Japanese Canteen

Tottenham Court Road (TCR) is generally known as the place for electronic goods but in recent years there has also been a concentration of home/furniture stores. And more recently still, it appears to be home to an increasing concentration of Japanese eateries. From the Centre Point Food Store, right up to Warren Street I counted at least 12 outlets - not to mention the Futon Company shop as well.

However, the old maxim about quantity not equating to quality is a sad truism in the Japanese food regard... As well as a few gems, there is also a Wasabi (see below) and some other pretty shoddy restaurants. I aim to visit them all so watch out for the definititive TCR J-Food Guide.

The other day I popped in for lunch at the Japanese Canteen.



This no frills diner offers an uninspiring menu of dishes - bento boxes, noodles, gyoza and "chilli fired rice" all with the same variants of topping. These are predictably, chicken and salmon teriyaki, pork and chicken katsu, chicken curry and so on... staples made either spicier or blander in accordance with some imagined idea of the "British taste", presumably based on Anglo-Chinese cuisine.

Attempting to judge the place on its own terms I went for the salmon teriyaki bento box. It was a reasonable size, served within about 2 seconds and tasted, well, pretty average. For £4.95 I guess the pricing is fair(although it's £2.45 for a few edamame!) but I found the bare interior, lack of smiles and unimaginative cuisine rather depressing overall. Go, if you have to but I reckon you'd be better off with a cornish pasty.



Looking forward to getting round to the good places!

Hare & Tortoise

The Hare & Tortoise in Bloomsbury is one of four outlets in this unusual and modern Asian chain. While Japan purists may be appalled by its blending of different Asian cuisines, Japanese format prevails and the deviations from tradition, such as spicy maguro maki sushi, are very welcome to the more open minded.

An evening with three old friends was the perfect occasion to sample a good cross section of the menu, which is vast in terms of its range, offering all sorts of sushi, sashimi, tempura, ramen and rice dishes. JA went for the classic miso ramen, except at the Hare & Tortoise it is made with a twist - generous dollops of garlic and chilli oil make it all the more flavourful and the perfect antidote to glum autumn weather. Meanwhile, LS (who has recently acquired an astonishing taste for fried food) went for the duck and bok-choi on rice. "But that's more Chinese than Japanese" I hear you say. Perhaps, but the presentation is don-buri style on Japanese rice and the meat is done in a similar way to tonkatsu making it a rare but happy combination of Sino-Japanese cooperation .




AM also went for Japanese style ramen while I opted for the special "laksa" ramen - a rich, very tasty, very spicy, coconutty Malaysian broth that plays host to pork, chicken, prawns and noodles. Sadly, it normally includes cucumber but I always have it without, cucumber being the one food I simply can't stomach. Cucumber in ramen - it's just wrong! The side order of prawn and chive gyoza was good too.



And on the liquid side, the drinks menu boasts a good range of Western beverages alongside umeshu (plum wine) and some good ginjo and kyotu-fu sake. Unfortunately our waitress brought us umeshu sodas for some reason... not sure why she did that but the service is pretty poor generally. The staff are mainly drawn from China and Southeast Asia and good command of English is clearly not given too much importance in the recruitment policy. I seem to remember some unordered dishes arriving on a previous visit too. But as AM pointed out, "it's cheap and the service is cheap and not very good but it doesn't really matter. It's good value and it's good." It is indeed - about 5 or 6 pounds for a superb main course that defeats most people with cheap and cheerful side orders for less.

The obvious comparison is with Wagamama's but the Hare & Tortoise is more unusual and intimate, and the food is more authentic, and better - even the crockery is nicer. And why the pub-type name for an Asian/Japanese diner? I haven't the foggiest but nousagi to kame would just be a failure.

Happy Fat Man

M and I went to Taro this evening. Taro is a Japanese diner on Soho's Brewer Street, next to the Glasshouse Stores pub. The Glasshouse has always intrigued me because of the large Japanese crowd that it invariably draws - apparently from a nearby language institute.

M refers to Taro as "the happy fat man", because of the round face logo. Having met the owner, the inspiration for the design is obvious:



The menu is classic - lots of ramen, udon, don-buri, sushi and high qulaity izakaya staples such as gyoza and agedofu. The decor is bright, modern and slick and the service of a very good standard; I ordered "Tonkatsu Curry Udon" but was initially presented with Tonkatsu Miso Udon - on mentioning the error there was no hesitancy in correcting the order and I was promptly presented with a large portion of the right dish, which was delicious. M opted for the "Chicken Teri Don" which was also excellent and of a size fit for greedy people, like M and me. Alive with a buzzing atmosphere, a couple of Carlsbergs (Asahi available but why waste the extra 30p?) and a half bottle of Ozeki cold sake, we were as happy as Larry (ラリー？）, on a very good day.


All in all our totally satisfactory feast set us back under £20 each, and then it was back to the Glasshouse to finish off the evening, two very happy fat men. Luckily we were both cycling home...

And by the way, if anyone knows the mystery of why this particular section of Brewer Street is so Japanese dominated, please do let me know!