Little Japan 32 Thurloe Street, South Kensington London SW7 2LT
Little Japan
Little Japan is a tiny restaurant located in South Kensington, close to the tube station. Actually we had intended to go to la Bouchée which we have already eaten at but it was before the blog. On our way we thought it was a bit of a waste to eat French cuisine in London since we are going to go to the French riviera on vacation soon. It was a bad decision as we found out the hard way.
The restaurant is quite small, with two levels and a counter in the background. The waiter comes to take orders and to serve you but you have to go to the counter to pay.
We ordered some sushi – salmon rolls (8 pieces – £3.50), the tonkatsu bento (described as “deep fried breaded pork marinated in tonkatsu, rice and salad” – £4.90), the Torikara Bento (described as “garlic chicken in teriyaki sauce with rice and salad – £4.90), some deep fried vegetables, a orange juice and a 7up.
Tonkatsu bento
Tonkatsu or cordon bleu ?
The “tonkatsu” was nothing short of astonishing. For a start, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t pork. It was, in fact, a sliced piece of chicken cordon bleu with a dash of tonkatsu sauce. I can’t say it was nasty exactly (though it was overcooked and rather dry) but it certainly wasn’t tonkatsu or even a close approximation. I mean, since when do you have a slice of ham in tonkatsu? LOL The rice was some form of long grain, so also rather dry and difficult to eat as it didn’t stick together (we stuck to chopsticks because, although a couple of forks had been provided, they weren’t too clean…). The rest of the bento box wasn’t worth eating. The salad, drowned in a pasty-white mayonnaise, was some wilted bits of lettuce and tomato whilst the seaweed was seriously nasty to the point I started to worry if I would get sick.
Fried vegetables
The deep fried vegetables were exactly as described. Seeing as it was supposed to be a Japanese restaurant, I had, of course, visions of tempura vegetables when I ordered this dish. What I got was chunks of a variety of vegetables, encased in a very peppery batter, and that had been deepfried. Not that bad in small doses, but they had a taste of very well used cooking oil (so the small doses was as much a health issue as anything else).
Torikara bento
Close-up of the garlic chicken...
The garlic chicken in teriyaki sauce was weird too. I couldn’t really taste the teriyaki nor the garlic and it was salty and spongious. In fact, the “garlic” was identifiably garlic salt – if you can imagine that added to chicken in a teriyaki sauce, you start to get an idea of my horror…
Salmon rolls
The salmon rolls were bad with a funny sour taste while the wasabi was probably old because it wasn’t very hot anymore. The salmon bits were tiny. You get a lot better salmon rolls at the take away section of Japan Centre, near Picadilly Circus or at just about any place selling sushi.
Cost and conclusion: it was £20.30. It was bad, one of my worst lunches in London. Even thinking about it makes me shiver.
This place has nothing Japanese, the name is very misleading. On the upside, the service was friendly and we did not get sick which is already something (or at least, so far we are not sick). We must be pretty tough! Or maybe just lucky… For more information about Little Japan, just google the name.
The White Cross Richmond TW9 1TH
The White Cross
Superb view over the river
The White Cross is an old pub located right on the river in Richmond, not far from the bridge. In summer people take advantage of the waterfront so it is full of families with kids. It is so close to the river that sometimes the tide prevents you from getting out. Well, it is not a bad place to get stuck, especially if you are upstairs on the tiny balcony where you have a great view over the river as you can see in the pictures.
The pub got its name because it is built on the site of a monastery (Friars Observant of Richmond, before the order got suppressed).
A table with a view
We ordered the chicken liver & Brandy paté with plum & apple chutney & crusty bread (£5.95), the Cumberland sausages with mash & caramelised onion gravy (£7.95), the French bread baguette with honey roast ham & wholegrain mustard (£5.25) and the sultana scones with clotted cream, strawberry jam & clotted cream (£3.50). Other interesting options were whole baked camembert with fruit chutney & bread to dip (£8.95), the cheese board Denhay mature cheddar & Cropwell Bishop stilton with fruit chutney & crusty bread (£7.45) and homemade cottage pie served with mixed leaves & crusty bread (£8.95). Of course, being a pub you have many other sandwiches, wraps (for example the Warm Cajun Chicken & sour cream – £5.75) and baked jacket potatoes with cheddar & bacon (£6.25) or even with beef chilli con carne (£6.25). As drinks, we ordered a pint of kronenbourg and a lemonade.
Chicken liver & Brandy paté
Close-up
The chicken liver and Brandy paté was good. Not the best I’ve ever had, but not bad either, although it really needed the plum and apple chutney to accompany it. The crusty bread was excellent and more of it would have been welcome because of the big portion of paté.
