Address: 16 Regent Street, London SW1Y 4PT

Telephone: 020 3405 1222

Website: www.tokurestaurant.co.uk

Date of visit: 9 January 2012

Costs: Around £20 per head

Wines and beer: Several Japanese beers (500ml Asahi  £5.50) and sake (big range and prices). Wines available but they are nearly all down market screw tops.

Likes and dislikes: Clinical, efficient service. Service charge appeared as another food/drink item on the bill. Items are coded so you have no clue what you ordered unless you read the original slip or have a good memory.

Cuisine: Japanese

Summary:

This is a new restaurant opened since Japan Centre moved from The Piccadilly to Lower Regent Street. The “cafe” still operates in the Japan Centre.

The place is packed with Formica (or MDF) tables and chairs like an Ikea showroom. Tables are laid for 4s or 6s. Most of the customers are non Japanese.

I have always wanted to try this place – been opened for a year – as Japan Centre (Acton) wholesales sushi grade fish. I assume that the place will be good for sushi and sashimi.

The menu offers the usual range of noodles and bento rice boxes. You can actually order tapas style at around £8 per dish.

I opted for the sushi set as the people at the other end of my table (for 6) were eating sushi.

The sushi set (£21 – including a nice bowl of miso soup) was an enormous plate of various types of sushi, easily enough for 2 people if you have a normal appetite. Except for the maki rolls, nothing was repeated. You get 6 types of fish (including grilled eel and prawn) on rice (normal sushi) and a whole selection of rolled sushi – chopped egg, fish etc.

The fishes were fine but the rice can be improved – it was a bit soggy and had no taste. Sushi is a great art – takes  years of training in Japan – and is not something anyone can master in a few months. The rice is probably the most difficult part to get right, you are talking about the state of the rice, how vinegary the rice is, the display and the state of the fish. Its not something that Yo Sushi chefs can master and that is why they mainly serve up “maki” or chopped fish rolls. The rice here is above Yo Sushi grade but still poor. The wasabi was also poor – probably came ready mixed and out of a tube.

Looking around, I see that the sushi chef was oriental – was he Japanese? The ramen chef was European – probably Eastern European and most of the serving staff were Chinese.

For £21, you can’t complain as you will probably get half the quantity in a proper Japanese in Soho with a Japanese chef. I recalled that I ate at Sushi Yamada (New York) several years ago. I got about a third of what I got here for $120. I was still hungry when I left but I decided that if I re-ordered the same again, my expenses will look horribly out of place.

As the fish here was good quality, next time,  I’ll go for the sashimi  and have tempura as my carbohydrate.

e

Address:  63 Frith Street, Soho, London W1D 3JW

Telephone: 020 7734 45454

Website: www.arbutusrestaurant.co.uk

Date of visit: 3 November 2011

Costs: Set lunch £16.95, a la carte around £25 for 2 courses. Evening will cost more.

Wines and beer: Beers around £5 a bottle, decent wine list with a “low” mark up for this part of the London. You can order a one third bottle carafe of the wines (most wines from the wine list) at one third the price.

Likes and dislikes: Pretty good food and prices. The idea of carafe of most wines from the list without extra mark up is a brilliant idea.

Cuisine: Modern European

Summary:

This place has one Michelin Star and is sited at the North End of Firth Street in Soho. The group also owns Wild Honey and Les Deux Salons

The restaurant is decked out in a modern style with high tables and stools at the front near the bar and normal tables with white linen at the back.

On the day we went, Andrew Lloyd Weber and Bill Kenwright were having lunch at the corner table next to us. All we needed was for Cameron Mackintosh to turn up and we would have the full set. Another thought: is Bill Kenwright trying to get ALW to invest in Everton? We could have a musical called Don’t cry for me, Rooney!

Another diversion, before I go back to our lunch, I wish to say that the toilets are downstairs and the corridor to the toilets were full of black and white postcards of “classic” nude women. This sort of display are normally pinned up inside the “male” toilet and not en route to both the male and female toilets.

During lunch, they offer an a la carte and a business lunch menu on a single sheet.  For the a la carte, starters are from £7.95 and most mains are £16.95. P, who has dined here before, recommended the business lunch – 3 courses at £16.95 and 2 choices per course.

