Beer & Buns

3 Appold Street

London 

EC2A 2AF

PattyG and I found out that this little pop up bar above K10 in Liverpool Street has pinball machines, and that on Monday night they are free. So the first Monday we were free, we got ourselves in there to play pinball to our heart's content (with a bit of free foosball thrown in as well). There are only two pinball machines, but that was completely fine as there were only two of us. Interestingly, most of the other people at the bar seemed interested only in the food, which meant we had very little competition for the machines. But this is a food blog - so I should mention that the fried chicken wing were crisp and meaty (though a little sweet for my liking) and the buns are soft, pillowy and tasty - I'm not sure I'd go there again without the pinball attraction, but it was certainly a fun night out. Oh, and they have my favorite draft beer (Asahi).

Sasa Sushi

422 Saint John Street

London 

EC1V 4NJ

I've passed by this place hundreds of times but never stopped in even though I love sushi. After finding out that an event we were going to go to was actually in the diary by mistake (bad A!) we had to quickly come up with an alternative plan, so I seized the opportunity to try it out. We had a sushi set - salmon roll, shrimp tempura roll, and then five pieces of assorted nigiri. Sadly the tempura was quite mushy - as if it had sat out too long - and while everything else was okay, it didn't really inspire me to order anything else. I should note that a few weeks later I went to a birthday party and there was a large tray of sushi from Sasa Sushi that was very good - so not sure if we just got a slightly off meal there or not, but I'm not in a big hurry to return.

Uchiko

4200 North Lamar Boulevard
Austin, TX 78756

So this year, in a rare aligning of all the planets, my mom, dad, brother and I were all back in Austin at the same time, without any other people staying with us. It was like a reunion of family life back in 1998! J and I wanted to take the parents out for dinner for all the birthdays and other random things we have missed, and I made a reservation at Uchiko since I had eaten at Uchi a long time ago and still have fond memories of that meal. Sadly I did not take into the account how uncomfortable my parents would be with the price of the dishes. It was only tempered by the fact that our 6 pm reservation allowed us to ask for the happy hour menu, which our waiter was kind enough to arrange even though apparently it is usually restricted to the bar area. Anyway - the happy hour menu is full of reasonably priced things, so we ordered a bit off of that, but since it was a celebration dinner we still wanted to let my parents have anything else they wanted. My dad spotted mackerel, which he loves, but he did not clock that ordering it as sashimi would mean it was raw. And everyone at the table except for me DOES NOT like raw mackerel. On top of that, 7 tiny slices were $20. I know fish can be expensive, but mackerel is one of the cheapest fish to buy, so that was hard to reconcile. There were some dishes that were standouts (in particular a salmon and kale dish) but also a few that were just ok but nothing special. In the end, while the parents appreciated the gesture, I think they would have been happier at a more mid-priced restaurant, so let's try again next year.

Koya

49 Frith St
London
W1D 4SG

C & B arranged to meet P and me at Koya on a cold weekend afternoon. After bundling in, we settled in for a feast. Udon noodles were ordered for everyone, of course - I had the Tori Nikomi (chicken and vegetable hot pot) which came in the adorable dish above and kept its heat for ages, which made it perfect for warming me up. Everyone else was slurping up their dishes and making appreciative noises - and once we finished our noodles, we couldn't resist getting more food. Off the specials menu, we had rhubarb and beetroot pickles (which inspired me to make my own rhubarb pickles a few weeks later), the fried chicken (my only complaint was that it was incredibly messy to eat), a tofu dish that I absolutely loved but can't remember now, and probably another dish as well. I stupidly forgot to take pictures of it all so I have no way of figuring it out. Which just means I need to get back to Koya to recapture my memories. Giant thumbs up from me.

