Asakusa

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
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 3
Saturday, March 14, 2009

I love this place! The food is great, the atmosphere is very relaxed and informal, and the it is extremely good value for money.

The food is very authentic Japanese. Nothing fancy but very tasty. The sushi and sashimi is always very fresh and presented well, and the rice is always nicely cooked. Portions are generous and I often find myself rolling out of the place having eaten for too much.

The service is very attentive and always with a smile. Food always arrives quickly too. My only niggle is that there is sometimes a wait for sushi, but only because it is so popular.

Overall, a brilliant place to eat!
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Lee
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, January 05, 2009

After spending more than an hour checking reviews and googling for izakaya and yakitori restaurants in London i grabbed a few friends and headed to Asakusa. We were not disappointed. Great, extensive traditional menu. The prices are very reasonable as well. If you are familiar with izakaya atmosphere then you'll love this place. If not, then you should know that the items on the menu are meant to be shared among a group of people and accompanied by drinks. Don't worry about ordering everything all at once, just order a few dishes at a time and keep going as long as the beer or sake allows.

Baby squids in ginger sauce were fantastic, deep fried aubergine and prawn was delightful, can't go wrong with tsukune or gyoza, freshest and tastiest seaweed salad i've ever had. Our bill came to £56 for four people and we all left satisfied and a bit tipsy. Great food, good drink prices, great value, highly recommended. My only complaint is the 12% service charge as im not fond of included service charges. The service is decent, but 10% would be fair I think.
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Makana
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Sunday, November 23, 2008

Just had a fantastic meal at Asakusa tonight. The food was fresh, tasty and reasonably priced. We enjoyed some stranger items (off the menu) too such as grilled chicken hearts + gizzards, scallop sashimi, grilled salmon head, steamed whole garlic bulbs, etc. The staff were attentive and courteous. We ordered so much the food just kept coming endlessly. Together with sake + ice cream it all came up to just £20 each. A real gem in central London! Will be back soon...
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Me
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Thursday, October 30, 2008

I love this place, it's by far the best Japaese food ive had in London.

Sushi is great and really fresh, as is the tempura - crunchy and not greasy. The winner for me is the roast Aubergine & prawn starter in special sauce....INCREDIBLE! Essential starter. Be cautious with the seaweed salad - its is actual seaweed (not just the fried cabbage stuff us brits are probably used to!) which wan't my cup of tea, but that's why this place is authentic.

Book ahead and get a table upstairs, as downstair decor is bit rougher. Great value for money, hard to find food this good at these prcies. We shared quite a few dished until stuffed, plus a bottle of wine, and it was about £40.

Highly recommended.
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KL
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, October 23, 2008

We managed to get an early reservation at 6.45 on a Thursday, (we had tried to get in on a Tuesday night before thinking that we would be fine since it was a week night and it was early but it had been fully booked before so we were anxious to go back).

We arrived just in time as the place was packed (with lots of Japanese people too). We were told when we booked that we only had the table at 8pm which was fine but we were never rushed by the staff which was nice even tho we were running a couple of minutes late. Staff were very attentive, friendly, smiley and helpful in suggesting our menu.

It is a small restaurant with tables close together but I love the decor of this restaurant, it looks very authentic with lots of Japanese menus and memorabilia.

Food was delicious, we had miso soup to start, followed by vegetable dumplings with a citrusy chilli sauce, then a very good fresh tasting chicken katsu with a nice salad, rice and pickles, followed by a beef teryaki (steak cooked perfectly to order) in a wonderful sauce with bean sprouts and pickles. The sushi looked really nice and will definitely go back to try some of that next time.

We had 2 beers (Sapporo and Asahi, they also have Kirin and others lus wine etc) and the bill came to just over £30, really good value!!
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Annie - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Friday, October 17, 2008

I have been a big fan of this restaurant for years. The food is excellent and probably the best Sushi I've eaten in London.

Unfortunately we booked to go last night. They could only squeeze us in downstairs as it was busy, but when we got down there the smell was terrible. We couldn't stay to eat there and had to go to another restaurant.

This is problem they really need to sort out if they're to maintain their popularity with Sushi fans. Until the downstairs dining area and toilets are sorted, make sure you get a table upstairs!!
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Caroline
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Friday, September 26, 2008

Went last week for a meal before seeing a show at Koko. The place looks a little dingy but the food was great. The service was quite slow as there only seemed to be two or three wait staff in the entire restaurant.

The sashimi was great - get the salmon!

Overall a really good dining experience. By far the best Japanese I have had in London - without busting the budget. All up it came to about £15 each.

It seemed to get very busy after 8pm so make sure you make a reservation.
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chris
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, September 09, 2008

We went twice last week. The food is OK when you can get it!

On our first visit they forgot to bring our dumplings, which was no big deal as they were an afterthought brought on by greed, but the next night, they did not bring my entire order!

The waitresses speak only limited English so asking where my order was took forever. (I also had to do a DIY JD and coke as the waitress could not understand what I was asking for) When I finally got an answer, I was told that there would be no more sashimi and if I wanted to replace my order for sushi, it would take a while as I would need to go to the back of the queue.

It's very cheap which makes it fantastic value, but for that you cant expect the food to be great, it's tasty but a number of our dishes came overcooked, and clearly at that price you ahve to compromise on service too.

I would not go back, it was a ruined evening and I left hungry.
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Louisa
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 6
Tuesday, September 02, 2008

I have read numerous good reviews for Asakusa so decided to host my celebration here. The food is good. The dishes are nice. The staff are friendly and quick to serve. However, it's the decoration (especially in the basement) that I am not really fond of. It also smells quite bad in the toilets. Avoid them unless you are desperate!
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Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Thursday, July 17, 2008