ZIZZI Restaurant, Chichester, West Sussex. UK

Hello! And a very warm welcome, to my blog.

Today I shall be reviewing a restaurant, somewhat closer to home.

ZIZZI

Location:

This Italian styled Restaurant is in the West Sussex cathedral city of Chichester.
If you know where the Argos store is, then it should be quite easy to find.
If however you do not know, then it is in South Street, which is one of the 4 streets from the central Chichester Cross.

When you walk near the end of South Street, there are quite a few Bars, Cafes and Restaurants to choose from, among all is Zizzi.

The front look from the street is very smart and clean.

The Interior/Decor:

The Bar space, with the stairs leading to the upper floor, and the "open" Kitchen and Pizza oven cooking area.

The interior space has a "homely" feeling to it, yet also with a light twist of modern. Cosy, slightly "Shabby Chic" chairs, combine well with the unusual black and white murals, which climb over the wall and ceiling.

We wait a few moments, and eventually we are warmly greeted by a server who sounds possibly Italian, and shown to our table. (There is an choice to dine on the upper floor, but that option was closed today).

The Menu:

A good selection of dishes, and some Seafood choices to choose from too.

The Pizza section has a nice range.

Oh! And there is a Tapas section also.

Chillies!!!:
The choices sound quite appealing to me, but it seems a lot of the main courses contain chillies,
(That might sound great to you, but i am not the worlds biggest fan of chilli peppers).
I just find that when chilli peppers are used the dish is either flaming hot, or seriously far beyond what should be humanly possible to eat hot.

But, today i shall reserve judgement until the food arrives. (Lets think positive!)

We place our order, and hope for something quite authentically Italian in some small way.

The food arrives:

First to arrive is the garlic bread. (£3.95)
(It comes on a slice of wood, which is a nice touch.
It smells of garlic butter, and the taste is great, it is nice and warm, crispy shell, soft on the middle, I can taste the sea salt and the herbs. Overall it tastes really good.

Next was the Pizza (from the Bambino/Child's menu). (£6.50)

It looks like a rustic style hand made Pizza, and the size was good for a child's portion.
The smell was good, but the amount of topping was slightly disappointing, as the way it was cut meant that some sections had no toppings on.
The young person who ate this Pizza commented that the chicken was too spicy for their taste buds.

(The kids menu has a meal option which comes with 4 dough sticks, a main course, and a dessert).

Here comes the Linguine ai Gamberi. (£11.95)

This looks like it might be quite good, there are plenty of King Prawns around and enough sauce and pasta.
The prawns are nice and succulent, but seem to lack sauce flavour. (must have been steamed separately).
The Linguine pasta tasted good, whilst the sauce had a slightly sour taste (under ripe UK tomatoes).

Now, at last here is the Squid ink Linguine. (£11.50)

There is a lot of Squid on the pasta, (looks good!).
Again, the portion size seems correct, the pasta is nicely coloured with the ink.
Unfortunately however some of the squid is on the chewy side, and they have only gone and used some chilli peppers! in the sauce. I think it was too spicy for a normal palate.
Such a shame because the Linguine pasta it's self tasted good, and was nicely cooked to al dente..

Dessert:
I must pass on the dessert today, and instead order a hot chocolate, and we order 2 scoops Vanilla ice-cream for our junior diner as part of the kids menu meal.

Personal rating system:
I find it very difficult to rate the food today, as some people might enjoy their food on the slightly spicy scale, whilst others can consume extremely hot dishes.
I can say from my own personal taste today i award an 8 out of 10
And for price: 7 out of 10

Would i return in the future?......Probably... but i would order a different dish.

Many thanks for reading my post!....

If you wish to contact/visit the restaurant Zizzi, here are some useful contact details you might need.

ZIZZI
43 South Street
Chichester
Telephone: 01243 839089
http://www.zizzi.co.uk/venue/index/chichester

Ordering some water with your meal in Portugal.

