Wow, I surprised myself by writing a post! I can’t remember when was the last time I’ve written a post and we even forgot to take a photo of the exterior of the restaurant. Haha! So anyway, I woke up this morning feeling enthusiastic to write a post about our trip to London yesterday. We planned a one day trip to London just to watch the Phantom of the Opera broadway show.
The theatre is located near Piccadilly Circus Underground Station, which is also where this restaurant is located near to.
This is a photo taken inside Her Majesty’s Theatre before the show begins. Audiences are prohibited to take photos or vides during the show. The show was superb, it was the first broadway show I’ve watch in the UK despite staying here for quite some time. Couldn’t wait to watch other shows next time, looking forward to it!
So before the show begins, we decided dine in this exclusive Japanese restaurant located near the theatre, this is one of the very few restaurants which serve authentic Japanese food in the UK. This restaurant is located on the underground floor of the Mitsukoshi department store in London.
They served houjicha (焙じ茶) instead of green tea. The roasted green tea tasted aromatic and it reminds us how much we miss Japanese food even before we have our meal.
We ordered a Shokado Bento (松花堂弁当) for £22 and a lunch course of the month for £20. The photo above is our shokado bento with tempura (天ぷら), grilled fish (焼物), sashimi (刺身) and simmered vegetables and chicken (煮物). This bento also comes with a bowl of rice, miso soup (味噌汁), pickles and fruits. Needless to say, we started with sashimi, the tuna sashimi wasn’t good, but it was ok. But the salmon sashimi was superb, I didn’t realise how much it meant to me after not tasted it for such a long time. The grilled fish was delicious, especially eaten with pickles and rice. I think I’m exaggerating but I guess it was due to the fact that I really miss Japanese food so badly. Tempura was as good as well, lightly oiled, crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. We love the simmered yam ball, that was super delicious.
The lunch course of the month didn’t let us down either. We chose spicy teriyaki chicken salad as our appetizer (スパイシー照焼きチキンサラだ). It wasn’t spicy at all but it was very appetizing, the salad dressing went well with the chicken, which was smooth and juicy. A very good start for the meal.
Next we had assorted nigiri sushi and rolled sushi with clear soup (寿司盛合せ). The rolled sushi was good, it consists of tobiko (とびこ) aka flying fish roe and raw salmon. It was fresh but also very spicy for someone like me who couldn’t take much wasabi(わさび). The nigiri sushi was good as well, they were all very fresh but contained quite a large amount of wasasbi.
As for the dessert, we did not hesitate to choose green tea ice-cream (抹茶アイスクリーム) to end our lunch. The ice-cream was delicious, needless to say, but I must admit there is quite a difference from the green tea ice-cream that we used to have back in Malaysia. The ice-cream was more milky rather than having a heavy green tea taste. But we wouldn’t care, it satisfied our tummy anyway.
Service was remarkable as most employees are Japanese. We would highly recommend you to visit this restaurant if you are looking for somewhere nice and quiet to enjoy authentic Japanese food. We were quite sure they wouldn’t let you down. For more information, please visit their official website here.
Restaurant Information
Dorland House,
14-20 Lower Regent Street,
London SW1 4PH
Tel : 02079300317
