Back from a fun day in London

[karohemd]

This morning, various things went wrong. First my alarm didn't go off, then my shower broke (fixable but it took me while) which made me skip breakfast and then my bus didn't turn up for half an hour. I just managed to hop onto the train before it departed. At King's Cross it took me half an hour to get from the platform to the tube and finally I completely lost my bearings around Leicester Square until I finally found the Karaoke Box where raggedy_man's party was already in full swing.
Karaoke was a lot of fun and I took the system's bass speakers to their limits (they had Lee Marvin's Wandrin' Star which is pretty much the only song in my tonal range) an I learned that liking a song doesn't necessarily mean I can actually sing it but it was all good fun and I didn't feel embarrassed at all. Shame there wasn't any Rammstein and Tom Waits.
The lovely guy at the place even let us overrun by 15 minutes for free so it well past 3:30 when we emerged blinking onto the street.

We were a bit peckish so found a tea room where we had tea, coffee, cakes and sandwiches and chats.

After a bit of shopping at a metal shirt shop and Forbidden Planet we had the all-you-can-eat buffet at Hi Sushi which was really nice and actually more than we could eat. We ended the evening with a couple of drinks at Garlic&Shots and then took the train back to Cambridge.

Comments

[fractalgeek.livejournal.com]

The reviewers were quite sniffy at Hi Sushi Izakawa - worth a trip?

[pinkapplejam.livejournal.com]

(Izakaya? Sit-down bar?)

Personally, I've always enjoyed my visits; friendly staff, lots of food and soft rice (not crappy chewy rice like you get in some bars), huge variety of menu, as authentic as I have experienced on UK shores.

Sorry for butting in lol XD

[pinkapplejam.livejournal.com]

Ahh it was cooooooooool :DDD

Next time we shall try Tokyo Diner, I recommend that too!!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

We were at the one in Frith St.
When you take the buffet, the selection of sushi is a bit limited but there's a lot, the teriyaki and tempura as well as the ramen where really tasty and they've got wonderful tofu, too.
For 16.30 (17.30 with the noodle option) per head certainly good value for money.

Izakaya

[fractalgeek.livejournal.com]

You're quite right - I'll go to the back of the class.... Having now sussed the Za is not the za of "za-seki" (same Kanji) but is the I of "I - Saka - Ya", I won't now forget.
And I've learned a couple of new ON readings.

FYI: My current favourite Japanese Restaurant - Tajima Tei, which reminds me in some ways of how the original Ikkyu was. Quite often, everyone else in there is Japanese. Really good fish for London.

PS - Hajimemashite. Dozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

Re: Izakaya

[pinkapplejam.livejournal.com]

Nice one, I will keep an eye out for Tajima-Tei! :D

Have you tried Teppanyaki? There's a nice restaurant I went to once, but I can't remember the name of it. I will research...

Re: Izakaya

[fractalgeek.livejournal.com]

I quite like Teppanyaki, but I rarely get to go - my SO is veggie, and the whole "flip a shrimp past your face, etc" show leaves her cold. We quite often go to not-quite-authentic places (eg Inshoku behind Waterloo) where Bonito Dashi is not considered a vegetable - it made travelling around Japan interesting.

OTOH, if someone says "let's go and arrange a meal at X", then my arm is very easily twisted....

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I just checked the website (http://www.tokyodiner.com), TD is open from 12 to midnight. I think I got mixed up with their reservation policy (none for lunch but there is for dinner).