Let’s start with the starters. I had the spring greens soup. This turned to be a massive portion of spring greens with a few potatoes and a bit of stock with some sort of white foam on top. In fact, there must have been “five” portions of spring greens in the bowl. The soup was nicely seasoned. There were no salt and pepper on the table. The others had the pork belly salad and it was a reasonable size portion with probably about 10 grams of pork hidden between the leaves. At least, you get enough veg here via the starters.

For main courses, we all had the slow cooked lamb with papperdalle. This was again a good size portion with quite a few chunks of lamb on it. It worked pretty well. No veg with this course.

For dessert, we had the cheese and the apple crumble. The cheese were two small triangles of brie – when combined together, it was the size of a match box. P who did French and German as a degree told me that it was not brie but something like brie.

Throughout the meal, we were served slices of bread – brown or white. I did not recall seeing any butter.

The wine we had was a bottle of 2009 Barbera d’Asti at £28.50 a bottle – very reasonably priced and also very drinkable.

The total bill for 4, including 12.5% service was just over £150. For this we had four business lunch, one and a third bottle of wine, four beers and 4 coffees. Good value.

E

Address: Unit 2, Wing Yip Business Centre, 395 Edgeware Road, London NW2 6LN

Telephone: 020 8452 2333

Website: N/A

Date of visit: 24 October 2011

Costs:  Around £15 a head plus drinks

Wines and beer:  Tsing Tao – £3.40 a bottle. Wines and sake available at reasonable markup.

Likes and dislikes: The bill comes as a total with being itemised. There is also no mention on the bill that service charge has been add

Opening hours: 11.00am – 11.00pm & days a week.

Last visit: 20 February 2010

Summary:

This is a huge on room restaurant on the corner of the Wing Yip business centre which also houses the north London branch of the Wing Yip supermarket. There are car parks – outdoor and underground – servicing the site.

Let’s start with the supermarket. This is one of the largest Chinese Supermarket chain in the UYK. They also have branches in Croydon, Birmingham and Manchester. Besides the usual sauces, dried spices and food, they also have a huge freezer section and  fresh meat (bulk) and vegetable sections as well as a fresh fish counter including “live” lobster and crab tanks. Between the supermarket and the Restaurant, there is a Chinese Bakery and Cafe which also sells various types of cooked meats e.g., roast duck and Char sui.

The restaurant is a huge hall which would easily accommodate 200 diners plus. The tables are well spaced apart.

The menu is typically Cantonese with dim sum served during lunch time – served till 5pm. Service is efficient – the food arriving within 10 minutes after we ordered.

The dim sum menu offers a choice of 80 different items with over 60 types of savoury steamed and fried dumplings etc. There are also 10 different types of sweet dumplings or tarts. Prices start at £2.70 a portion

They also have set meals for 2, 3 or even larger groups as well as the a la carte. Specials on another printed menu include various types of tofu, fish belly and various combinations of roast meats – served warm. The a la carte dishes start at around £8, rising to over £30 for the abalone and Peking duck. Noodles and rice is around £8 a dish. Please note that this is essentially a Cantonese Restaurant but  they do offer Peking and Crispy Duck as well as string beans with minced pork – all northern dishes.

We had the Yam croquet (very good), the char sui tart and char sui buns, char sui chung fun (cannelloni), the mixed meat platter, pea shoots with garlic, black bean chicken (bit too sweet), salt and pepper squid (top marks) and the sliced pork chow mein. The chow mein or noodles were poor, the base not crispy at all, the rest were all right. Including a few beers and coca cola, the bill came to just over £100 for 5. Not bad at all. The bill here is not itemised and service charge is not mentioned but it was added. So, make sure you have a feel for the costs of the meal.

The place was packed out on a Monday lunch time – half term ? Each table had at least 2 sittings  or more.

The food here is average but it benefitted from the free parking outside and the supermarket next door.