Water water everywhere.

When you ask your waiter/ess for water almost everyone these days thinks of bottled mineral water.

You may be asked sem gas?, or perhaps com gas?

Which i am sure you will gather is for still water or sparkling water. 

But, did you know about the others?

In Portugal for example, they will first ask fresca or natural.

They are simply asking which temperature you prefer to drink your water. It means cold or at room temperature, as most Portuguese, and some Europeans, also, now  prefer to drink room temperature water, whatever the weather.

If this appeals to you, ask for natural, and if like me you wish to drink cold water on a hot day go for the fresca option.

At some smaller eating places the other option would be to ask for some copo de aqua.

This is simply a glass of tap water, this would be the alternative option if you feel unable to finish a whole bottle of mineral water.

But unless you specify some ice, it will be served natural. (Room temperature)

I hope you are not too thirsty after reading this!

O Farnel, Freeport Retail Outlet, Alcochete, Portugal

Hello and welcome!.
Dear reader, i am still talking about food in and around Lisbon, Portugal.

Today, i will be reviewing another of their Restaurants,

O FARNEL.

Location:

This Restaurant is located in the Freeport Retail Outlet. Which is on the outskirts of the small town of Alcochete, Portugal.

To get there from Lisbon, it's a 20-30 minute taxi journey over the Vasco da Gama Bridge.

This is a view from the bridge (on the way back to Lisbon).
The clouds were dark, but luckily for us the rain was little.

We eventually arrived at the Freeport Shopping Outlet, (The largest outlet in Europe), for a spot of retail therapy, a different kind of trip away from the crowded Lisbon city streets.

After what seemed like days of going from shop to shop, with endless money off deals, amidst the designer named bargains, but far too many sales posters everywhere, it was soon time for a break for lunch. One of my favourite times of the day.

Tough Decision:
There were many different choices of places to eat, everything from some well known fast food chains, to fine dining style restaurants.
We fancied something more substantial than a burger in a bun, and eventually came across this restaurant. (It looked quite busy inside), so after looking through their menu (which was set up outside among others), it was quite a tough decision, but we decided  to visit O Farnel.

The Interior:
There are tables all around the room, with a bar/coffee station next to the far wall. There was also a "through way" to reach another restaurant (of a different name) in a large entrance in the wall.

The Decor:
The Decor was actually very nicely done, the theme was past times farming, with large pictures of farm workers, smiling and happy in the fields. There were quite a few old fashioned farming tools, among which were rakes, scythes, and hoe, all hanging on the walls.

Sometimes it is good to see a restaurant quite busy, it means that it is probably quite good, and the food should be at least OK. The down side of it being quite busy is the minimum attention that the waiting staff can give each table of customers.

The Menu:
The menu arrives and we are keen to try some traditional style Portuguese foods, and there seem to be one or two dishes spot our eye. They sound traditional, and pretty soon we order the main courses.

The Cost:
The cost seems reasonable compared to the other (same types only) restaurants in the area, although a little pricey compared to some in Lisbon.

We are soon given the appetizers (entradas) and some bread.
Today the entradas look particularly appealing.
There was a sardine pate, which tasted very good, a smoked picante choritzo style sausage which was also good, and then a small plate of chickpeas, they were tasty too. The cheese we did not try.

The entradas arrive.

Note:
In Portugal, (and in some other countries now, Venice for example), if you do try any of the entradas there will be a small charge on the bill, if you do not wish them, it is best to ask them to be removed before the ordered food arrives.

Oh! and soon enough, here come the main courses.

This is the lovely hearty bean stew.

 It is quite a large sized portion, which had both barlotti, and butter beans in. There may have been another type, they were hard to spot.
The dish tasted really good, and came with plain rice.

The Codfish Farnel.

This was presented very well, it had a large size of Cod, the salad was nicely dressed with enough dressing, and there were toasted almonds and potatoes around, and a slice of lemon.
The taste was very good, i could tell the fish it's self was fresh.
However, the amount of large rib cage bones found in the fish was disappointing. There were even some fin bones on the underside of the fish skin.