Tonkotsu

63 Dean Street  
London 
W1D 4QG

PG13 (as opposed to PGTips) had a birthday that needed to be celebrated, so off we went to have some pints and stuff ourselves with ramen. There's been a recent surge in ramen restaurants - we picked Tonkotsu as it seemed to be popular and it was conveniently located for both of us. Ordering was easy, aside from a slight indecisiveness over whether to get chicken karaage or gyoza. Gyoza it was (next time it will be chicken karaage), which was nice and crispy on the bottom, though I personally prefer my homemade ones, except for the fact that they take a lot of effort to make. On to choosing ramen - we both went for the namesake tonkotsu. What came out was a soul warming bowl of goodness with the most delightfully soft-boiled egg floating in it. The picture above does no justice whatsoever. I am getting warm just thinking about this bowl of noodles with its porky essence.

Nizuni

22 Charlotte Street
London
W1T 2NB

Nizuni is a gorgeous little Japanese place on Charlotte Street. I chose it due to its proximity to the Odeon on Tottenham Court Road, where P&P and I were going to watch Magic Mike, and because there was a Toptable deal of some sort. Turns out it was fabulous and much better than the movie. I admit it was so long ago I barely remember what we ordered - I can see edamame, sliced octopus with citrus sauce, deep fried squid and chicken gyoza in the picture, and we must have ordered some mains as well. But even though I might not have clear recollections of exactly what we ate, I know we really enjoyed the meal and that I would definitely go back if I was craving Japanese and in the area, so that will have to be enough.

Crane & Tortoise

39 - 41 Gray's Inn Road

London

WC1X 8PR

P heard of this place and knew I would always be up for visiting a Japanese pub, so off we went to give it a try. P was pleased to see Asahi on draft - cold beer goes wonderfully with Japanese home cooking. I started with octopus (a mistake - it was rubbery and tasted of very little) but chose better for my main - the deep fried pork cutlet curry. The pork was crisp and juicy and the curry sauce was heartwarming, with lovely chunks of potato and carrot throughout. P got some gyoza and then went with this dish: rice fried with chicken and onions wrapped in an egg omelette, flavoured with tomato ketchup. What appeared was the thing that looks like a burrito above. It was weirdly sweet (maybe the ketchup?) but essentially was some fried rice with a very thin egg wrapping it all into a neat bundle. I'd go back and probably skip the burrito thing next time - stick with the katsu curry!

Akari

196 Essex Rd
London
N1 8LZ

Akari is a local Japanese restaurant inside a space that still looks like it could be a nice pub. What I love most is that they have a very interesting menu - it's not just the generic Japanese food you find at all the chains that have sprung up around town. For example, they sell the bellies of various fish. Above is our grilled yellowtail belly, which is fatty and absolutely wonderful (at least to me). With A and A's mum, we also had an assorted nigiri set, salmon teriyaki, tuna fry (enormous portion of large cubes of tuna, breaded and fried, with a superb tartare sauce and salad), salmon and avocado inside out roll, and cold sake. Prices add up quickly here, as in most Japanese places, but I could happily just have a portion of tuna fry for dinner and make this a place I visit more often.

Matsutake Sushi

Washington Dulles International
Concourse B
Dulles, VA 20166

A major surprise of this trip - sushi at the airport that is better than many places in London. I had a California roll and a salmon and avocado roll - both contained generous fillings encased in perfect, just slightly warm sushi rice. The two rolls were plenty of food since they came six large pieces to a roll - the salmon tasted incredibly fresh and the sushi chef behind the counter deftly filled the takeout container for me as I dashed off to catch my flight. Glad I stopped here, since the meal on the plane was nearly inedible (banana pudding, oh how I hate you!)

Feng Sushi

Festival Terrace
Southbank Centre
Belvedere Rd
London
SE1 8

We had tickets to a later showing of Every Good Boy Deserves Favour so dinner beforehand seemed appropriate. The Southbank is full of chain restaurants and we settled on Feng Sushi for something a bit lighter. A chose an inside-out salmon and avocado roll and 2 pieces of salmon nigiri, while I had the Japanese Bento Box (above) which included two pieces of veggie tempura, Nippon duck roll (no idea why they call it this because it's not duck at all, it's tofu), tuna and salmon nigiri and tuna and salmon sashimi. Prices are pretty steep for what you get, but perhaps that is the price you pay for environmentally friendly and sustainable seafood? At least it all tasted good, and the hot sake we had alongside was the perfect accompaniment. Dessert was a bowl of sweet chestnut, green tea and black sesame ice cream. I think I'd skip the chestnut and just get green tea and black sesame next time, but that's just a personal preference. At least I wasn't too full afterwards to enjoy the performance, which was a great mix of new orchestral music and playwriting (Tom Stoppard and Andre Previn make a good team).