French bread baguette with honey roast ham & wholegrain mustard
The ham and mustard baguette was a mixed experience. On the one hand, the filling was a good thick slab of ham with wonderful texture and flavour, accompanied with just the right amound of fairly mild mustard. On the other hand, the baguette itself was an abomination. No nice fresh crispy outer and gently chewy inside here. No, sadly this baguette was a limp and flacid thing that shouldn’t have been allowed outside the kitchen it was baked in – I still shudder to think of it. I’d consider taking a sandwich here again, but I will never again make the mistake of ordering it on their so-called baguette. If you’re tempted to try it, I strongly recomend playing safe and taking the farmhouse “doorstep” sandwich instead (which is, presumably, the same sort of nice crusty sliced bread that accompanied the paté).
Cumberland sausages
The Cumberland sausages were all right. Again, not fantastic but nothing to complain about too. The mash was HUGE! I usually have a great appetite but I couldn’t eat all of it. It was enough for 3 people!
The scones
The strawberry jam
The scones were pretty good, nice and fresh and not at all crumbly. They were served with fresh clotted cream and strawberry jam – a nice end to the meal.
Great location!
Cost and conclusion: it was about £25. You do not really go to the White Cross for its food but rather for the nice setting and the view of the Thames. With a pint of beer it is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon there. Richmond is such a nice town with a village feeling while being only 20 minutes away from Waterloo train station. Highly recommended if you are around!
The Rose and Crown 79 Kew Green Kew TW9 3AH
Well located pub! It is next to Kew Gardens.
This Rose and Crown has a great location next to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, commonly named Kew Gardens. It is a wonderful place for taking photos of flowers of course but also insects as you can see below. Back to our pub! It is a nice looking pub with a rustic appearance inside, with many separate and cosy areas to sit and low ceilings. It has a nice front garden overlooking Kew Green but we went out to the back garden which was more pleasant cut from the traffic noise.
The tables in the back garden (not the photo above, which is of the path taking you to the rear garden) are quite large and the seats, in wood too, are incredibly heavy. You do not lift them easily with one hand.
Great Leffe
We ordered a seared teriyaki surf & turf (grilled teriyaki sirloin and battered coriander prawns, finished with chips and teriyaki dip – £11.25) and a classic fish pie (topped with cheesy mash and served with vegetables – £8.25). Other meals that looked interesting were the Moroccan spiced lamb burger (served in a light flatbread with peppernatta, sweet potato wedges and a cucumber mint dip – £9.45), the free range extra thick pork chop with cider and Calvados sauce (with mash and vegetables – £10.25) and the pork escalope (marinated in its own sauce, served with stir fried fresh vegetables and noodles and completed with a sweet chilli dipping sauce – £10.95). We ordered a pint of Leffe beer (great beer) and a pint of lemonade with lots of ice.
Classic fish pie
The fish pie was very good. Nice creamy potato topped with plenty of cheese. Inside the main fish was salmon, but there was also plenty of smoked haddock and shrimps to keep things interesting. Good pub food at a reasonable price here.
Seared teriyaki surf & turf
Excellent fries
I chose the seared teriyaki surf & turf because lately I cook quite a lot of meat marinated in teriyaki sauce on BBQs so I wanted to see how I was doing compared to the pub. The grilled teriyaki sirloin was not bad but a little dry and the teriyaki taste was very light. I cook better 😉 The battered coriander prawns were very good and the chips were excellent: tasty, and crispy outside without being dry inside.
Cost and conclusion: it was about £26, without the optional 12.5% service charge of course. Nice pub food, pleasant surrounding, and it was sunny! A good stop before visiting the gardens!
Some photos taken at Kew Gardens:
Taken from the botanical glasshouses with a Nikon D700 and a 14-24f2.8 through the glass.
Taken with a Nikon D700 with a 70-200f2.8
A bee at work. Nikon D700 with a 70-200f2.8
Japanese Tokiya Sushi Bar 74 Battersea Rise London SW11 1EH http://www.tokiya.co.uk
Tokiya Sushi Bar
We have already reviewed this authentic Japanese restaurant almost two months ago and found it quite good. This time we ordered Agedashi Tofu (Deep fried Tofu with Tempura Sauce – £3.80), Makazushi 5 pieces each of Deep fried Chicken Roll (£6.50) and Grilled Salmon skin with spring onion Inside out Roll (£4.00), the Nabeyaki Udon (White Udon noodle with Deep fried Tempura in pot – £12.00) and a Prawn Tempura (Deep fried Prawn & Vegetable Tempura – £9.50). As drinks we had a cold green tea and a calpico. The cold green tea (in a can) was excellent and refreshing, the calpico which is a milky sweet drink, was good. It is a drink for kids normally but as I lived in Japan for 4 years as a child I wanted to get that drink again. In Japan, I knew it as calpis. This was the same though, so I guess either rebranded for marketing reasons, or a rival brand.