E

Address:  83 Charterhouse Street, London EC1M 6HJ

Telephone: 020 7608 0851

Website: www.comptoirgascon.com

Date of visit:  19 October 2011

Costs:  Around £20 for 2 courses. Set lunch: £14.50 for 2 courses

Wines and beer: Fairly decent short  list but at 400%+ mark up.

Likes and dislikes: The food and service is great (note no veg unless you order as extraes) but can they please “tart” the place up, the unpolished wooden floor, bare walls , dark wood furniture make the place look like a rundown pub.

Cuisine: traditional French

Summary:

This is the sister outlet of Club Gascon  – across the road. They both specialise in SE French Food. Unlike Club Gascon (one Michelin star) – white table cloths, smart black and white decor (see review on  6 March 2010) – this place looks really grotty. It is like something out of Dickensian era. The price of the food (not wines) is very reasonable.

The menu is short and has classic French dishes such as Cassoulet, steak frites and a set lunch.

My guest O went for Piggy Treats (£7) which turned out to be charcuterie on a wooden board, my other friend K went for the French Onion Soup (£4) which was not on the normal menu but was one of the starter offered in the set lunch. I went for the set lunch with a trotter rissole followed by Ongleat steak.

Whilst we were waiting, I asked for bread which turned out to campagne  bread (half white and half wholemeal). They charge £1.50 for 4 slices.

The charcuterie was thinly sliced sausages and air dried ham. The onion soup was fully of melted cheese. My trotter rissole was chopped up trotter – like a semi-soft burger – inside a bread crumb casing. It was very good.

For mains, both O and K had the grilled lamb (£12.50). It came with a matchbox size piece  of boulangerie  potato. We were advised of this so we also ordered  a portion of French fries (£3.50). The lamb looked all right, the chips were proper French fries and gets top marks.

My main course of ongleat steak turned out to be skirt steak – is there something lost in translation here? My mate Tong Hayworth – the master butcher at Vicars – told me that ongleat is actually the muscle wrapped round the bladder. It was pretty tasty and also came with a piece of boulangerie potato.

The bill including the 3×2 courses, 2 bottles of Badoit  (£2.50)and a bottle of Minervoirs (Cabezac 2007, £31) came to just over £100 – very reasonable  - but the Minervoirs would retail for £6.50 a bottle.  With a massive mark up,  VAT at 20% and an additional service charge of 12.5%, the price of wine in a restaurant is getting ridicules.

By the way unlike The Vineyard which is style over substance, this place is completely the reverse, no style but very good food and for its location – very cheap.

By the way Comptoir Gascon is also a deli, they sell jars of pate, beans, cassoulet , bread and cheeses and fresh foie gras!

E

PS Why is it trendy to serve on wooden boards or slates. Nearly everyone is doing it. Wooden boards can’t be washed in the dish washer so beware!

Address: 8-10 North Audley Street, London W1K 6ZD

Telephone: 020 7493 3223

Website: www.princessgardenofmayfair.com

Date of visit: 2 October 2011

Costs: Dim Sum from £2.60 per dish. Certain main courses around £30-£40

Wines and beer: Did not check – I was a guest – but it won’t be cheap as this is Mayfair

Likes and dislikes: Nice restaurant, decent food at a decent price but the waiting – despite booking – is poor.

Cuisine: Chinese – north and south

Summary:

This is a very modern and chic restaurant south of Oxford Street. Bright and noisy. Everyone seems to shout in a Chinese Restaurant irrespective of nationality. On the day we went (Sunday lunch), the place was full of Chinese but there were a significant number of non Chinese eating lunch. I was told that the clientele and atmosphere is completely different on a weekday evening.

There is a lounge/bar and two separate dining rooms.

They make you wait in the lounge despite having booked empty tables in the restaurant – is this a ploy to sell drinks? On the day I went, most people were drinking mineral water or tea so the ploy is questionable. It certainly isn’t due to a lack of staff as there were plenty.

This was a lunch to celebrate a relative’s birthday. There were 7 adults and 2 children.

We went for the usual array of dumplings – sui mai, har gaw – turnip cake, chung fun etc. They were all very good. The pot sticker was big and fat but was not crisp enough at the base. We also had crab meat fried rice – they do not do fried rice with char sui – and pork julienne fried noodles.

