Welcome to a new series I will be running sporadically in which I will review notable restaurants that I visit. This will mostly be in London, but will also likely feature places across the USA and Europe when I travel for work. Each review will be broken down into 6 categories.
Food
Drinks
Atmosphere
Service
Price
Location
In this first review i’ll be looking at Ichibuns in London, England. A Japanese/American fusion restaurant in the heart of Londons West End.
Food
The most important factor. The food. To begin with I had the Nikuman buns and my partner had the Chicken Karagee. For the mains we both had ‘The Ichibun Burger’ medium rare. We both agreed that the chicken karagee was by far the best item we had off the menu. A bundle of slightly spicy, crisps fried chicken, accompanied by a rich soy sauce. However on the opposite end the scale the Nikuman was not great. The bun was very dry and the filling also seemed devoid of sauce. The buns felt like uncooked dow filled with plain minced meat, which was disappointing. The main course was very decent. It was a little overcooked, a tad dry and bit dry, but the flavour was rich and varied. Covered in cheese, onion and burger sauce, it was a messy ordeal to eat… but I kind of liked it more for that reason.
Overall i’d score a 7/10 and my partner scored X/10
R – 7/10
J – 7/10
Drinks
I can’t really go into too much detail in regards to drinks as we didn’t feel like drinking, so we ordered a cookies & cream milk shake, a pink lemonade juice and a jug of water. The Milkshake was okay, it was loaded was sauce, cream and cookie pieces which sort of detracted from the fact that the milkshake itself was below average. The juice was decent, but nothing special.
R – 5/10
J – 9/10
Atmosphere
This is where Ichibuns picks up a lot of points. Ichibuns is a cool venue. It’s clearly had a tonne of thought put into the design and it feels like a place to be for ‘trendy’ people. The wall of the building are filled with arcade machines, so the place has quite a futuristic look. This is juxtaposed by the rustic feel of the building. Wooden paneling and slightly rusty looking pipes. The bathroom for example features taps that are literally just pipes with a release valve for the water. The roof of the building is covered in pages from manga, and the walls also feature classic Japanese folk masks. Ichibuns must lose points though for the fact that the music was so loud and pumping that it really stifled any conversation.
R – 7/10
J – 8/10
Service
The service was attentive… but way too much so. To begin with the experience started well. Our orders were taken and then we waited. We requested water but this did not arrive and had to be ordered again. Not a huge deal, but a little annoying. The thing that really brought down the service score for me is the constant picking up of used items from our table. This happened about 5 or 6 times. If I finished a sauce, a man would lean over me and take it away. Everytime anything was finished someone would interupt us to take it away. This made us A feel like we were being rushed out of the door and B just feel like we couldn’t enjoy a private conversation as there was a waiter hanging over us half the time.
R – 4/10
J – 4/10
Price
The meal wasn’t the most expensive in London, but for the total cost of the bill (£60), it didn’t feel like we actually ate that much food. It was average for the area and I can’t really complain too much about it.
R – 6/10
J – 5/10
Location
Located in the west end, it’s perfectly located for tourists or those enjoying a show or a comedy gig in central London. It’s easily accessible from several tube stops and on one of the most used streets in London. Can’t really ask for much more.
R – 9/10
J – 10/10
The overall experience was a positive one and I definitely will go back to Ichibuns at some point in the future, it just wasn’t enough for me to make it a must go to location the next time I see a show.
Overall
81/120
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