the rice and fish – something that more Westernised places tend not to do. A table next to me had the gyoza dish and each of them looked plump and very satisfying.
The pork katsu curry arrived with the miso soup shortly after. The soup was well made though maybe a little bit salty and had just the right amounts of tofu and spring onions. The pork katsu dish looked impressive with a huge mountain of rice surrounded by a pool of curry sauce and the pork katsu. Unfortunately the katsu was disappointingly overcooked and even drenchings of curry sauce didn’t make it any more moist.
I’m not sure if I would go back to Ramen Seto since it wasn’t particularly impressed by anything and there are plenty more Japanese restaurants to try in the area. Oh, and if you’re wondering the Asian waitresses are definitely not Japanese after over hearing them speak to one another.
Details: Ramen Seto
Found on: 19 Kingly Street, London, W1B 5PY
Contactable on: 0871 3328396
Highlights: Sushi was pretty much on par with Yo Sushi and a decent menu offering. Gyoza looked pretty impressive.
Room for improvement: Over cooked pork katsu
The Kua Rating: 6 out of 10
What’s Donzoku like as we’ve often walked past?
Sorry, I’ve blogged about it before and it’s just up the street. It’s another Japanese restaurant and much more authentic. I’ve added the link above.