As much as I wanted to like this place, I just don’t think this place worked its magic for me. I went along and didn’t really take note of the "Japanese noodle and sushi bar" title, their menu focused on various forms of ‘men’ or noodle soup with everything from udon noodle, ramen noodle and wonton soup as well a number of other classic "Japanese" dishes. They also offer a number of "set" menus, and I ended up going for one of faves, the pork katsudon (breaded pork on rice topped with an egg-based sauce) for £8. Looking back, I really should have got a noodle soup instead.

You order at the entrance of the store, something that became an obvious bottleneck with the single menu taped to the counter causing people to crowd around it as they’re deciding what to order. After ordering, you then find a table or a counter seat in my particular case.

They served me a glass of tap water automatically, a plus on their side although unfortunately it wasn’t topped up throughout. Fortunately this isn’t a place that collects a service fee on top of their dish – what you see is what you pay.

When the katsudon arrived, it had been garnished with some seaweed – not too much to overpower the entire dish. I could see immediately that it was going to be a dry dish, where instead of a saucy egg based sauce, I found traces of egg and what still looked like very white rice untouched by any type of sauce. Admittedly there was plenty of rice and consider it the pork a generous serve to match the amount of rice yet I found myself desperately wanting something to moisten the palette. Much to my surprise, they also served the katsudon with a bowl of miso soup, and I definitely appreciated the offer.

Although there were plenty of signs this place should have been good – plenty of Japanese people and reasonable prices, I don’t think I’ll be going out of my way to head back there anytime soon. My table had obviously been wiped down, yet remained sticky to the touch, the katsudon was far too dry and unsatisfying despite their generously sized portion.

TheKua.com Rating: 2 out of 10
Found at: 84 Brewer Street, Soho, London W1F 9UB

I went along today to the Nordic Bakery to escape from the hustle and bustle of Regent street and it did not at all disappoint. Its interior is spacious with tall ceilings and large wooden panels lining the walls around you. Small warehouse down lights brighten up the space, bringing focus to the nine dark stained tables you sit at. Continuing on in this clean cut, Scandinavian style, only two hanging features adorn the walls, on one side, two green canvas bags also for sale, and a large rug hanging opposite it.

Their menu is simple, with a combination between some fresh foods based around cakes and sandwiches, and other items that you might think about stocking in the pantry. The focus for their food is quality food although you may be expecting larger portions for sandwiches that cost up to £4. Amongst their offerings is a serious of traditional Nordic ingredients presented atop a heavy, dark and flavoursome rye bread.

Their "fillings" include smoked salmon, gravadlax, egg and achovy, pickled herring and something more for local taste, cheese and pickle. Each sandwich is pretty satisfying as mentioned before, you may be expecting something more. My server offered me the other piece of bred to turn the open sandwich into a more proper one. My lunch, the gravadlax at £3.75, was extremely tasty and it seemed like they used high quality ingredients, with most of the sandwiches freshly made.

I tried their coffee (a latte at £2.20) with my lunch, who’s only fault was that it had far too much milk for my liking. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite cut my "Where’s the best coffee?" series of places although I would probably drink it again if I returned to this place.

I also couldn’t resist trying one of their pastry/cake desserts, trying out one of their cinnamon buns (£2). It was surprisingly heavy, and the warmth gave away that it had been freshly baked. Although not as excessively sweet as I had been expecting, it was slightly doughy and really only half would have been enough.

The Nordic Bakery is quite a treat, and unlike many of the other upmarket establishments, somehow keeps an air of serenity without feeling excessively bland or boring.

It’s strange to find a Chinese restaurant in the middle of a shopping centre, particularly one in England yet that’s exactly where you’ll find this one (actually in the O2 Centre). True to their name, this place apparently serves dim sum on the weekend, and other Cantonese and Peking dishes the rest of the time.

At first, their prices surprised me, with most main dishes being £2-£3 above many other restaurants. Part of it probably comes from the fine plates and dishes they serve it on as well as their large spacious dining room. The other part probably comes with the small little things that come out of the ordinary like the plate of coated peanuts while you peruse the menu, the small plate of char xiu while you wait and the fruit plate at the end of the night. Fortunately they still only charge 10% unlike many other places who would either use it as an excuse to bump up their service charge, or automatically add it as side dishes to the final bill.

My meal was simple, with a small bowl of wonton soup followed by prawn chow mein. The soup had three or four large meaty dumplings in a salty, flavourful broth. It was a good start to the meal although the noodle dish really disappointed. It looked impressive, with six large prawns nestled on top of a bed of crispy noodles and accompanied by brightly coloured Chinese greens. Unfortunately the crispy noodle was just too crispy and the sauce that came with it was too watery to the point it was just disappointly flavourless.

Although this restaurant sits on the pricey side of London Chinese places, I’d be tempted to return to the lobster and crab special they have right now (£14 and £10 respectively) on Monday through to Thursday evenings.

