Japanese restaurant Akasiro
8 Little Newport Street
WC2H 7JJ London

Reviewed on Sunday 31 May 2009

Akasiro

View of the counter

This is my 6th review of Akasiro in 2 months! We really enjoy this basic but good Japanese restaurant and the staff are always very friendly and efficient. This time we had as first courses the age dashi tofu (£4.50) and buta kakuni (£5) followed by a tonkatsu (£9.50) and a sashimi set (£11.50). We were a little stressed by work so we had 4 bottles of Asahi beer.

First, the beer was very nice. Unlike many places the beer here comes really cold and it is very refreshing during this rare hot period of spring weather. The buta kakuni, which is a braised pork belly, was quite good and its taste reminded me the ones I used to eat in Japan when I was a child. The age dashi tofu was good but we think the portion has shrunk a little compared to the time this place was Zipangu. Still, it was hot and tasty. The tonkatsu was nice and crispy, maybe a little bit overcooked and personally we prefer to have the bulldog sauce to add ourselves than to have it already on the plate. The sashimi set was also good but I wanted a larger portion The tuna was excellent and the wasabi was fresh so seriously hot… The kind that hits your sinus instantly.

Great cold Asahi beer

Age dashi tofu

Buta no kakuni (one piece is missing, I ate it before taking the photo...)

Tonkatsu

Sashimi set

Overview

Cost and conclusion: it was £42.10 which is not bad considering beside the two first courses and the two main courses we had four bottles of beer and the Asahi beer isn’t cheap. We will be back! If you wish to read previous reviews of this restaurant, go to the list of restaurants by alphabetical order and at Akasiro you will find five other reviews.

Akasiro Japanese restaurant
8 Little Newport Street, London WC2H 7JJ

Reviewed on Monday 27 April 2009 late evening.

After two weeks in the South of France and a long weekend in Paris, it is nice to be back to London! Why again the Akasiro? 1) it is good 2) it is late in the evening 3) it is just a few tube stops from St Pancras Eurostar station 😉
As starters we ordered the age tofu (£4.50) and the spicy sushi salmon (£4). Both were good but it is better to eat the age tofu first because after the spicy sushi (with some really hot bits) you do not feel much of the age tofu taste.
For the main courses, we took again the tempura udon (£8.50 – see previous reviews to see why “again’) and tried the Bulgogi which is a Korean barbecued beef (£10). The tempura udon was like everytime: fine. The bulgogi was good but I found it a little too salty, probably because the meat was marinated in the soy sauce (as it should be).
I had a green tea ice cream (£3.50) as dessert. It was very good, not too sweet nor too creamy and a little bitter.
The drinks were two Asahi beer (£5.80) , served chilly as usual.

Asahi beer

Spicy salmon sushi

Agedashi tofu

Hot tempura udon

Bulgogi

Cost and conclusion: another very decent dinner for £36.30 which is a good value for money. The service is very nice and despite the late time we were not hurried to leave at all. It is the 5th time I review this place

Japanese restaurant Akasiro
8 Little Newport Street, London WC2H 7JJ

Reviewed on Monday 13 April 2009 evening

The dining experience at the Marquess of Anglesey was so bad that we needed to finish the evening on a better mood so we went to the regular Akasiro This time we went in the basement as all tables were full on the ground level. The restaurant was quite busy, refusing people as it became full even downstairs. The design downstairs changed a lot compared to what it was when the restaurant was called Zipangu. It is much better now.

As it was our second dinner we ate “light” by just ordering two tempura udon and a green tea. The tea was really good and the tempura udon great as usual, and very spicy as we abused of the chilli powder. For more details about the Akasiro, please go to the list of restaurants by alphabetical order since it has been reviewed many times.

Green tea

The hot tempura udon

Tempura udon

Cost and conclusion: for £18.50 the value for money is good, and more important, the food is great!

Akasiro
8 Little Newport Street, London WC2H 7JJ

Reviewed Monday 6 April 2009

Previous reviews can be seen at http://www.trusted-gourmet.com/2009/04/japanese-restaurant-akasiro-london-uk/ and http://www.trusted-gourmet.com/2009/04/japanese-restaurant-akasiro-chinatown-london/

I will be short as akasiro has already been reviewed twice here! The waiter remembered us and asked if we wanted the Asahi beer ( (twice £2.90). Very good. We ordered a Tonkatsu (pork loin, served with rice and miso soup – £5.90) and a Katsudon (pork cutlet with egg sauce topped on rice, served with miso soup – £6.50). The Tonkatsu came of course with the bulldog sauce and was crispy. The Katsudon was good but could not stay crispy because of the way it is cooked on top of the rice and with that egg sauce. Still, not a bad meal at all but I would probably go for something like the chicken teriyaki don or the gyudon (beef and onion topped on rice) next time to avoid having humid breadcrumbs.

Tonkatsu

Katsudon

The two lunch special menus

Akasiro
8 Little Newport Street, London WC2H 7JJ
Monday to Saturday from 12 to 11:30pm (last order)
Sunday from 12 to 11pm (last order)

Reviewed on Thursday 2 April 2009

As I wrote in my conclusion yesterday about akasiro, we had to come back to try some other meals

We went again for lunch and today we ordered the Dolsot Bibimbab (£6.50) and a Yaki Udon (5.90) and of course the mandatory Asahi beer (twice £2.90).

The Yaki Udon is a meal made of fried thick noodle with seafood. It was very tasty. Nice crispy bean sprouts, good range of seafood (mussels, shrimps, calamari…). See the photo below, taken this time with a real compact camera 😉

Yaki Udon

Dolsot Bibimbab

Cost and conclusion: same as yesterday! Great value for money and good food. The service was provided by the same friendly Japanese guy.