Fish Bones:
That seems such a shame to leave so many bones in a lovely piece of Cod for the customer to find.
In almost all restaurants in the UK as many rib bones as possible must be removed, this is all done in the preparation time that all chef's have before the restaurant opens for business.

Another solution could have been to cut the fish into Fillets, which eliminates almost all of these bones, and if the skin is to be served, it could have been crisped up and served as a garnish at the side of the plate, or on the top of the fish.

I would love to hear some other view points on this subject.

We have now come to the dessert.
We decide to pass dessert today, as it is soon time to head back to Lisbon, before it gets dark.

My personal review:
Taste of the food:  8 and 1/2 (Good, but not wow!)
Price: 7 (Seems high for their busy location)

I hope you enjoy my review.
Many thanks for reading.

If you wish to contact O Farnel direct, here are some useful contact details.

http://www.ofarnel.com
Freeport Alcochete 
Shop R S8, Avenida Euro 2004,
 2890-164 Alcochete 
Telephone : 212 342 652

Nicola, Restaurant, Lisbon, Portugal

Hello!.

Welcome to my posting!.

Today i shall be reviewing a restaurant in Lisbon, Portugal called:

NICOLA.

From the street view, this looks like a well established Restaurant.

We are around the busy downtown Baixa area, and starting to look for a spot of lunch, we found this enchanting looking place, so we decide to have a quick look inside.

Once inside, there is a long counter which has a large selection of desserts, and the usual coffee stations around. The aroma of fresh ground coffee is everywhere. The decor has a lovely retro 1920's feel about it. The waiters look really smart and move around swiftly. There is a choice to either be seated outside, indoors, or downstairs. We chose the latter, and is was a lot quieter away from the hustle bustle.

The Menu.
From what we could gather from the menu pricing, i think maybe the downstairs dining room, is best visited at night, but bring an empty stomach and your bulging wallet, as the portions are huge, but the pricing structure is on the high side.
The menu it's self is full of very appealing choices, but again limited by the high pricing.
There is a large range of drinks, from mineral water to champagne

We have gone for this Octopus and Clam dish.

The tenderness of the giant Octopus legs was incredible, so nice and tasty, the Clams were nice and fresh,  all with the lovely sauce, and roasted potatoes. Delicious!

The next dish we order is the seafood platter for 2.

Oh my god!.....It's enough for 4 adults!.

This seafood platter comes only if 2 people order it, which is a shame, because I think there was enough seafood on the tray for 4 hungry adults. The large Salmon steaks were enough for 2, with the other fish and other items enough for 2 more.

This is the portion for 1 person.

Even if I manage to finish this thick cut Salmon steak, i would still have 2 more whole, large fish, and other seafood, and yet more potatoes. Great news if it was dinner time, and i had all evening to dine, but i only came in for lunch.

Having said all that, the taste of the seafood was fabulous.

Dessert?.

They do have a good variety of desserts, and if nothing on the menu catches your eye, you are free to choose any of the patisseries or cakes from the counter upstairs, and dine downstairs.

But, today we pass, we are all quite full.

The service?.

I think i should point out the service we had during our time there, as it was super fast, and the waiter was very efficient and  friendly.

Well, now it's time for the large bill, and to bid farewell to Restaurant Nicola

Conclusion?........Very good food, but at lunch time only stay for a coffee.

My own personal rating system...(Marks out of 10).
Taste of the food.....9 and 1/2
The food tasted superb!
Price...3
High pricing, but, giant portions still only a 3

Not the place to go if you are travelling on a tight budget.
Because of that it might just be one of THE places in Lisbon "to be seen", but it comes at a cost

I wish you a safe journey, and i thank you for reading.

If you wish to contact Nicola direct, here is some useful information you might like.