Princess Garden is supposed to be a Northern Chinese Restaurant and they do have unusual dishes that you will not get in a normal Chinese Restaurant e.g. Chinese smoked fish.

The total bill including 3 ching tao beer and two glasses of dry white and 2 juices came to just over £140 and we all had plenty to eat.

The food here is above average and is certainly better than most of the dim sum establishments in Soho. I rate the food here as better than Kai’s – which has a Michelin Star – down in South Audley Street.

E

Address: 36 Greenhill Rents, Cowcross Street, London Ec1M 6BN

Telephone: 0207 017 1930

Website: www.restaurantsetcltd.co.uk

Date of visit: 9 September 2011

Costs of food: Around £30 for 2 courses

Wines and beer: Heavily marked up list. Wines from £20 to £500 a bottle . Beers  from £5.70 for 50ml.

Likes and dislikes: Excellent food. However  prices at the top end – especially the mark up on wines which in some cases exceed 500%. Bread is free.

Cuisine: Modern British

Summary:

Over the past 5 years, Mark Hix has quietly expanded his empire. There are now restaurants all over London and Dorset.

Hix Oyster and Chop House is sited on the edge of the city, a stone’s throw from St John Street.

Mark Hix has written a few cook books on British cooking and his style is very similar to Gary Rodes.

The food here is priced at the top end and plate decoration is minimal. If you order a piece of steak, that’s all you get, no salad, no cress, no vegetables!

The restaurant is very similar – in style – to St John, white tiles, black and white decoration. I am pleased to report that you do get table cloths and linen napkins here and they do serve tap water.

I went with my son O who works in an office off long acre.

I started off with half a carafe of Brouilly whilst I was waiting for O. The half carafe was £22 + 12.5% service. A bottle can be purchased from Majestic for around £8.

O started with Hix’s own cured smoke salmon (£12.50) whilst I had the Sprats (£8.50). The smoke salmon was wonderful. 4 large thick slices. Absolutely divine – why do we normally have thinly sliced smoke salmon? The sprats (5) were lightly battered and deep fried. This was also very good. It did not taste oily and the thin batter did not retain any oil.

O then had the ribeye – I thought that he ordered skirt. This came as a 250g slice (£32) on a white plate with absolutely nothing else – not even a sprig of parsley!

I had the steak tartare (£10.50 starter size),which was served as a burger with an egg yolk on top. I was left to apply tabasco and Worcestershire sauce. The mixture was finely “minced” with the right amount of raw onions and capers.

O and I ordered chips on the side. We were charged £7.90 for the double helping. They were nice French fries.

It was a very pleasant meal with excellent service. However, the mark up on the wine is ridiculous as the food is already pricy. I wish restaurants would charge a set premium instead of %. The Chambertin 2005 which was priced at £500 can be purchased for £80 a bottle. I am not even sure that it’s drinkable as Burgundy should either be drunk young or old. They go to sleep in between.

E

Address: 392 Kings Road, London SW3 5UZ

Telephone number: 0207 349 9934

Website: http://www.rickerrestaurants.com/eightovereight/

Date of visit: 27 August 2011

Approximate cost per head: £30 plus for a decent selection

Comments on wine list/beer: Short wine list with some interesting bottles at very high  mark up. For example, the Langoa Barton 2002 which I purchased en primeur at less than £250 a case – ok, that was in 2003. The wine  is on sale here at £91 a bottle. Most of the wines are “middle of the road wines with a famous producer” and the vintage is not the hottest.

Cuisine: Oriental with a twist .

Likes and dislikes: Excellent but prices at the top end with wines heavily marked up.

Summary:

I was invited by my friends J and A to a Chelsea football match and lunch.

Eight over Eight is another Will Ricker restaurant – E&O etc. It is mainly Oriental food – Thai, Japanese, Chinese etc – with an Aussie twist and beautifully presented.

I got there at 12.45 and the place was empty – Stanford Bridge is only 15 minutes walk away. My friends soon turned up and they were amazed to see the place empty – apparently it is impossible to get a table on short notice on a Friday and Saturday night.

