The restaurant is located just off the town centre, it is small but chic and elegant. It really felt cozy in this Korean run restaurant which offers both Korean and Japanese dishes.
I opted for the Matsuba Bento lunch. It there is quite a lot, miso soup, tempura, chicken teriyaki, salad, edamame, bean spouts, sushi, sashimi as well as having rice on the side. I think the amount that you get is quite good for what you pay for and not to mention the variety of food.
The tempura stood out the most, it was amazing. It was very crisp and light and the sauce was still very warm. To be honest, I think this is one of the best I have had. I was most disappointed with the Chicken Teriyaki, although the the sauce was not to sweet and nor strong, the chicken seems over done and was quite chewy.
I wasn’t too sure about the service, I was seated but we weren’t given the menu until quite a bit later. Everything else is pretty much average, they were not very attentive or anything . I expected better service from a small restaurant so that side was quite disappointing.
Address: 10 Red Lion Street, Richmond, TW9 1RW
Tel: 020 8605 3513
Value for Money: 6/10 Food: 7/10 Service: 5/10
Additional comments: It wasn’t anything exceptional and I don’t think I will be returning to this one
Momo has moved from the side street and into a small hotel which has a colourful history. The hotel use to be a brothel, it wasn’t till six years ago it was renovated to the hotel it is today. To mark the hotesl’s interesting past they have placed a red lamp as a symbol.
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The reastaurant itself is small but spacious, the don’t have many tables and general its quite minimal. I was facing the garden which is very beautifully maintained. I did get a bit fidgety towards the end of the meal because the seat was relatively quite hard
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Most of us ordered the set dinner, which came in four courses. I selected the sashimi set dinner, it came with dumplings, a choice of tempura or soup, my main and dessert which comes in small selection in which you can pick from.
Dumpling was rather nice, to honest it came out quite quickly so I expected it to be cold or lukewarm rather than hot. Tempura was not one of the best that I have tried it was reasonably portioned and slightly crisp but not very light and airy.
I quite like my sashimi meal, the fish was displayed beautifully which is accompanied with a bowl of miso soup. I personally found that the soup was very strong. Dessert was simple we had a choice of fruit, ice cream with a few flavours and yoghurt and orange jelly which was quite interesting. It was definitely not we were expecting, it was quite firm with gentle hints of orange.
This is more of a family and conserved place so I don’t think they enjoyed the fact that we were a little loud, and that really showed. Generally service is quite good but some times its a bit difficult understanding them particularly when they were telling us the desserts but they were kind enough to let us know by writing it down for us.
Address: 55 Hanger Lane, London, W5 3HL
Tel: 020 8991 4450
Value for Money: 7/10 Food: 7/10 Service: 6.5/10
Additional comments:Well decorated and spacious environment, but it is more of a quite place
Koi Sushi and Noodle bar is a family own business which caters for both eating in and take away. The restaurant is very bright and very comfortable to seat in, seating arrangements are cleverly organised to make feel quite spacey.
One of the to die for dishes has to be the black cod in miso sauce. It is perfectly cooked and seasoned, the cod is full of flavour but not to the extent where it is overly intense nor was it tough due to the salt content from miso.
Another favourite was the soft shell crab futomaki roll. The crab is fried so it’s crisp but not greasy. Pumpkin korroke was quite interesting, there was a big contrast in texture between crispness of the breadcrumbs and the smoothness of the filling, which in some ways reminded me of sweet potato mash.
This is a newly opened restaurant which also have a loyalty scheme to entice you to come. For each £1 you spend you will get 1 point and for every 50 points you gain you get £5.00 voucher in which you can redeem when you show the voucher when you purchase your next meal
Address: Unit 5-6, Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, Hamstead
Tel: 020 7433 1321
Value for Money:5/10 Food:7/10 Service: 8/10
Additional comments: I find this restaurant very comfortable and very enjoyable
We made a booking for this restaurant, in which we had to make several confirmations, each time we had to confirm the number of people attending, the set menu and time. On the last occasion we also highlighted allergies in which they have noted. The restaurant is located quite near to Roka which is “highly rated” so prior to going I was wondering how they compared.
The restaurant is very beautifully designed with lilac lighting and painted flowers darting around the room. Staff there was very friendly and extremely helpful, highlighting to the person if the drink they picked contain an ingredient they are allergic to.
Each Dish is very carefully decorated, which is one of the pleasures of having Japanese food. Nasu Goma is Grilled Aubergines with Sesame Paste. The aubergine is tender and is enriched with a very creamy, thick sesame paste.
Prawns wrapped in Kataifi pastry with creamy spicy sauce remind me of the ones I had in Dragon Palace. Both of which are very delicious biting in to finely cut pastry. Another personal favourite is Grain Fed Rib Eye Beef, it was tender and so full of flavour.
However there were so downs, I find that the steam sea bass was over cooked. The Oshitashi was very bland, you really need to rub it into the sauce and it was a bit on the cold side.
Address: 93 Charlotte Street, London, W1T 4PY
Tel: 020 7637 0050
Value for Money:7/10 Food: 8/10 Service: 8/10
Additional comments: I find this restaurant very comfortable and serve was attentive and friendly. The contrast is more positive in comparison to that of Roka. I would most definitely go back again
Japanese restaurant is situated behind Oxford Street. The entrance was rather confusing turns out they have two very different doors and the bar and the restaurant is part of the same place.
The food were mostly delicious particularly the black cod, the tempura was done slightly different from the other Japanese restaurant where the batter was lighter but stilled very crisp. There were some dishes where the fish was a little over cooked making it slightly chewy, such as the giant prawn/mini lobster, not only was it over cooked I found that there was too much seasoning particularly with rock salt.
Dessert was impressive, in the centre there is passion fruits sauce which oozies out when you break the coconut ball. There is a mixture of texture from smooth with an occasional crisp enriched with kiwi and passion fruit and pineapple.
Service was most disappointing, it was unbelievable how unhelpful they were, first we were denied of the tasting menu because we were a group of 8. They forgot my “salad” and then took a while to contemplate then admit that we did order the salad. We ordered a second round of drinks and we had to chase it quite a few times. Incidentally when all drinks arrived except my one did not so we had to chase for it again, only to find out that I can’t have it anymore.
Address: 37 Charlotte Street, London, W1T 1RR
Tel: 020 7829 7000
Value for Money:6/10 Food: 8/10 Service: 2/10
Additional comments: extremely disappointing for highly rated restaurant. Certain dishes are exceptional amongst those that are not so, however service is appalling and will not be returning.
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