Bep Viet

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Breakfast for 2
Price: 11 GBP
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Chicken omelette, mushroom omelette

Hunting for breakfast this morning, I came across a small Vietnamese stand that was open early and had omelettes on the menu.  I bought two, one for myself and one for my wife to eat back at the hotel.  They were both quite tasty, so I'm giving it a Very Good.  Sorry no pictures of the food as take out food never looks very nice.

Himalayan Spice

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Dinner for 3
Price: 51.20 GBP
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Lamb and paneer starters, whiskey, bottled water, mutton biryani, lamb and chicken tikka
Smoking: No

Ironic, I know.  The first place we eat on our trip to England/Scotland is a Nepalese Indian restaurant!  But it was the evening of our first day, we were loopy from jet lag, and after wandering up and down the streets at about 4:30pm it was one of the few already open.

Still getting used to the prices, I didn't look at anything and ordered as usual, expecting small portions like in Japan.  However there was plenty per dish and prices are up there, so in future I'll be trying to be more careful.

However I'm happy to report that the food itself was quite good, with much stronger and complex flavors than the Nepalese restaurants in Japan manage to achieve.  My son's biryani was exceptionally tasty, though we wish we had gotten the raita instead of curry dish that came with it.  My wife and I got lamb and chicken tikka, which was quite good.  The chicken was boneless white meat, but still moist, and the lamb had a lovely smoked flavor to it.  They came with a reddish dipping sauce which was disappointing as it was like a slightly spicy thousand island dressing.

Overall I'd give this a very good, but mainly in comparison to our recent Indian experiences.  It is possible there is much better in town, but I don't know if we'll have time to get to them as we're only here two nights.

Little Saigon Kitchen II

Rating: OK
Meal:  Lunch for 3
Price: 3883 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Beef Pho set, innards platter, cold chicken
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

We had an extra long church service today and needed to eat something before the drive home.  We wandered about Ueno a bit looking for something and settled on this Vietnamese restaurant I'd seen once before.  It's very authentic, with pretty much only Vietnamese being spoken by everyone in there.

We ordered a beef pho set, some cold roasted chicken, and an innards platter (for me natch).  The pho was really good, chicken tough and rubbery, and same for my platter of innards.  Authentic maybe, but not necessarily delicious.  I'd stick with the pho in the future.

Aztecas Mikasa

Rating: OK
Meal:  Lunch for 2
Price: 4000 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Carnitas asada tacos, chicken burrito, guacamole
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

I was surprised to see a new(?) Mexican restaurant in Mikasa mall, upstairs above the meat restaurant.  My wife and I checked it out, and the space is really large, and it feels like a proper Mexican restaurant (hard to explain).  We tried out a few dishes, and while the tacos were good, the burrito was less impressive.  The guac was just ok.  Overall everything was very salty.  Do look forward to trying more things there.  Turns out it's the second branch of the same Aztecas that is between Nawlins and Bar 76, which I have reviewed before.

Raifukushijo

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner for 2
Price: 5200 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Gyoza, wanton soup, tawainese soy sauce chicken, one other dish
English Menu: No
Smoking: Yes

Met with a friend near Keikyu Kamata station this week.  It was super cold so we went to the nearest warm place and it was this Taiwanese restaurant.  We grabbed a few dishes and enjoyed it well enough.  No details, here are the pics:

Kamakura Yumcha Lou

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner
Price: 2160 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Charshu, scrambled egg and greens, 6 pieces of dimsum
English Menu: No
Smoking: No

Grabbed dinner again at Yokohama Station last night.  Found this odd Chinese/Ramen restaurant.  Was interested in the dimsum, which was just ok.

Mon

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner
Price: 5140 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Yakisoba pie, all horse meat:  smoked tongue, deep fried innards, tenderloin steak
English Menu: No
Smoking: Yes

The only local whalemeat restaurant (Ren) had been replaced a while back by a new horsemeat restaurant (Mon).  I finally got a chance to stop by and check it out the other night.

I've had horse sashimi at other izakayas in the past and didn't really care for it (raw animal meat that isn't fish is just too chewy for my taste generally, and there's the potential for getting sick).  I was hopeful this place, being dedicated to horse meat, might have some cooked options on the menu.  I wasn't disappointed.

It's an izakaya, and there was smoking, so beware.  Also there's the mandatory appetizer, which was some roasted edamame.  Absolutely no English, but the server worked with me.  I saw they had some nice looking nihonshu (sake) bottles and managed to order a small amount of some...but it wasn't on the menu so I'm not sure how much it was.  It was delicious however.

Smoked tongue

For food I stuck with cooked options, ordering smoked tongue, deep fried horumon (innards) and the tenderloin steak.  At one point I noticed some dishes sitting up on the counter and one looked deliciously like an egg covered shepherd's pie, so I ordered some of that.  Mistake...it was a fancy yakisoba pie, with the inside being dark colored yakisoba noodles.  I really dislike the flavors in yakisoba, and of course they dressed the pie slice with the sweet sauce and mayonnaise typical of this fair food.  I ate it, but didn't enjoy it.

Deep fried innards

The rest of the food as all a bit of a disappointment too.  The tongue slices were just ok, thin and not that distinctive.  The deep fried horumon was chewy in the extreme, with no discernible taste.  And the steak was partly very tough, with a very long chewing session to choke it down.  Part of it was descent, but again, nothing to speak of in the flavor department, and swimming in a demiglaze sweet sauce that overwhelmed the meat itself.

Yakisoba pie

The price tag for the meal was quite high, and given my lackluster experience of the food, I can only rate this place Ok, despite the pleasant service and atmosphere.  I may come back again with a friend to try the horse sashimi options in the future.

Tenderloin steak