Ichiryu

Japanese seems to be trending quite a bit in London recently.

Ramen, yakitori, izakaya and now udon.  Although do spare me the Japanese “tapas” offered at one joint…  It’s just the normal izakaya (pub) food…

So off we went to Ichiryu.

Hakata bun with BBQ pork.  You can’t see that well from the picture but the bun was smothered in mayo.  I have nothing against mayo but I prefer to taste the natural taste of my food.  This was an interesting fusion dish and I must commend the bun in particular for being very moist yet not soggy.

Kamatama, egg, spring onion, tempura pieces.  I love fried stuff more than the other guy but this unfortunately just seemed to lack something.  Like taste…  Although there was a sauce dip with the dish, it was the size of a little tea cup.  It just couldn’t put a dent in the comparative mountain of udon.

Prawn, Hakata toriten chicken and chikuwa fish cake tempura.  Lovely to behold, rather sodden inside.  It appears that they have committed the cardinal sin.  Using too much oil.  So much so that it tasted like eating wet oily cardboard.

Why call your food toriten chicken?  It’s like saying your food is chicken chicken.  Extra words don’t make your food taste better.  It makes it seem as though you don’t know how to count properly.

Niku beef.  This was a bit more like it.  A nice little light broth with shredded beef.  Probably the best dish of the meal – then again, that’s not that hard to achieve.  I do take objection to the name though.  Niku beef is some weird amalgamation of language. It translates to meat beef…

Buta shabu niku, cold udon with sesame sauce.  Thinly sliced pork which seem rather flaccid like it had been hanging out in the fridge too long.  The lettuce and tomato were likewise lacking in energy but it was the soup that did it for me.  A watery gruel which hinted at sometime greatness.  PLEASE don’t do this to sesame udon…

So a brave new idea, trying to start an udon craze in London.  Perhaps they thought to go the same way as cheeseburgers and ramen. Unfortunately, this time it seems that too many cooks spoil the broth.

A quiet eating 4/10.

Lunch was GBP15 excluding service and drinks.

Ichiryu
84 New Oxford St
London WC1A 1HB