Ramen Setagaya

90 University Place

(between 11th St & 12th St)
New York, NY 

10003

K recommended this place for ramen so I asked E to meet me there for our annual gabfest. We both ordered the Shio Chasyumen which is ramen noodles with bamboo-shoot, "salt taste egg", seaweed, scallion, scallop powder, and extra pork. The broth was really flavorful and the noodles were perfectly cooked so that they remained firm through the last bite, even though they were sitting in a hot soup. Food came out incredibly quickly, but they were also happy to let me and E sit there for over two and a half hours while we just chatted away. Great place with great ramen.

Cafe Zaiya

Kinokuniya Bookstore
1073 Avenue of the Americas (Bet 40th & 41st St)
New York, NY
10018

This Japanese cafe isinside an amazing Japanese bookstore that stocks everything Japan-related in book form that you could ask for. K and I had been walking around for a while and were freezing so we took an opportunity to stop for a snack and to warm ourselves again. I went for an onigiri (rice ball wrapped in seaweed) stuffed with spicy cod roe, and a dorayaki (essentially two pancakes sandwiching a red bean paste, seen above). They were both ok, but nothing that special - surprisingly I like the onigiri from Wasabi better and the red bean paste was too sweet for me in the dorayaki. Still, at least I could feel my feet again by the time we left.

Wasabi

34 Villiers Street
London
WC2N 6NJ

*Guest post by Andy*

If the price of sushi usually puts you off, check out a Wasabi (there are 11 in London, you can't miss 'em). Four pieces of Salmon Nigiri, four Salmon Hosomaki, two Salmon Tobiko Rolls (with avocado, yellow pepper, flying fish roe and mayo) and a Tuna mustard Onigiri (rice ball) came to just 5.70 for takeaway. That's enough to feed two small people or one really hungry one - and it’s good for you! The sushi here is displayed wrapped in plastic, individually or in pairs, which you can pick and mix from the chiller with the empty boxes provided. Not the most environmentally sensible way of doing things, with all that packaging, but it keeps the hypothetical flies off. Then there are the combination sushi and sashimi boxes, edamame, and funny Japanese desserts. Or go to the counter for hot miso, bento and noodles. And don't forget your wasabi paste, pickled ginger and soy (5p each - when was the last time you paid 5p for anything?) I'm not sure what a sushi pro would say about the quality, but to someone who doesn't know any better, like me, Wasabi's wares taste amazing - the fish is fresh and the avocado is ripe. It's the only fast food place I know where you end up feeling better after eating.

Tokyo Diner

2 Newport Place

London

WC2H 7JJ

A and I had tickets to see Prick Up Your Ears so decided to get dinner in the area beforehand. Tokyo Diner is one of those places I keep parking my bicycle in front of when I go to Chinatown but I hadn't eaten there yet, so we tried it out. We ordered miso soup, side dishes of edamame and broccoli, and a salmon set (2 salmon nigiri and 6 pieces of salmon maki) and a nigiri set (squid, snapper, egg, 2 salmon, and shrimp nigiri, with 3 cucumber and 3 salmon maki and a piece of california roll). A liked the miso - less salty than usual. Edamame was tasty as it normally is, and the broccoli was really good - cooked in a dashi broth with small pieces of fried tofu - it was served cold, which was surprisingly nice. The sushi was all fresh and the nigiri were a good size. They give you free green tea with your meal as well, and in Japanese fashion, they don't accept tips (anything extra you leave behind goes to a homeless charity). There's also no tuna on the sushi menu as they refuse to serve any unsustainable fish. This part of town is full of little Japanese restaurants but this is one of the best I've been to - it's not fancy inside but the service is friendly, fish is fresh and it's pretty moderately priced for sushi.