The Japan Centre is nestled in the heart of bustling Picadilly madness. It’s a multi-storied building fully kitted out with a Japanese grocery store, a book store, travel store and with the main floor being their restaurant called Toku. On a Saturday, the crowd inside is almost frenzied with plenty of people moving in and out of the main floor, as well as going up and down the stairs. Fortunately it wasn’t raining on the weekend I went, so at least the waves of people could escape outside.

I sat at the sushi bar, located to the left of the entrance as you walk in and where three chefs were preparing all of the sushi and what looked like, all of the tempura orders as well. As soon as you are seated, an attendant will draw a small bowl of wasabi peas from a large container – probably the one thing that pushes the service charge up from your standard to their 12.5%. Admittedly it’s a nice thing to snack on these things as you peruse the impressive menu choice. The first two pages are all drinks with a huge selection of sake, Japanese beer, plenty of normal soft drinks and juices and many Japanese drinks, including my most favourite ones – Ramune and Calpico.

The sushi menu is vast, though ordering by the piece is expensive such as £6 for two pieces of the eel nigiri! Other dishes, particularly the lunch sets or the don (rice bowl) dishes offered more value. Not able to turn down the chance of trying the eel, I still ordered the expensive nigiri sushi as well as the Katsudon dish that comes with miso soup.

The sushi was the first out of the dishes to arrive and though beautifully presented, was also the smallest bit of eel I’d seen for a while. The typical sauce, not quite lavishly dripping off the eel itself, was artfully dotted around the wooden platform it had been presented on and accompanied by the typical ginger and wasabi paste. The katsudon was much more pleasing with the perfect amount of egg and dashi sauce covering the kastu on the rice, and not too much rice that you ended up with a whole heap at the end of your meal.

Although meals here are reasonable, stay away from ordering sushi for the piece, and even then, the sushi sets are pretty expensive compared to many other places (like Donzoko). The bowl dishes and the the non-sushi sets offer much better value.

Details: Toku
Found on: Japan Centre, 212 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9HX
Contactable on: 020 7255 8255
Highlights: Authentic Japanese food with a huge variety of everything
Room for improvement: Sushi is overpriced and it’s really busy
The Kua Rating: 7.5 out of 10

It was only recently in the blogosphere that I read about food places in Selfridges other than the Food Hall. Seeing as Saturday was a lovely day and I did need lunch at some stage, I thought it would be good to head down there to try out the Garden Cafe. Set out like a much more upmarket brasserie, there are plenty of options to try for, including crepes, soups, baked potatoes, indian, Chinese, British and American cuisines.

Not wanting to miss out on apparently the “best” Char Kway Teow’s in London I just had to try it out. I will admit that the Chinese stall can be particularly confusing since they don’t really have that many instructions. On the other hand, talking with another English lady there it also seemed the most interesting since there were so many combinations and they cook it really fresh in front of you.

On the wall, you pick your noodle dish and type of meat, or pick a rice and type of meat. What they don’t tell you on the wall is that when you order your noodle, you also choose what sort of style you would like including Pad Thai, Char Kway Teow and a couple of others and you wait while they cook it fresh for you. Interested in the other dishes they had there, I also got one of the sticky spare ribs and thought would try out a couple of the dumplings sitting in the steaming baskets.

The noodle dish ended up costing £8.95, a comparable price to many of the Chinese restaurants in Chinatown and while the spare rib at £1.50 was great value, each dumpling at £1.25 was far too excessive. The Char Kway Tweo was pretty good as the Culinary Hags wrote about, though I can’t say how authentic it was because I’ve only had the dish in Australia and London. The King Prawns that mine came with were perfectly cooked, nice and juicy and had plenty of flavour from the sauce. I would definitely repeat having the spare ribs, and I could guess one might even be able to make a meal out of them if you had enough of them with some salad or something. I would stay far away from any of the dumplings, many of them not being very standard and really nothing special for the price you pay for each.

