Mugen - excellent Japanese restaurant in the City of London

As a worker in the City of London, I've walked past Mugen plenty of times and seen lots of (what I believe to be) Japanese people in there - always a good sign for a Japanese restaurant!

Recently, I finally decided to go in for a quick meal before an evening event, so I was after something relatively light.

The menu is not cheap, but there are a few more affordable items on there, namely the ramen noodle soups and curry dishes.

The girlfriend went for the special ramen with miso soup. It was a delight. Check this out...

It tasted as good as it looked - and it looks good to me!

I opted for a much plainer looking soba noodle soup with tempura prawn and vegetables. It may look simple but the flavour of the broth was still top notch. 

I also appreciated the fact that Mugen presented the tempura in a separate dish, meaning the batter would not go all soggy - other restaurants please take note!

While we were there, a private function was going on with a load of Japanese businessmen all enjoying themselves eating Mugen's tasty food. There was a sushi chef in the middle of the party plying his trade, making fresh sushi. Great scenes - will have to go back there one day to try their sushi and sashimi dishes out.

Nearest Tube: Bank

Dozo Soho - Japanese restaurant

Dozo Sushi is a Japanese restaurant in Soho, London.  While its name strongly suggests that it specialises in sushi, its main menu actually features many other items including grilled dishes, bento boxes and noodle soups.  So there's definitely something for most people, should you not fancy sushi.

The girlfriend opted for a donburi dish - specifically a sushi don.  Essentially a sushi don is a large bowl of sushi rice with salmon sashimi on top, served alongside a miso soup.  If you like salmon sashimi but want something a bit more filling, this is a good choice; it is a simple yet great tasting and filling dish.  

Sushi don.

I do like a good noodle soup, so I opted for the Spicy Ramen.  This consisted of ramen noodles (obviously), stir fry beef, fish cake, nitamago egg and vegetables.  There were lots of different ingredients and flavours here - I quite enjoyed it and was glad I ordered it.

Spicy ramen.

As we paid the bill, the waiter gave us 10 per cent discount for paying by cash - worth knowing if you're planning a visit and fancy a bit of a discount.

Closest Tube: Leicester Square

JRC Global Buffet (Ilford) is some sort of food theme park and here's why

JRC Global Buffet in Ilford is bonkers - it's like a food theme park in there.

The place is big - very big - and possibly one of the largest restaurants I've been to.  It's no wonder why; there are food stations from 12 different different countries.  Like Asian food?  There's Indian, Chinese, Thai, Japanese (including live teppanyaki grill).  You can also get Spanish food, Italian pizza, pasta, salads and a variety of tasty-looking desserts.

As far as buffets go, this one is pretty good.  It's obviously not fine dining, but choice is good, food tasted fresh on my visit and the owners have made an effort at presentation, the latter of which you can't normally say for other buffets.

Check out some of the pics I took below.  (Sorry I wasn't able to get more snaps of the food stations; the restaurant was pretty full and it was not easy to take that many photos!)

Part of the dessert station.  There was a LOT more on offer!

Meats and seafood for the teppanyaki grill.  Pick a maximum of two items per visit.

Grilled scallops were good - and big!

Dim sum station.

Various meatballs, seafood balls and crab.

So if you live nearby and are pretty hungry, then consider JRC.  At £15.99 per person on Sunday, it's not bad value if you have an appetite.

And don't forget to print your discount voucher from their website!

  
Nearest station: Ilford

Okonomi-yaki: the Japanese 'as-you-like-it pancake'

Dining at an okonomi-yaki restaurant is a real culinary delight. And that't exactly what I got when I visited Abeno between Holborn and Tottenham Court Road, London.

The moment you sit at your table, you know it's not going to be an ordinary meal. For a start, there's a big teppan hot plate in the middle of the table and you're politely warned by the waitress not to touch it. Then you look around you at the other tables and see that the waitresses and waiters are a lot more than that; they are also the chefs.

What is okonomi-yaki? They're Japanese 'pancakes' with a batter and cabbage base, plus various other vegetable and meat toppings. It's not fully straightforward to explain, so thankfully the Abeno website has a picture guide:

Source: Abeno

My table ordered three okonomi-yaki with various toppings:

• London mix - bacon, cheese, pork, salmon
• Spicy naniwa - kimchi, belly pork
• Inaka mix - konnyaku, belly pork, sweetcorn

The menu is quite extensive, so go with whatever you like. For me, whatever went in it, it still tasted great. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. The only downside was that each okonomi-yaki isn't quite filling enough for one adult, so I recommend getting the larger 'super deluxe', rather than the 'deluxe' that I got.

After the okonomi-yaki is cooked, the chef garnishes it with sauces and fish flakes. The heat causes the flakes to move, just like in my video. Cool right?



Abeno also serves non okonomi-yaki dishes, such as omusoba (noodles in an omelette). Great presentation, though it largely tastes like normal stir-fry egg noodles.

Here's the chicken teppan-yaki, again cooked on the centre hot plate. While it looks relatively ordinary, the chicken was cooked well, remained juicy and well seasoned.

It was a great evening, watching the waitress/chef expertly flip the pancakes and cook the food in front of you. But then as I left, I realised I had a strong smell of smoke all over me. So if you make a visit, don't wear the suit you just dry cleaned...

Nearest Tube: Tottenham Court Road and Holborn
Address: 47 Museum Street, London, WC1A 1LY