This location of a chain of Thai restaurants welcomes people into its bright and airy surrounds. Although not being as busy as I would’ve expected a place so central for a Saturday night, small parties of people continued to constantly arrive throughout our stay.

The menu offers a very standard selection of Thai dishes, everything from the classic fried starters, soups, salads to the noodle, rice and curry dishes. We tried the mixed starters and for £9.95 it offers very good value with enough to actually be probably satisfy a light meal. The other dishes aren’t too expensive with most of the curries between £6-£8. Where they do get you though is the small bowl of rice at £1.80 per person.

Personally I was disappointed with the Pad Kee Mao (Thai drunken noodle) that, while typically spicy, seemed to have a bit of an off flavour from other places I’ve had it. Fortunately we had the Penang curry to offset it.

Most of the attendants gave us reasonable service – nothing too in your face, although we did have to ask for more water and the bill.

Thai Square is a reasonable place to go out and dine with a large group of people, though it’s probably not the best Thai I’ve had around town.

One of the rituals I’ve developed since living in the UK is a Sunday bout of dim sum to catch up with my sister. I have my list of favourites, yet there is always room to try something new, and something new we did today. Hidden around a back, quiet side street of Baker Street tube station is Phoenix Palace, one of the more upmarket Chinese restaurants I compare to places like Royal China, or Princess Gardens. Upon entry, I was a little suspect of the place with the entire reception filled with anyone but Chinese people (not a great sign), and was relieved walking into the larger dining area in the back that it wasn’t just the latest in westernised dim sum restaurants.

Both standard and dim sum menus appear diverse, and even though wasn’t particularly thrilled by some of the prices on the dim sum menu, the interesting combinations of unique dishes definitely mean a repeat visit for dinner another time. Other than a listing of very standard dishes catering for both Chinese and non-Chinese tastes, they had a whole other section devoted to game meats with everything from ostrich, wild boar, kangaroo, springbok, hare and more. Some of those dishes with very exotic sauces, others just combining with a classic Chinese sauce. With our dim sum, we tried the pan fried kangaroo in black pepper and honey sauce (£14.80).

For dim sum, we indulged in our favourites as well as a few new twists including prawn dumpling with wasabi paste, garlic spare ribs with cheung fun and liquid gold custard buns. Overall prices in this place are much higher than other Chinese restaurants, and the serving size on the less generous scale. As you can see, the highly sought after BBQ pork buns are on the extremely small size. As you can see from the picture above, the wasabi-infused prawn dumplings really stick out with their iridescent green skins. Unfortunately they lacked the kick that I’ve had before with this variation (I think it has to do with the wasabi being over-steamed at some point)

Admittedly, my favourite dish of the day ended up being the kangaroo. It’s sauce was light enough not to be soaking into everything yet not thick that it coated everything too thickly. Its honey flavour did not have an overpowering sweetness you might expect typical of a Chinese restaurant with the tiny bits of pepper creating a good contrast with the kangaroo meat, and its very distinctive flavour. It also impressed me that a Chinese restaurant on the other side of the world can cook kangaroo in such a light delicate manner than biting off small mouthfuls was an easy affair – not an easy task with a meat that is easily overcooked to a leathery texture. Although I still question it’s value at that price, I would definitely recommend it again.

In contrast, the garlic spare ribs cheung fun was a staggering £5 for what ended up being a combination of two dim sum dishes without any extra effort. The garlic spare ribs seemingly poured over four small doughy cheung fun, that whilst fresh, easily could have been so much better and definitely not worth the hefty price.

We ended our meal with their special liquid gold custard buns, one that I had guessed would be steamed rather than baked. We ordered these at the end, unsure whether or not we could depend on the restaurant to keep it hot and served only at the end. Unfortunately that seemed to backfire a little and they took their sweet time getting it to the table (but at least it was fresh). At £1.80 per dumpling (that’s right, the two-bun dish costing £3.60), we treated each as its own little pot of gold. Unlike other custard buns, the insides were slightly runny though calling it liquid is a little bit extreme. Each bit also seemed to have a slightly scratchy texture as if the sugar in the custard had not completely melted. Not bad overall though.

The total damage came to a startling £42.20 (when we normally spend about £25), something that we guessed by ordering so many unique dishes. Service remained decent throughout the meal, although I definitely wouldn’t say that it exceptional service. I wouldn’t recommend this place for a regular dim sum, although I would return here to try a more unique Chinese dining experience.

Details: Phoenix Palace
Found at: 3-5 Glentworth St, London, NW1 5PG
Contactable on: +44 (0) 20 74863515
Highlights: Unique dishes in a fairly busy yet comfortable dining scene with bright lighting and modern décor.
Room for improvement: Even standard dishes seemed more expensive than other Chinese restaurants.
The Kua Rating: 6.5 out of 10