Agedashi tofu
First to arrive was the agedashi tofu appetizer. It was nice and hot and well garnished with nori seaweed and green onions. One of my favourite light starters, Tokiya does this dish very nicely.
Makazushi 5 pieces of deep fried chicken roll
Close-up. Fresh hot wasabi at the left.
Grilled salmon skin with spring onion inside out roll
The makazushi was also very good. We had ordered two types, both of which were inside out rolls. The first to arrive was deep fried chicken, which was nice and crispy and very tasty. A little later came the grilled salmon with skin rolls, which were quite nice as the skin was crispy.
Prawn Tempura (deep fried prawn & vegetable tempura)
The tempura was great: perfecly cooked, not too much batter so no greasy feeling, and the amount of tempura sauce was very generous. Often I find the sauce to be insufficient but at Tokiya it is more sauce than needed! The rice was good too.
Nabeyaki Udon
Tokiya’s nabeyaki udon was a work of art. Many other Japanese restaurants do a cut down version of this dish, which basically means some tempura atop your udon noodle soup. At Tokiya, you get the full works – there is a bit of everything in this soup bowl. I recall egg, crab, bok choy as well as the usual tempura shrimp and vegetables. Really a meal in a bowl, and a mighty fine meal at that. Definitely a dish I will order here again.
Cost and conclusion: it was £40.30 and no “optional” service charge automatically added to the bill. We appreciate it. The food was great, nice atmosphere and service too! Highly recommended!
Italian restaurant Bucci 195 Balham High Road London SW12 9BE
Nice cold Peroni beer
We had already tried Bucci, but it had been at lunchtime when pizzas are not available unfortunately. We enjoyed their set menus and finding this Italian restaurant in Balham was a quite nice discovery. Are the pizzas great as well?
Bucci pizza and calzone
There is a large choice of pizzas at Bucci, 19 to be precise! We decided on the Bucci pizza (tomato, mozzarella, parma ham, parmesan and rocket – £8.50) to try their specialty, and the Calzone tradizionale (tomato, mozzarella, ham and mushroom – £7.90) as we are into these folded pizzas. There are three different calzones, the other two being the Farcito (tomato, mozzarella, ricotta cheese and spinach – £7.90) and the Cantadino (tomato, mozzarella, roasted courgette, aubergine and peppers – £7.90), both vegetarian pizzas.
Other pizzas we were interested by were the Tonno (tomato, mozzarella, tuna, olives and cappers – £7.90), the Aldo pizza (tomato, mozzarella, ham, mascarpone cheese and radicchio -£8.10), the Caprinba (cherry tomato, mozzarella, asparagus, goat cheese and rocket – £8.50) and the Parmigiana (tomato, mozzarella, aubergines, peppers and olives – £8.10).
Calzone tradizionale
The calzone was quite a disappointment. It was not at all crispy, lacked flavour, and arrived leaking some fluid (presumably from the mushrooms). The filling was minimal, with much of the space inside taken up by hot air leaving you feeling as though you’ve only been half fed. It’s not a pizza I’ll try again, and doesn’t come close to Limoncello a short distance away down near Tooting Broadway.
The Bucci pizza by contrast, but also in absolute, was huge. Normally I can finish a pizza but here I had to leave some of it. Well, not that much as I managed to eat maybe 85% of it! While I found it good, it lacked something to make it memorable, probably because of the taste of the base or the lack of it too. At Pizzeria Rustica in Richmond with the pizza Buffalo which is similar the base is wonderfully crispy and the tomato sauce (added after the base has been cooked) feels incredibly fresh with little bits of tomato and herbs.
Cost and conclusion: it was £21.60 without service charge and it is not automatically added to the bill. A big grazie to Bucci for respecting their customers!
Compared to Double Espresso a few doors down, I think Double Espresso pizzas have a better base but the décor is a lot nicer at Bucci. Both have a friendly service. That said, if you are into pizzas, two tube stops away, not far from Tooting Broadway you have Limoncello which is probably the best pizzeria in the Balham and Tooting areas. If it is about Italian food other than pizza, Bucci is a decent choice with excellent and well priced meals. Click here for our previous review of Bucci. Other restaurants reviewed in the area are Lamberts, the Cattle Grid, and a little further Hope & Spice and Harrison’s.
