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

I’ve complained about how difficult it is to get good quality sushi around London, and Laura pointed me out to a great little find called Donzoko, located in Kingly Street just off of Carnaby Street and one street behind Regent Street. I had tried once before a week or two ago, and found out that they don’t open for Saturday lunch, so when I returned for dinner on Saturday I was glad the little red lantern was lit up indicating, in the traditional Japanese manner, this shop was open for business.

I’m extremely impressed by how Japanese the entire place felt – with the smiling Japanese lady that greets you, the staff that shout the traditional irrashaimase, the little sushi bar out front, not to mention all the Japanese people sitting around, either drinking and smoking, or eating and smoking (though both latter habits are far less desirable). Downstairs is even a member’s area for presumably a more private sushi or drinking experience.

The menu at this place is extensive and offers much more than just sushi, including udon, grilled meats, tempura, and katsu type sets. There is even a special winter menu offering more unique dishes such as boiled taro, egg and other types of Japanese delicacies. Sushi can be ordered in many ways, either off the menu piece by piece, or roll by roll – which ends up a more expensive way (my most favourite sushi, unagi costing £2 for a single piece). Alternatively they offer both a sushi and sashimi set at much more value for money starting at £15 for a decent sized plate.

Although I still wouldn’t say that sushi still ends up cheap (maybe it’s the amount that I eat), but this is definitely one place that is worth the money. All of the food is prepared immediately after ordering since they have many sushi chefs, and the sushi is much more like the stuff you’d get in Japan with that hint of real wasabi between the topping and the rice. They also serve it with real wasabi on the side (and I talk about real wasabi because the more authentic stuff has a much stronger effect than what that horseradish-based reconstituted powder stuff does). The quality of the sushi is fantastic, and the eel and the scallop ones I had were probably my most favourite out of the lot. We didn’t get a chance to try any of the other meals since we came solely for sushi, but we did have a small serve of Tempura as well that was delicate and extremely delicious with the dipping sauce.

Details: Donzoko
Found on: 15 Kingly Street, London, W1B 5PS
Contactable on: 020 7734 1974
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri: Noon – 2.30pm and 6pm – 10.15pm, Sat-Sun 6pm – 10.30pm
Highlights: Authentic high quality sushi at reasonable prices. Great selection of other Japanese foods, shochus, sake and beer.
Room for improvement: Smoking is allowed inside and if you turn up any later than 7pm you will want to book ahead.
The Kua Rating: 8.5 out of 10

It’s easy enough to stumble across the Chinatown that sits around the corner from Leicester Square, but apparently the “real Chinatown”, Oriental City, is found much further out from Central London. Oriental City is certainly unique by its own merit – an entire shopping centre where almost all the stores and restaurants have entirely Asian origins which is no mean feat considering its hard enough to have a shopping centre, especially one filled of one type of ethnicity. The stores have a wide variety of goods and if you’re looking for some hard to get Asian ingredient, the large supermarket is bound to have it there. Unfortunately as the BBC reports, it’s soon to be redeveloped into a newer complex complete with more residential and commercial opportunities.

Its food court is easily the major highlight and attraction of the complex, bringing in many visitors to dine at a place you would only really see in Singapore. Its only difference is that instead of each stall specialising in one type of dish such as noodles, soup, and roast meats, you have stalls that specialise in types of Asian cuisines such as Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Indian, Thai, and Malaysian. It’s easy to get lost in the choices available and just like the food courts they’re meant to recreate, many people call out to you even though you’re just trying to settle on one option.

We finally settled on some Vietnamese since I hadn’t had any for some time, and after ordering and paying we got a number and tried to find a seat. I’m glad we came just at midday since the food court filled up soon after. For £5.50, the Vietnamese meal was great value, especially since it included a free drink as well. My grilled chicken was tender, flavoursome and went well with the small salad, and dipping sauce. We also tried a small number of dim sum dishes from one of the stalls, and even though they were extremely cheap they were probably the worst I’ve had in London so far. If you’re there and you want some dim sum, I’d definitely head to one of the many restaurants also located in the complex, as I’m sure they would serve much more decent fare.

Oriental City is not a huge complex by any standards, and although the food court is definitely unique, I wouldn’t make a trip out there especially for the food.

Details: Oriental City Food Court
Found on: Oriental City, 399 Edgware Road, London, NW9 0JJ
Highlights: Great selection of Asian cuisines at food court prices. The supermarket nearby offers one of the largest varieties of Asian foods I’ve yet to see. The Vietnamese food we had was decent as well.
Room for improvement: At these prices, don’t expect the best quality ingredients or even presentation. You may need to be on the lookout and put spotters down to find a seat. It’s also quite a fair distance from central London (third last stop on the Edgware branch of the Northern line).
The Kua Rating: 5.5 out of 10

The Chelsea Kitchen is one of those places that you just can’t put together. It’s located in the trendy Chelsea area with the nearest tube station being Sloane Square. At first I thought that this place was simply another English greasy spoon but upon closer inspection of the hand written menu hanging outside, it is clearly at least an Italian equivalent with greasy-spoon like prices.

Inside it looks very genteel, with the top floor filled with brightly lit wooden booths and the downstairs just as antiquated. We ate on the bottom floor at a large wooden table that could have easily been a wine cellar in a former incarnation as indicated by the arched wooden slates around us. Unfortunately the décor doesn’t really go hand in hand with all the other offerings of this place.

