Asakusa

popped in on the off chance when I was working in Camden on Saturday. They were fully booked but managed to seat me at the bar area. I ordered the Sashami set and was told it would be at least 30mins as there were lots of orders already and it is all freshly prepared, I accepted but let it be known I was in a hurry. They offered me Miso to start, which was the best I have ever tasted. The food came out in less than 15mins and the wine was cheap but very drinkable.

I shall definitely be coming back as the Sashimi was delicious.

Yes I had to call the waitress over to order more drinks as the service was a little lacking (they were full) but found the food to be superb.
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Nicola
7 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Monday, April 26, 2010

This is the worst restaurants I have ever been too. Outrageously rude staff, one hour waiting time for sushi turns into 1h 20 mins. When I refused to pay the tip owing to poor service and long wait for food I was confronted about it and asked to pay. We all know service is pay where due and not compulsory. To sum up, a genuinely unpleasant and humiliating experience.
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1 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Thursday, March 25, 2010

Utterly amazing. We were crammed in next to a very drunk couple having an argument and intermitently shoving tempura and sushi in to one anothers mouths, presumably as silencers.. Anyway, sounds fairly horrific, but it added to the buzzing, canteen-style atmosphere.

There were four of us, all exceptionally greedy, and the food was all-round excellent. The baked aubergine was delightful. A nice warm carafe of sake was the perfect accompaniment. We were dreading the bill due to excessive ordering, but the whole thing was only £12 per person. There may be better Japanese places in London, I don't know, but nowhere compares to here on price.

I would advise booking ahead, as we ended up having to wait 1.5 hours for a table on a Tuesday night - gives you an idea of how deservingly popular it is, not a great hardship when you can nip across for a pint to one of Camden's many bars.
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9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Thursday, January 28, 2010

This little Japanese restaurant turned out EXCELLENT, I’m really satisfied. My friend took me for my birthday dinner this Wednesday after a careful research on internet. I am actually a Japanese man living in London for 9 years but never been to this restaurant before, that’s maybe because of the exterior of restaurant being honest. Inside is still shabby too, but it just reminded me of good old local “Izakaya (where you mainly go for drink but can eat good food too, popular for middle aged businessman)” in Japan. Waiting staffs seemed a bit clueless as a manager looking man was controlling everything. It costed us about £70 for 2 persons at the end but we ate hell of a lot and thoroughly enjoyed them. My friend wanted to have Gyu no Tataki (seared beef carpaccio) and Nasu Dengaku (Aubergine with Miso paste), they both turned out heavenly. Other dishes are also consistently good. We had Deep fried Oysters covered with breadcrumb, Baby squids, Chiken hearts, Shinko-maki (pickled mooli rolled sushi), Tempura assort, Gyoza (thinner skin than Chinese ones), Ox tongue, Kamaboko (pasted and steamed fishcakes), as far as we remember (plus 4 bottles of beer). Customers seemed either geeky locals who know Japanese food better, ones with Japanese friends like us and Japanese businessmen. We booked a table in advance that thankfully was a good thinking as by 7pm on Wednesday they are fully booked. This restaurant is definitely not for someone who want fine dining, but to have/taste unpretentious authentic Japanese food. I will definitely go again and try that 3 Sake trial and Salmon head next time!!!
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Tea - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Friday, December 11, 2009

We've read mixed reviews (mostly good) about this place so decided to give it a try. Our evening didnt get off to a good start when we were seated downstairs, which had a musky smell, felt like were sitting next to a toilet - wasnt very pleasant.

Apart from the usual sushi/ sashimi, the menu had loads of other cooked dishes. We ordered Aubergine with Miso, grilled beef, tuna & salmon sashimi, chicken karage as well as several sushi and a mackeral dish.

Overall the food were delicious, especially the beef and Aubergine. The beef was cooked to perfection, tender with the right amount of sauce. This is the first time I've tried aubergine with miso - I was impressed, it had good texture and nicely marinaded in miso. The Salmon sashimi was particularly good, portions are generous with thick pieces and very fresh.

All that plus drinks came to about 25 quid. it was brilliant. I will definitely be coming back again.
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Jason
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, August 11, 2009

I cannot believe this place has such good reviews!!!

The food was terrible, rice burnt and out of the microwave, tempura...well 10 pieces of onion stuck together in greasy batter, too much horrible dressing in sashimi salad, I could go on...

The service was even worse. We had our table for 1.5 hours and were told (after 25 minutes from placing the order) that they cancelled our sushi order because their sushi chef is not coping with an amount of orders ahead of us and it will take at least an hour before he could start preparing our food by which time we would need to vacate our table. Very nice...However at the end I was actually happy that we did not try their sushi having seen the quality of sushi delivered to a table next to us – definitely not fresh fish on burnt rice.

So to summarise, definitely the worst Japanese dining experience.
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2 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 1
Friday, August 07, 2009

food is not bad - however i find there are better places for sushi/sashimi than Asakusa (e.g. sushi hiro). the hot food was better and yet I have tried better places still (eg. Kiraku). The very rude service ruined it all - we were some 15 minutes late and they refused to make us any sushi because 'it takes the chef 1 hour to make it and we need the table back in 1 hour 15 mins'. I won't be going back.
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SW
2 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 3
Saturday, March 14, 2009