NICOLA
Largo do Rossio,
Praca de Dom Pedro IV 24-25
Baixa,
Lisbon,
Portugal
Telephone +351 213 460 579

FlowerPower Food, Lisbon, Portugal

Hello again!.......

Yes, i am still posting info from my recent trip to Lisbon, Portugal.

Whilst out strolling around an area called Bairro Alto, we came across this Cafe-Restaurant,

 Looks fairly busy, so we decide to go in for a closer look

FlowerPower Food.

Unknown to me, this lovely cosy little Cafe-Restaurant is right next door to a well known Florists shop of the same name "FlowerPower".

Being typical tourists we did do some research into the main sights around the City, and the odd place to stay, but not for Florist shops!.

The location is almost unmissable from a tourist view point, as it is very close to the much photographed  Bica Funicular. And in a very busy area called Bairro Alto. And if that wasn't enough, all of the City Tour buses have stops within a few yards. Also, the famous Tram28 passes along past the front door. 

The Interior.

 When you take the steps inside the front door, the perfume from fresh flowers is fantastic, there were very large, artistic, floral displays around the room. The use of what look like shipping crates also adds great individuality to the fresh feeling of the layout. Seating is quite informally arranged, with the option for outdoor alfresco if you wish.

Note: More about the interior at the bottom of this post.

We are soon warmly greeted by the server and shown to our seats, it's by the window and we can observe the Tram28 pass bye, along with the busy flow of fellow tourists,and locals alike.

The Menu.

The menu arrives, (It's lunch time), and it offers a nice varied choice of items, everything from soups and salads, with a nice selection of drinks too, and they are far from expensive, the costs varied around  €5 for the main dishes, which offers very good value.
It is soon time for us to choose which dishes we would like to try.

This Salad with the Feta cheese sounded very appealing on the menu.

It's a good sized portion, and comes with a lovely, tasty dressing, and a sprinkling of fresh chopped parsley

The Couscous with Aubergine dish arrives.

This dish also has generous proportions of Couscous and plenty of nicely cooked Aubergine.

The herb salad is OK too.

.

The third dish was the fried Cod bolinhos, (Croquette style) dish.
There again was a generous portion of rice, the four Cod in mashed potato with herbs croquettes were very good indeed, had fresh fish, crispy shell and moist inner.

All too soon it was time to ask for the bill.

Dessert, i am sure would have been great, but we were very busy that day and had to rush off.

Interior Part 2
Whilst we were eating, we noticed that the room also has a small Mezzanine, with railings along, and occasionally, between two of the rails was the head of a Boxer dog looking relaxed and quiet.
 It belongs to the owners, who also own the Florist shop next door.
Before we leave we need to visit their bathroom, which is really nicely disguised as another large shipping crate, now that's different, and fun!.

Conclusion: Flower Power Food.........Very good!

My personal rating system: Taste of the food: 8 and 1/2
The food was very good, but needs a little more effort with the salad.

Price: 9 and 1/2
The price range was very affordable.

Thank you for reading!

I hope you enjoy your visit there as much as we did, and, if you wish to contact them directly, here are some helpful details:

Calcada do Combro, 2
Bairro Alto.
Lisbon,
Portugal.
Open: Mon-Sun 10:00 to 21:00. 
Telephone  + (351) 213 422 381

Confeitaria Nacional, Lisbon, Portugal

Lets try some cake!

Do you know which cake the Portuguese eat at Christmas?.

It is called BOLO-REI.

And this one, only this Patisserie store holds the 100 year old original recipe for this round cake.   

The price range off all of their items is very reasonable.

As you can see from the pictures, they also sell lots of other very appealing items, among which are also the well known PASTEIS DE NATA (Custard Tartlets).

  

These little Tartlets are delicious, and a MUST TRY! if going to Lisbon.

The pastry is sweet and crumbly, with a delicious egg style custard filling, the slightly darkened top adds an extra edge. (Really good with a cup of Coffee).