The place is very modern – all chrome, black and white. The tables were well spaced apart with pristine linen table cloth and napkin. There was room for about 100 diners.

My friends left the ordering to the waiter and I ordered a bottle of Hess cabinet sauvignon at £57. However, that seemed to be the only wine that was not available. We then went for a bottle of Italian Il Bruciato at £59. By the way, the mark up on wine here is around 500%. I think that it is totally ridiculous to have this sort of make up and then charge you service on top!

We started off with double rations of the shrimp and black cod gyoza (£6.50 for 4 pieces) and the tuna sushi with miso alioli (£11 for 4 pieces)

This was followed by the tempura soft shell crab (£15), beef tahoon (£23) and rack of ribs (£10.15) and a salad of sugar snap peas dressed in sesame and soy (£11.75).

The gyoza was slightly on the greasy side, the tuna sushi was fine as the rice just right. The soft shell crab was excellent and not oily. The beef served medium and the salad OK.

It was an excellent meal at Chelsea prices and the service was very good. The place was about 30% occupied when we left at 2pm.

E

Address: 34 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QE

Telephone number: 020 7833 8336

Website: www.moro.co.uk

Date of visit: 4 July 2011

Approximate costs per head:  £20 plus for 2 courses. Tapas from £3.50

Cuisine: Spanish or with a Spanish Influence

Comments on wine list/beer: Mahou (£3.50), Alhambra (£4.50), fantastic selection of sherry (100ml from £4), decent Spanish wine list. Sherry is better value than wines and beer.

Likes and dislikes: Basic café interior, up market prices. Food is good.

Summary:

I have heard about Sam and Sam Clarke Moorish/Spanish outfit for over 10 years. Unfortunately, unless you live on the fringe of the City or work there, this is not a convenient place to visit as all the underground stations are a good 15-20 minutes walk away.

Exmouth market is full of restaurants. During lunch time, a significant of them and “others” offer “takeaway” stalls in the middle of the street.

I found the place to be a nuevo y basico cantina – modern minimalist - with tables on the pavement, inside are an array of bare wood tables with a long bar to the left and the open kitchen at the back.

Although I booked, I discovered that tapas are only served at the bar, which you can’t book. The tapas menu is divided into hot and cold dishes. Most of the dishes are cold . The “hot” ones are mainly grilled sausages – butifarra, chorizo etc .

On a Monday lunch time, the place was half full and most of the diners look like media type rather than “wigs” who are usually more smartly dressed  – Grey’s Inn is round the corner.

I was with O who works in the City. Whilst I was waiting for O, I had a Mahou (nicely chilled), a plate of almonds (£3.50) and a dry sherry (Pastrana @ £4.25).

When O arrived, we ordered sandiness which came filleted and bones – to be honest, I think they gave us anchovies as the fillets were too small. It was marinated in a nice oil with chillies and onions. Then we had the grilled chorizo, humus, potatas bravas, The humus was £3.50 a plate – served with hot chewy bread that came just out from the oven. The rest of the tapas were £4.50 a plate.

The a la carte menu on offer offered roast chicken from the wood fired oven, steak (£24) etc.

It’s an interesting place but from a tapas point of view, nice but nothing special and prices are at the top end for an establishment that looks like a cantina

E

PS You can get the autograph version of Sam and Sam’s cook books here

Address: 22 Charterhouse Square, Smithfield, London EC1m 6DX

Telephone number: 020 7608 1609

Website: http://www.cafedumarche.co.uk/

Date of visit: 12 May 2011

Approximate cost per head: Fix price menu: 2 courses £28.50, 3 courses £34.85

Comments on wine list/beer: Reasonable mark-up for Central London at 4X. Plenty of decent bottles from £20. There are wines under £20

Cuisine: French Bistro

Like and dislike: Pretty decent food at a reasonable price for Central London, good service. Can’t fault it except for the spinach (see below)

Summary:

I went with my cousin K and my son O for lunch. They both work in the city and the area around the Barbican is a good rendezvous place.

This is supposed to be a French Bistro. Certainly, there are people going round with a “French” accent.

The place (upstairs) was nearly full by 1pm.