The prices at this place are dead cheap, and if the décor looks this good, something else had to give. In our dining experience it was the service that we received, and the presentation of the food that suffered the most, but thankfully not the food itself as much.

When we first arrived at the Chelsea Kitchen we were told to go downstairs since the upstairs was busy. After wandering around downstairs (there’s no obvious queuing, nor waiting area) we asked one of the attendants who rudely told us to return upstairs because it was full downstairs. We walked back upstairs and since we were hungry, I was almost ready to leave for another place until the owner took us back downstairs and got the waitress to find us a table. After that we actually had quite a nice waitress attending to us but she only came to take the order and deliver the food, and not check up on us throughout the meal.

The menu is interesting as it looks hand written and I take it as a good sign that it must change a little bit from season to season. There are plenty of dishes to pick from depending on how hungry you are from various types of starters, sandwiches, salads, pastas, grills, and puddings. At the price of the mains (none exceeding £6) we received decently sized meals (served with both chips and vegetables). It’s not presented beautifully. In fact, the food sits on a plate you would expect to see at your typical English greasy spoon café. Thankfully looks aren’t everything and both of our meals (the Veal Escalopina Ala Diavola and the Chicken Parmigiana) were extremely delicious and very filling.

The Chelsea Kitchen appeared extremely popular and with good reason for its affordable and hearty meals. It’s never going to win awards for service especially the excessively fast turnaround of customers but I’m sure there are plenty of places in that area if you really want that.

Details: The Chelsea Kitchen
Found on: 98 Kings Road, London, SW3 4TZ
Contactable on: 0871 3328713
Highlights: A place consistently serving hearty meals at very affordable prices. A large variety of offerings from English and Italian foods. The layout is slightly dated, but does add a bit of charisma to the place.
Room for improvement: Service can be shocking if it’s busy, and don’t expect Michelan star presented or quality food.
The Kua Rating: 7 out of 10

Before heading out to the theatre on Tuesday, I went for dinner at a new Japanese place that had recently opened near Holborn. Prices appeared comparable to Yo Sushi but the range appeared much larger and appeared a little bit more authentic than the other modernised chain. This store is part of a larger International chain (there’s other stores in Seoul, Hollywood and Paris as well), and it appeared to be run by Koreans, so expect a few twists on your typical Japanese dishes.

The atmosphere is a little bit more traditional if you manage to ignore the pop music blasting away in the background. We sat at the sushi bar and with the number of staff that buzzed around us, it was not at all difficult getting service throughout our meal. The sushi was freshly made and tasted of quality ingredients, but it helps that we sat down just after their restaurant opened at 6pm. The best thing I liked about this restaurant was their wide variety of sushi, with many of your traditional rolls and sashimi in addition to some uniquely inspired combinations that could be ordered in hand roll, or your typically cut sushi roll style. One of the different twists we had included some soft shell crab rolls that admittedly was a little overpowered by the mayonnaise. My most favourite sushi of the night was the unagi sushi (eel sushi) since the eel was extremely tender and saucy, unlike the drier varieties I have had at other sushi places.

I’ve written before about how expensive Japanese food is in London and though Sushi Hiroba serves excellent quality sushi, I would still budget for a more expensive meal. I found it worth it though considering the quality of the ingredients and the greater variety of sushi available. Better yet is that they don’t charge for water at your table either.

Details: Sushi Hiroba
Found on: 50-54 Kingsway, Holborn, London, WC2B 6EP
Contactable on: 020 7430 1888
Highlights: Super attentive service, unique variety of sushi, delicious unagi sushi and service is still only 10%
Room for improvement: It’d be nice if the wasabi wasn’t the reconstituted powdered variety.
The Kua Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Last night I had dinner at the opening of a yet another location of Wagamama’s, with the new store opening at Earl’s Court. Openings to Wagamama’s are great if you can get invites to one, since you get a main, a side dish, two drinks, and as much mineral water as you want – all for free. The restaurant gets a lot out of this by testing their staff and seeing how they cope with a restaurant at full capacity. The only thing they ask of you is to fill out a simple questionnaire about your attendant and the things that you liked and disliked about your experience.

Since this was my first opening ever, I decided to try two dishes I’d never had before at Wag’s – the Chicken Yakitori and the Ebi Raisukaree. The yakitori sticks went down a treat, smothered in delicious yakitori sauce, while the Ebi Raisukaree was admittedly disappointing. Despite the rice being drowned in a Thai like curry sauce and surrounded with lots of vegetables and prawns, it seemed like I had been given someone else’s “extra” dish since it came along luke warm. At least I got mine though, with two of the people dining with us, not getting theirs until our waiter noticed it missing and followed it up. Other than that, the food was at least standard Wagamama’s quality and the service was typical over the top friendly.

There’s not too much different about this location compared to many other branches, other than perhaps a few smaller tables for your own instead of the large benches, and a staircase equipped with a motorised chair to help anyone who might have troubles with them. At least the food and service they offer is definitely consistent with their other outlets and you generally can’t go wrong eating here.

Details: Wagamama, Earl’s Court
Found on: 180-182 Earl’s Court Road, London, SW5 9QG
Contactable on: 020 7373 9660
Highlights: Openings mean clean bright new diggs, free food and generally over the top service.
Room for improvement: My main (Ebi Raisukaree) was disappointingly warm, considering they pride themselves on prompt delivery.
The Kua Rating: 7 out of 10