Inside the building its self, there are a few tables and chairs around to stay and enjoy, (very busy, they fill very quickly), or standing at the counter places.You may prefer going upstairs, they also sell the pastries, but they do sell a smaller selection of them, along with a choice of hot meals.

And from among the large selection.

This little yellow Mouse caught our eye.

The yellow shell was very crisp and sugar sweet, and the filling was a sponge with vanilla cream. The ears? Yes! They are almonds.
Tasty!....... but, super sweet!!.

This slice of Chocolate Cake was very good.

The cream was delicious and the sponge was moist, altogether with rich Chocolate, the taste was superb.

Oh! Here are 3 more we chose.

 (I did go there on different days, you know).

Two of these ones were delicious in their very own special ways....

We found this one had quite an extremely strong egg taste (like a Panna cotta, but with a large egg used somewhere in the recipe). But that was my personal taste, yours i am sure might be different.

Would i go back there again to buy more?........Yes Please!

A Word of caution:............One may lead to others!......Enjoy!

Conclusion:.......I thoroughly recommend a visit to this Patisserie place.

Ratings:.....My personal score for.... Taste of the food:......9

Lots of them are very sweet eaten on their own, but with a coffee?.....Delicious!

Price:.........9 

(Very low price range compared to the amount of work that must have gone into each item)

I thank you for reading!.

If you wish to visit their website it is:

 http://www.confeitarianacional.com/english/espe.html 

Confeitaria Nacional, Praca da Figueira, 18b, 

Lisboa, Portugal.

Ribadouro, Lisbon, Portugal

RIBADOURO.......?

Where, and what is Ribadouro?



It's a seafood speciality restaurant in the Portuguese city of Lisbon.

A seafood restaurant in Lisbon, well, there must be hundreds of them about, what would make this one stand out?.
Well!, it just so happens to be a specialist in the finest, fresh seafood, (at least the dinner menu does anyway, i suspect the lunch menu also).

There seems to be a very formal layout to this restaurant, which was not really the kind of dining i had in mind for this evening. Never mind!, The live lobsters in the fish tanks to the entrance of the restaurant were not complaining, so why should i?.

The inner dining room has a curved bar area on the bottom right, with a large curved seating area in the centre of the room, with the usual table and chair seating around the room.
Lighting in the room is very good, not too dark, and not too bright.

We are asked to be seated by our waiter, quite quickly (not very busy at the moment, i think it's because we are eating quite early). The waiter has speaks a few words of English, so were quite relaxed about ordering.

The menu arrives.
There is a great variety of seafood dishes on offer, some quite exotic and on the expensive side for our budget, some of the exotic Lobsters were around the €100, but their King Prawn dish is around €30.

Whilst we are looking at the menu, the waiter comes a platter of butters, cheese, i saw bread, and a dressed Crab, (we know already that if you decide to eat any of these items they will be charged onto your bill).

There were plenty of opportunities to order drinks from fine wines, other beverages, to just plain mineral water.

• The menu seems exclusively seafood related, and we seem drawn to our own kind of preferred dishes, we choose 3 items, which were: A shredded potato and  Cod, dish, (with onion, olives,cod of course, and shredded potatoes), which had a sprinkling of chopped parsley.

The shredded potato and cod dish.

This dish had more cod than it looks, as it was all under the shredded potato. The different tastes of the dish works really well, and the cod was cooked perfectly.

• 2 X Mariscos Mariniere, which was King Prawns with some Lobster meat in a thick, and creamy, (white wine, cream, onions, and eggs) sauce. .

The King Prawn dish comes with shallow fried bread toast.

The taste of the dish was really, very good, the prawns were cooked perfectly, the sauce was rich and had a good wine taste, with great  flavour, (i think they must have used some lobster and shells cooked in the sauce to give extra depth). As we found some lobster meat in the sauce.

We also ordered a portion of plain cooked basmati rice.

The waiter carefully portions each plate, using soup spoon and fork with good skill, to make the plate look like this.

