Address: 14-16 Regent Street, London SW1Y 4PH

Opening hours: From 10am till 9pm, Monday-Saturday. On Sundays 11am till 7pm

Telephone:020 3405 1246 (shop), 020 3405 1151 (online shopping)

Web site:http://www.japancentre.com/

Date of visit: 29 June 2010

Summary:

If you are into Japanese food etc, this is probably the place to come.

It used to be sited on the Piccadilly but has moved here since early on this year.

The centre has taken over one wing of the Mitsukoshi Department Stall http://www.london-mitsukoshi.co.uk/top_en.htm. The department stall is well worth a visit – it makes Harrods look cheap (price wise). There is a Japanese restaurant within the department stall.

Within the centre, there is a restaurant, bakery and supermarket. The sushi, rice and noodles are very reasonably priced but they do not sell alcohol with the meal.

Within the supermarket, they do sell Japanese whisky, sake and beer. Lets start with the sake – they range from under £10 to nearly £100. For explainations on sake see my previous article (2009).

The bakery sell all sorts of Japanese bread and there is a fresh food chiller for take away food and vegetables.

At the back of the store are a mixture of things. For non food, they sell good knives, cooking pots and electric rice cookers etc. There is a small stand that will sell you cookbooks – Japanese and English but all on Japaneses recipes.

There is a tea counter where you can buy all sorts of Japanese teas including 100g packs of Sencha at £10 a packet.

The best counter is the sauce counter. Here you can buy hundreds of cooking sauces, vinegars and oil – definitely my favourite. Try the seasme salad dressing or the Udon dip.

There is a frozen section at the back.

They also sell everything online so there is no need to carry that 50kilo sack of rice on your back.

E

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/pure-and-simple-skye-gyngells-mouthwatering-mezze-dips-2008643.html

This is quite fancy stuff.

E

July 2010

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/7859205/Drinking-your-own-wine-in-restaurants.html

Not a bad idea. However, it is not as simple as you think.

The club has signed up quite a few decent restaurants. BUT, each restaurant applies a different set of rules e.g. how much you have to spend, when etc. AND, its only in London.

See their web site

http://byowineclub.homestead.com/Index.html

E

July 2010

Address: 224 Piccadilly, London W1J 9HP

Telephone number: 0207 930 0488

Website: www.criterionrestaurant.com

Date of visit: 29 June 2010

Approximate cost per head: set meal £16.5 for 2 courses, £19.5 for 3 courses plus 12.5% service charge

Comments on wine list/beer: Very extensive list at the usual  300-400% mark up for central London

Summary:

Another visit to this art deco restaurant opposite the Eros statue.

Last time I came, I missed the set meal and had the a la carte which was in my view a bit small (portion size) for what they charge. This time, I was in time for the set meal.

The set meal is served at lunch time, 5pm-7pm and after 10pm. So, its ideal for the pre-theatre supper as the service was very efficient. Starters came within 10 minutes after ordering.

The set meal boasts 6 choices for each course. The waiters are quite friendly and will accommodate most requests – for example, the table next to me wanted to share their starters and deserts, so they end up paying for the 2 course meal but had 3 courses.

Typical starters for the night I went included mozzarella salad, smoke salmon, waldorf salad. For main, the ones that caught my eyes were spaghetti with clams in a chilli broth, veal burger (£2 supplement) and grilled lamb steak (£3 supplement).

I had the waldorf salad and the spaghetti. The waldolf salad was quite nice and the apples were white – I hate it when they leave the apples cut up way before hand so that it goes brown. The spaghetti came with clams with shells on. The flesh was still slightly spongy which indicate that it was fresh clams. The chilli broth was as it said. There were no tomatoes with the broth – it was more like the fishy/wine stock from cooking mussels. There was a pile of rocket on top of the spaghetti.

Overall, it was a very good meal for the portion size and quality in central London. I arrived at 5.30 and there were only one other table taken. By 6.30, the place was full.

Overall it’s fairly plain cooking and not the sort of food one associates with Marco Pierre White from the Oak Room days.

I had a bottle of Fleurie at £33.They do sell wine by the glasses. By the way, you also get brown and white bread with your meal at no extra charge.

E