Inshoku

Friend and I stopped by here figuring it would be a quick and easy way to spend the time before a show in the Old Vic Tunnels. She got the £7 chicken yakisoba bento and I opted for £5.80 mackerel — so the prices really can’t be faulted.
But the service was slow (there was hardly anyone there on a Friday night), the bento arrived BEFORE the miso and drinks, and the quality of the food was probably the worst I’ve had in London this year. Just bland and unsatisfying. Even the pickled veggies tasted off and the dessert orange was watery. And the menu is a confused scatter of varying Asian foods. Wouldn’t recommend, although it wasn’t as if it was an unfriendly place — just a lackluster experience.

I was debating between a two star or a one star… I mean. my parents used to run a restaurant and printed their own menu on a piece of paper, and cooked their own food in the back. The entire thing was very poorly run and it eventually shut down, and this place reminded me of that.
When you walk in, you are greeted by an Asian woman with poor English who seats you. There’s one server, likely the mother of the woman at the front, who takes your orders, and then there’s one guy in the kitchen making the food.
The menu is pretty poorly made with mistakes all over it. I can’t even explain how complicatedly messed up it is in a few words. First off, the dishes on there are not explained. What’s the difference between plain curry and chicken curry? is one vegetarian? Is there a difference between Kimchi Ramen found in the main menu and Kimuchi Ramen found in the set menu? Maybe it’s a typo… but the takeout menu also says kimuchi? The main menu says Chicken katsu with curry sauce, but the set menu just says chicken katsu, does the set menu not come with curry sauce? Set menu A comes with rice and soup, set menu B only comes with soup. Beef donburi is in set menu A while Chicken donburi is in set menu B, so does beef donburi not come with rice?! Shouldn’t all donburis come with rice?
The bento box lunch is 7 pounds and gives you a list of entrée food, and says it comes with miso soup. What’s in the bento? Doesn’t say on the menu — but i ordered the chicken katsu bento anyway and here is what it consists of:
— a very TINY portion of deep fried chicken
— a small portion of white rice
— a lot of lettuce without any dressing
— sweet and sour sauce (NOTE: DOES NOT COME WITH CURRY)
— some fruits
I think the bento boxes is actually a huge mistake – but what do I know, because I saw a guy eating a plate of beef teriyaki with a bowl of rice, and that also came with small portion of beef and a large side lettuce WITHOUT DRESSING.
Oh and service is slow, and you have to pay at the front.
Is it really that hard to find good japanese food in London?

I went in for dinner just now after reading the reviews on Unilocal and I wasn’t very impressed. I had the miso soup (was fine – same as everywhere else), the dumplings, which I wasn’t very impressed with, and the chicken yakisoba, which I thought was average. There was one other table of four that arrived after I ordered, and no one else in the restaurant, yet it took about 30 minutes for my Yakisoba, which I think most people know takes about 5 minutes to make, tops.
They did have a projector and turned it on to the world cup at my request, and the seemed nice, so they get points for those things.

As I work in Southwark I often go here for lunch, this is one of the better Japanese restaurants in the area. There is a big menu with lots of variety.
This restaurant is not expensive and the service is fast and efficient. The food is really good. It’s not very big, but at lunch time gets quite packed.
There is nothing better than getting mints when you pay :) but at Inshoku you also get jellybabies.

The food that everyone got (eventually) was fine. I had miso ramen, which was alright. The noodles did feel that they were a bit cheap and like nearly every bowl of ramen that I have had in the UK, there was far too many vegetables.
The major gripe was the terrible service which seemed down to a lack of staff and an inefficient kitchen. The staff themselves were friendly, but it took an age to get our food. The first thing that came was something we hadn’t ordered, then everything else came out intermittently. This meant that one guy in out party got his food about 10 minutes after everyone else had finished. Such a shame. It seemed that this was the case with about 4 different parties of people around the restaurant.

My quest for London ramen does not stop, even during a heat wave! I visited Inshoku today for a kimchi ramen and a piece of saba to round it off. I really enjoyed the ramen – will definitely be back to try it again. The saba was good as well.
The only problem is that it was 30 degrees outside and they had chosen not to turn on the AC or give me cold water or wipe my brow. I’m going to re-​review once it cools down outside and hopefully they will move up to a 4 star as they probably deserve.

This restaurant should have everything. Slightly austere, it nevertheless is clean and nicely laid out. The prices are reasonable, with individual sushi items at around £1.50 and mains (such as Singapore Noodles) at around £7.00 or cheaper. There is an extensive menu with both Chinese and Japanese options (sushi, sashimi, bento boxes and noodle and rice dishes), and the restaurant is fully licenced.
I was greeted by the staff in a friendly manner, and pointed to the large table we’d reserved (as there were potentially twelve of us.) Then things started going wrong.
Although only three of us were there at that point we were peckish and thirsty; we had to go up to the cash register area to get someone to help us — they were all too busy chatting amongst themselves.
When the rest of our group arrived, we once again had to walk to the front of the restaurant to get service. We ordered, and then waited. And waited.
Twenty minutes later, a waitress informs us that they’d run out of sushi rice, and they’d not made anything else we’d ordered. With no apology. We told her to forget it; she tried to argue with us.
Eventually, we paid just for the drinks and the two small plates of sushi we’d ordered and eaten an hour previously.
When we walked out, the man I presume was the manager told us he hoped we enjoyed our meal; he was totally oblivious to the disaster that was our visit.
Not recommended. At all.

A good unpretentious little Japanese restaurant that looks nothing like your modern sushi bar. The menu is long and extensive, the service friendly and quick, and the food delicious. I went there for a friend’s birthday and the staff dealt with the 20-​strong table well, even offering free saki. Korean and Malaysian food is also on offer. The informality of the restaurant makes it a great lunch spot.

I think I’ve reviewed about a million Japanese places on Unilocal but it’s definitely my preferred cuisine and coming from Glasgow (the land of no variety!) and now living in London (the land of SO much variety!), I really feel like I’m always spoilt for choice.
This little Japanese café is a great little find. I was pretty hungry one day and just came here on a whim as I was visiting a friend in the area. It’s not «big and shiny» like some of London’s big ramen bars and Japanese restaurants, it’s really homely and feels family run. The food here is great, it feels really authentic and the sushi is really great, the rice and the fish, everything, just melts in your mouth!
I love this little place, it’s just a shame there’s not one like this closer to my flat, I’d be in there all the time!