Ten Ten Tei

I was just disappointed with their attitude. Although they came to clear our table many times, they tried to remove unfinished dishes and beers. Not only once by mistake, 4-5 times!!! Nobody was queuing to have a seat. They were not closing yet and we were not only customers.

Although somebody reviewed they could not understand his English, they were not listening to my Japanese as well. Just they do not know how to service.

Taste was nice as this price. However, I seriously recommend other Japanese restaurants.
Comment on this reader review

Akio
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 5
Sunday, February 22, 2009

This restaurant was recommended to me by several people and the good reviews I read encouraged me to go there with 6 friends.

We were very disappointed. Some of the Sashimi - particularly the Mackerel could have been fresher. The Tempura was a bit soggy. We had a guessing game with some meat, trying to decide if it was Pork or Chicken. There were not enough actual Sake flasks to go around the whole table. The ones they did have were chipped. I would not return.

In all fairness I should mention that the service was very good.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 3
Thursday, January 29, 2009

We are not Japanese, but since we found Ten Ten Tei while shopping in Soho, we have made it a regular stop on our shopping trips there. The green tea is filled up regularly. The food arrives quickly, is always fresh, there is often a wonderful surprise - perhaps a bit of eel, or terrific seaweed over ice.. and at an astonishing price. The few staff are very friendly and efficient, and are happy to welcome new arrivals and recognise old customers. I guarantee you will feel great after a meal here - it's not just food for the body, the spirit lifts too.

Please, Ten ten tie fans , let's not shout out too loud how wonderful this place is. Its cosy, neighbourhood quality (the boss gave my husband a short back massage!) wouldn't survive an onslaught from London foodies... although the excellence of the food, its price and the warmth of the welcome well deserves it.
Comment on this reader review

Ruth & Ken
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Saturday, January 10, 2009

Being originally from Japan, i always looking for places that remind me of home. and ten ten is the one!!!

I grew up in outskirts of Tokyo. and this is the type of place you would find in the suburbs.. Normally even smaller than ten ten but food, atmoshphere is very similar.

The value for money compared to other london places is fantastic..

sashimi very fresh and good cuts (quality). I have been comig here now for about 4 years... and will continue to.

If you want thje fancy infused western/japanese food and want to pay top dollar then by all means eat at nobu/zuma/sumosan etc.. they are amazing places to eat, but it is not authentic and nor value for money..

I wouldnt take clients to Ten ten tei, i would take them to the other places mentioned. However, i take my friends and family to ten ten. that should tell you enough in itself.
Comment on this reader review

Kenji
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Saturday, November 29, 2008

I love this place. I eat there all the time and went again last night. Having read some of the reviews i must admit the decor may put some people off but i find it authentic and I'm only really interested in the food. The sushi is great - amazingly fresh and well prepared. Not too pricey either. If you like sushi i'd definitely recommend it.
Comment on this reader review

Chris
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Friday, August 22, 2008

I have been to this place quite a few times and have never had a bad experience. As most of the other reviews state, this is definitely not a posh restaurant but it is a decent place to go for a quick lunch/dinner if you are in the area.

I have eaten in numerous Japanese restaurants in the UK and Japan (my Mum being Japanese) and this place does the job if I fancy some unpretentious Japanese food.
Comment on this reader review

J
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Good value for value restaurant, sushi/sashimi tastes great and obviously extremely fresh, but I thought our rice dish was VERY bland indeed. We got rice with prawn tempura. A definite no, no.

As described, the decor is not great, but that's fine as we read the reviews online and knew what to expect.

Very authentic tasting Japanese food, with Japanese customers!
Comment on this reader review

FoodJunkie - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 6
Friday, July 18, 2008

I used to go to Ten Ten Tei a lot when I lived in the area and the food was consistently good. I was in the area and decided to pop in for dinner there two nights ago with a friend. Maybe they were having an off day, but based on our experience, I would say the standards have most definitely slipped.

The seaweed salad came over ice with clingfilm between the ice and the seaweed - small criticism but the clingfilm was all wrinkled and jagged around the edges - it really felt like something you might do at home, and not for guests!

My oyako don was the worst I've ever had (and I've lived in Japan for 2 years so I've had a fair few). It reminded me of bad school dinners and tasted entirely of chicken stock cube. Again the presentation was terrible - just a white bowl of rice with a too-liquid slop dollopped over it. I couldn't eat half the chicken as it was bone and gristle. It tasted as if it cost about 20p to make. Such a shame, as this dish, done well, is a joy to eat. On the plus side, the miso aubergine was just fantastic.

All in all the place felt a little grotty - for example, there was just a small bar of soap to wash hands in the bathroom - do you really want to share a bar of soap with strangers in a restaurant?

The prices are reasonable, but not low enough to justify such horrible oyako don and shoddy decor. The fabulous Kyoto Sushi is nearby - I would recommend going there instead.
Comment on this reader review

Douglas Hauser
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 3
Wednesday, July 02, 2008

I read the reviews on this site, looking for a sushi restaurant since I was going through a sushi phase, so i thought i'd try this place out because the recomendations for the sashimi seemed to stand out on this website and the price for two full stomachs, I was guessing, might be around a£20, so I dragged my friend down there.

We got there at 2pm only to be told that they were closed and that they wouldn't open till 5pm, so we decided to come back later because I had read such good reviews. I think they open from 12 - 2pm then later at 5pm till evening but check. I saw asian diners eating there, so for me that is always a good sign that the food should be of good standard.

The place is not fancy, It's painted old buttermilk yellow, and you can see from the layout that it used to be an old fish and chip shop/cafe, they still have the hoods at the front where once would have been the savaloys, pies and fried fish, but now they use it to display the fresh fish that they use to make the sashimi and sushi, but I came to try the food so the decor didn't bother me, infact I found it interesting.

They give you a menu which is several pages long, separated into different sections ie, sushi dishes, sashimi dishes, noodle dishes etc etc however I did find it a littledifficult to try and figure out what the ingredients were in the dishes so we tried the sashimi and sushi selection which was £18 for 16 mixed pieces of sushi and sashimi (mackrel,salmon, prawn, white fish).

The sashimi was gorgeous, really fresh and sweet, really nice and I thoroughly recomend it. The sushi was also equally as good and both are made freshly buy the chef who stands at the front of the cafe making them.

We were still hungry so we decided to to have order what we thought was prawns and rice, but it was prawn tempura, which was not nice and not worth the price, you got 4 prawns in oily greasy batter and a taste of oil in your mouth - this cost around £9. I also had some miso soup. Our total bill was about £34 with two soft drinks, which was a bit of a shock just for some shushi and four prawns, a coke and miso soup, so we were a bit dissappointed about that.

I didnt really know what I to order, so I did ask for some help from the staff to recomend some popular dishes that we could try, as we were hungry, but I dont think they understood us and consequently we probably ordered the wrong things. We felt that the whole experience was not value for money and we may have had a better deal if we had turned up for a set lunch, but I may come back and give this place another go, if only for the delicious sashimi.
Comment on this reader review

Miss Fussy
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, June 25, 2008

I have been to TenTen a few times, and there has always been great food.

I usually go at lunchtimes. £8-10 for a set lunch and it fills you up. I would definately go there again.

Unlike, most 'budding' food critics here, I find the decor to be a little simplistic, but it's cosy and cute. You're not eating the decor, so it would be nice to see a little open-mindedness from you.
Comment on this reader review

Yin
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Saturday, June 07, 2008