Nambu-tei Japanese restaurant
12 Thames Street Windsor, Berks SL4 1PL

Reviewed on Monday 11 May 2009

Nambu-tei Japanese restaurant

Nambu-tei Japanese restaurant is wonderfully located next to Windsor Castle. It is on Thames Street when you come from the train station. Near the top of the hill, the castle is on the left side and the restaurant on the right side. It belongs to the restaurant of the same name in London’s Baker Street. We did not have much time for lunch so we both decided on the tempura set which was served with rice, some Japanese pickles and some slices of orange. The tempura was well cooked, not greasy as it can be sometimes. The pickles were good addition to the tempura. The Asahi beers were cold and fine

Funny sushi clock

Sushi à la carte

Details of the sushi à la carte menu

Tempura set

Cost and conclusion:  for two tempura sets, including rice, pickels and slices of orange as dessert, plus two Asahi beers it was just over £28 and it says “gratuities at your discretion” at the bottom of the bill. Excellent!  I am totally against these 12.5% service charge left at your “discretion” but added to the bill. Why do we have to opt out if the service was bad? I find it pretty rude from some restaurants to assume they automatically deserve a 12.5% service charge. I always pay the service charge even when it is discretionary but I dislike the way it is often done by including it in the total bill. Also why 12.5%? I prefer the non tipping system like in France where the service charge is already included in every meal’s price as it is less misleading than here where you see lower prices in the menu (and in small print at the bottom you see about the service charge). So thanks to Nambu-tei for being polite and respecting their clients!  We like that and we will be back!

Ukai Sushi
39 Lavender Hill, Battersea
SW11 5 London
0207 350 2565

Reviewed on Saturday 9 May lunch time

We discovered Ukai Sushi really by luck. Today we first wanted to try the Franco Manca pizzeria in Brixton Market since it gets so many good reviews. Despite getting there at 12:30 there was an umbelievable queue at the pizzeria! Even the best pizza in the world is not worth wasting our time in a queue so we decided to go to look for a restaurant around Clapham Common. While trying to find a restaurant we saw a butcher cooking sausages on a BBQ in the street. They looked good so we tried them. Big mistake! They were greasy and the bread dry. Also, the guy serving us was using gloves but he handled the money and other things whilst keeping his gloves on. Lovely sense of hygiene…

Greasy award winning sausages

They looked good...

... but they were awfully salty and greasy, the grease going through the paper

Well, after finding a bin for getting rid of that 1000 calorie sausage we were looking for a nice light lunch and on our way to Clapham Junction we found Ukai Sushi. Ukai Sushi has a nice sober and modern decoration all in black.  Seats are large cubes. The only downside was that you can’t put your feet under, and have no support for your back – so no relaxing back in your seat. We ordered a spicy tuna platter and a spicy salmon platter and for drink it was a kiwi + mint iced tea and a golden lotus with jadeli tea.

The spicy tuna and salmon were indeed spicy, and everything was good quality and fresh. Both were a mix of sashimi (4 slices),  nagiri sushi (2 pieces) and hosomaki sushi (5 pieces) – respectively with tuna in one case, and salmon in the other. We would have preferred the sashimi to be a bit colder, but no complaints beyond that. Another general observaton is that the entire platter being tuna (or slamon) can get a little boring even if its spicy, and we shared – so another time we would probably choose a selection of different sushi.

The golden lotus tea was excellent. The only complaint to make about it is the type of glass it is served in – which gets very hot and can burn your fingers. A balloon glass or one with a handle would be much better for the customer. The kiwi/mint iced tea was very good, and freshly made. Not the easiest thing to drink with a straw though, as the bits of kiwi tended to block it.

Ukai Sushi restaurant

Wasabi peas

Kiwi and mint iced tea

Hot water and a lotus flower

Bigger...

Full size

Spicy salmon mix

Spicy tuna mix

Details of the spicy salmon mix

Details of the spicy tuna mix

Overview of the two meals

Cost and conclusion: for £29 (service not included) we enjoyed our quick lunch. It was nice to discover a Japanese restaurant in that area.

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