It’s only about six attempts later but on Thursday I finally managed to have a meal at Japanese restaurant Inaho. When I used to live in Bayswater, I had several, obviously, failed attempts at dining at this place. It seemed so innocent – a very small restaurant, painted blue on the outside yet seemingly very popular when open. It’s definitely not open on Sunday, and only open Saturday evenings and I definitely recommend booking for dinner especially then. I’d probably even book for dinner during the week just to make sure.

To say the place is small is very generous – the restaurant only contains about eight or ten tables of which the majority only seat two people. Even still the tables that are inside sit very closely to each other, maybe at most ten centimetres apart. It feels almost canteen-like Wagamama style but not quite there.

Their menu offering seems quite broad and similar to the more authentic Japanese restaurants in London. Their menu includes a decent selection of sushi, as well as a small number of dishes such as udon, soba and Japanese salad. We ended up having my favourite unagi sushi, that tasted extremely fresh. The tender eel flesh was moist and just warmed through with just enough sauce to balance it out. We also tried the teriyaki chicken, some udon and kara-age (Japanese fried chicken) that all went down very easily. You do have to pay extra for rice as many of the main dishes do not come automatically with it.

Unlike many reviews I read, our waitress spoke excellent English and although service wasn’t forth-coming, we didn’t really have any problems ordering or getting the bill. I’m not sure if I would make a cross town trip just to have Japanese at this place, but I would definitely eat there again if I was in the area.

Details: Inaho
Found on: 4 Hereford Road, London, W2 4AA
Contactable on: 0871 3327807
Highlights: Tasty Japanese food. It feels like a very friendly atmosphere and I can probably guess it is still family-run.
Room for improvement: Need to really plan ahead. The small handful of tables together with the tiny space mean that you end up quite intimate with a number of other diners.
The Kua Rating: 7 out of 10

One of the newest arrivals to the ever evolving Westbourne Grove in Bayswater is the Italian restaurant, Mulberry Grove, serving eye catching New York style 20 inch pizzas. Inside it’s themed like a stylish New York bar under lit with ambient purple lighting, textured brick walls and iconic panoramas stretched across its back walls. One of the only things detracting from the theme was the waitresses, though very attractive, understandably and noticeably not very New Yorkish (is that even a word?).

The menu focuses on their very affordable 20 inch pizzas that range from around £17 to £20 something per pie. Unless you’re a party of four though you’ll be likely to take some or most of it home with you since they are so large. If variety is what you want, you may order your pizza half and half with different toppings, or order individuals slices instead. They also offer a small selection of other non-pizza related main courses but looking around the restaurant does not seem to be the popular choice.

Barely keeping in touch with their theme, the restaurant only serves one American beer, and when we asked, disappointingly was also out of Root Beer, a classic soft drink quite popular and widely available in the States.

We started our meal off with Bruschetta that turned out very well with a nicely balanced toasted bread topped with the lush tomato, basil and basil and olive oil topping. Unfortunately the rest of the meal wasn’t as nice. Sure the slices are large and droopy and topped with a decent amount of ingredients but it was evident that each slice hadn’t been given that second round of cooking to give the base that slightly crispiness – the result a soggy pizza base that you only really tackle properly with a knife and fork. Nowhere in sight was extra parmesan cheese or chilli flakes although they do offer freshly cracked pepper and chilli oil as alternatives.

Overall dinner wasn’t as expensive as it could be at many other Italian places although I think you can do much better quality at the same price elsewhere. The final thing though that makes it unlikely for me to return was the 12.5% gratuity automatically added to the bill and really didn’t equate with the exceptional service we should have received.

Details: Mulberry Street
Found on: 84 Westbourne Grove, W2 5RT
Contactable on: 020 7313 6789
Highlights: Great dining atmosphere, eye catching but only reasonably flavoured pizzas at reasonable prices.
Room for improvement: Service doesn’t meet the gratuity rate and pizzas could really do with that second bake to give it just that more of an authentic New York crisp base.
The Kua Rating: 6 out of 10