I’d probably go again sometime and try a couple of the other dishes as it’s nice to sit and look outside at the hustle and bustle on Oxford Street from the tables upstairs.

Details: Selfridges Garden Cafe
Found on: 4th Floor Selfridges, 400 Oxford St, London, W1A 2LR (follow the cutlery signs as the cafe is not explicitly listed)
Highlights: Good variety of food and freshly cooked Char Kway Tweo. Great room seating area overlooking Oxford street.
Room for improvement: Dumplings far too overpriced
The Kua Rating: 7.5 out of 10

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

A couple of weeks back I finally caught up with Ben, Michelle, Gerrod and Kristy at the very enjoyable The Gate restaurant out at Hammersmith. When I trialled Vegetarianism back in January, this place had been on my must-do list although dropped off quickly as the month and the rest of the year flew by. Since it was a place quite close to everyone else, I thought it’d be a great spot to wine, dine and have a nice chat.

The restaurant is in the midst of a bright and airy converted loft, although the building looks like part church. Tables inside this lovely dining space are limited so make sure you book early and with proper numbers to ensure a spot especially on weekends. The menu is uniquely different and takes a step away from being your classic vegetarian foods. Their recipes mix and match lots of different vegetables to achieve fantastic tasting combinations. My starter, the Butternut and Cashew Samosa had the perfect blend of sweetness and crunchiness that was really moreish. Thankfully I held back my temptation to have more as my Aubergine Teriyaki dish arrived at the same time. According to their menu, it’s:

grilled aubergine crumbed & layered with coriander pesto, roasted red pepper, plum tomatoes & horseradish, served with stir-fried noodles

and a very enjoyable different dish at that. The aubergine was crispy on the outside, with its surprisingly sweet filling and the small kick from the horseradish.

To finish off, I could not resist the temptation of the Lavender Creme Brulee. Not one to rarely refuse dessert, I’m very glad it didn’t really cross my mind since not only was the custard perfectly set, and the top caramelised to the right amount, but the unique flavour of Lavender really shone through. As Gerrod mentioned, it was

“like a Creme Brulee and an air freshener put together, but in a good way.”

The menu is not exactly your everyday, run of the mill food and although prices reflect their uniqueness, is quite worth it for the appropriate occasion. I’d definitely go back there again someday!

Details: The Gate, not to be confused by the dozen other “The Gate” places around London
Found on: 51 Queen Caroline Street, Hammersmith, W6 9QL
Contactable on: 020 8748 6932
Highlights: Amazing combinations of really flavoursome vegetarian foods and plenty of options to choose from. The dining room is a really spacious lofty room that gives enough privacy though still feels very buzzing with the number of diners. You can also buy a cookbook to try out some of their recipes at home.
Room for improvement: A well deserved reputation means not enough tables so book ahead. Prices are quite expensive for vegetarian though I still think worth it.
The Kua Rating: 8.5 out of 10

If you want something fast and relatively affordable, then perhaps Soho Pizzeria is for you. A West End Italian restaurant that apparently is popular with lots of locals, this venue also offers live music (lots of Jazz) on most nights of the week. Pizza and pasta offerings are fairly average, though with prices starting at just over a fiver and most other dishes well below eight quid there’s not too much to complain about.

They offer an extensive wine list although be warned it’s obvious they must must quiet a bit from the non-alcoholic drinks (£1.75 for a 250mL juice!). Being an Italian restaurant, this restaurant also offers a decent range of desserts including Tiramisu and a rather disappointing frozen block of Cassata.

Details: Soho Pizzeria
Found on: 16-18 Beak Street, London W1F 9RD
Contactable on: 020 7434 2480
Highlights: Lots of dining table, cheap pizza and pasta and live music on most days of the week.
Room for improvement: Food generally was so-so and drinks are well overpriced.
The Kua Rating: 6 out of 10