Earlier this week I finally managed to eat at Ran, a Korean restaurant I always walk past on the way to work but I had never had a chance to eat their yet. I’ve been intrigued in this place for a while namely because I haven’t had much Korean food in London yet and this restaurant has a large LCD facing the street cycling through all the delicious looking platters of food they serve. I made a booking for six of us and although two of the six were half an hour late I thankfully never felt hurried or rushed to order by the staff, even though tables seemed limited in number.

I like Korean food the most for the delicious charred food you get from the gas grill that sits in the middle of the table. All of the Korean restaurants I ate at back home had a very homey feel, with most of the grilled done by yourself. At Ran though, they go to the supreme effort of cooking all of it for you (with the gas grill still in the middle of the table) and then distributing it out amongst the diners. It is extremely demanding on the waiters and waitresses and they certainly deserve the 12.5% service for all the preparation they did for us.

We tried a great selection of many dishes including Korean pancakes, assorted tempura, assorted kim chi, gyoza, a variety of grilled meats and the Dolsot Bibimbap. It was a supreme feast and I think we were all surprised that even though collectively we’d all had some shoju, warm sake and some Korean beers, and service included it only ended up at £25 a head for such a fine meal.

Details: Ran
Found on: 58-59 Great Marlborough Street, London, W1F 7JY
Contactable on: 020 7434 1650
Highlights: Fantastic atmosphere, great service and great quality Korean food at decent prices. Booking over the Internet was extremely easy and a great all round experience.
Room for improvement: The chair and table arrangements make it hard for the waiters and waitresses to cook and serve food. They don’t open for lunch on weekends.
The Kua Rating: 8.5 out of 10