To be honest, I don’t recall too much – and it’s not the influence of alcohol – as to what O and K ate.

I had asparagus to start with – 4 strands of medium size with the bottom shaven and a good dollop of hollandaise sauce – pretty respectable.

Next, I had the kidneys in an intense gravy on a bed of spinach. The kidneys were great and some of it was still pink. They have also taken the membrane off. We were served with a big pile of pommes frites. The frites were excellent – crisp and not greasy. My only complaint is the bed of spinach that the kidneys were served on – it was sort of stringy and mushy. Spinach need to be served under cooked – best example is the raw spinach salad at Nobu – or chopped.

We washed down the meal with a bottle of Bouilly (Beaujolais) which was just over £20 – it does not appear on their site.

The bottom line was that this is a pretty good attempt at a French Bistro at London  price. By the way, K paid.

E

Address: First Floor, Metropolitan Hotel, 19A Old Park Lane, London W1K 1LB

Telephone number: 0207 447 4747

Website: http://www.noburestaurants.com/london/experience/introduction/

Date of visit: 30 March 2011

Cuisine: Japanese and Japanese fusion

Approximate cost per head: You can get away at £30 or less during lunch (excl drinks – water is £6 a bottle). However, budget for £50+ per head plus drinks if you want to enjoy yourself. They do serve tap water.

Comments on wine list/beer: Wines starts at £30+ a bottle but most are priced at hundreds of pounds. Nobu San brews his own beer in Japan but would you drink imported Japanese beer at the moment?

Summary:

I have been here many times and have always gone away broke and satisfied.

There are 3 branches of Nobu in London. This is the oldest and probably the best even though Nobu San is never in residence. He cooks (sometimes) in the LA branch. In 2009, Nobu (London) was listed as number 34 in the top 50 restaurants in the world. Only Tatsuya in Sydney and Mesa in New York out ranked Nobu on Japanese food. I have never been able to get a reservation at either Tatsuya or Mesa as you have to book months ahead. Nobu is only difficult in the evenings for short notice reservations.

I have eaten in several Nobu and the food is similar but not identical – it is a modern take on Japanese food. Some describe it as Japanese Fusion with a Peruvian touch.

The restaurant is housed on the first floor of the Metropolitan Hotel and it over looks Hyde Park. The décor is modern and the place well lit. The tables are bare – no table clothes. However, you do get proper linen napkins.

I went with my friend N who has been to Tatsuya but had never been to Nobu. To impress him, I ordered all the usual signature dishes.

We started with hand rolled sushi:  Asparagus & Tuna (£7.75 each) and Salmon & Avocado (£7.50 each). They came in cones wrapped with a large of nori seaweed with a large chunk of fish and veg and sushi rice inside the cones.

We then had the new style sashimi of salmon. This was thinly sliced salmon served in a citrus oil dressing. The citrus semi “cooks” the salmon so it was semi-raw and not totally raw. Each piece is served with sesame seeds and chives. Amazingly simple, but really good.

We then had the spinach salad with fish (£14) All the green leaves were individually dressed and spread out evenly on a plate with a white rose of white raw fish in the middle.

After that we had the Black Cod and miso (£35.25) – again, an amazingly simple dish to prepare (see Nobu’s cookbook). The large piece of cod was cooked just right with the flesh coming apart in chunks.

The next course was a selection of Tempura. Asparagus (£3.25 for 2 pieces), Broccoli (£2.25 for 2 florets) and Green Beans (£2.25 for 2 pieces).

The whole meal with a bottle of Marsanny Rose (near Beaune), a bottle of tasteless Fiji still water (£6) came to £143.50. Service (optional) is 15%. So it is another £21.53. Total bill came to £165.03 for 2.

The Nobu on 54^th Street, New York serves the same food – I can’t tell the difference – for a lot less money.

The food here is fantastic, it is both visual, tasty and healthy(ish). I would come here every month if I could afford it.

E

PS Not only is Nobu San’s cookbook easy to follow. He now bottles all his marinades and sauces – try Harrods and Selfridges.

PPS My friend N thought that Nobu is right up there with Tatsuya.