The layout of the food was nicely presented, the aroma from the prawns was lovely.

Dessert?

Dessert was unfortunately out of the question, as the portions were on the large side of large, so with regret we will decline the offer this evening.

Coffee?

Drinking coffee so late at night is not to be advised for me, if one wishes to sleep well and awake refreshed the next day.

As we settle the bill, it seems to have become rather busier than when we first arrived.

Conclusion:  Ribadouro.......Wonderful Food!

I think i shall give a score for Taste of the Food:  9 and 1/2.

And the Price: 7 (A little bit high, but has large portions)

I do hope you enjoy my post, and I thank you for reading.

This seems like one of those restaurants that become very busy in the late evening, (which is normal for the local Portuguese in Lisbon, to eat quite late), it's fine for them, that seems fantastic, with their climate I would do the same. But when travelling with the younger generation who go to school, eating late is not an ideal option, so we tend to avoid dining too far beyond their usual bedtime, although bending a few limits on bedtime on holiday is OK on the rare occasion.

If you wish to contact the Restaurant directly:
http://www.cervejariaribadouro.pt/uk.html
Av. da Liberdade 155, Lisbon, Portugal

Restaurante O Cerveirense, Lisbon, Portugal



Where is this restaurant?............It is in Lisbon, Portugal.

Very good Traditional Portuguese food.

 Having just returned from a recent holiday there, I think that I should give a quick overview of the trip, if anyone was looking to go there anytime soon.

Here is the quick version of my Restaurant visit, (I will add a separate blog about the whole journey at a later date), please check back soon for updates.

Among the numerous other cafes, bars, restaurants, myself and my family happen to stumble upon this one whilst strolling along a fairly wide shopping avenue called Rua Nova do Almada, it's at No38.

The Restaurant its self is not very noticeable from the street, and certainly does not "stick out", from any of the others. But, once you try the food, I think, that it will be worth actually searching for it. 

Homemade Portuguese food is the main draw for this Restaurant, the menu offers  many items, it's not a huge amount, but the best must be their "dishes of the day".

Once inside it has a long bar on the left almost the length of the room, (it is possible to eat at the bar seated on a bar stool) the kitchen is at the bottom left. On the right hand side there are wooden tables and chairs for dining and at the bottom right there are steps to a lower basement dining area.

The place has a lovely "feel" to it with a large proportion of the diners looking like local Lisboans.

Within a minute we are shown to the table and have a chance to soak in the surroundings.

The walls have large tiled mosaics, and the female cooks can be clearly seen in the kitchen area busy preparing the different salads and dishes.

The Lunch menu arrives and there are some very appealing dishes, the prices are not expensive, but it's all in Portuguese, not knowing enough Portuguese, it's not so busy at the moment so we ask the friendly waiter if it's possible to explain one or two.

His colleague speaks very good English, and with his translation we choose. We decided to go for the duck with fried rice (Arroz do Pato), a mixed salad, and the (Carne de Porco e Ameijoas), the Pork with Clams dish. We normally just have bottles of still water, but there were many opportunities to try lots of drinks from alcoholic to coffee. 

The sounds of the plates going into the dishwashing machine, and the cutlery crashing all added to the ambience of the cosy atmosphere. It's for proper every day style food.

Soon enough the food arrives.

The salad looks ok, it's well seasoned and has some dressing on (there are bottles of olive oil and balsamic already on the table), if we needed more.

The duck in fried rice is here!.

The duck is very tasty and the rice is nicely cooked, it seems to have added flavours from baking in the oven, and the bacon adds something extra.

here also comes the Pork with Clams.

This is a different than average dish, combining clams with the pork cubes, the added touch of fresh chopped coriander goes together really well.

The pork is cooked well with a lovely sauce, I can taste some wine, the clams taste really fresh, together they taste delicious.

I only wish we had found this restaurant earlier into our Lisbon trip, I would have tried many more of their dishes, and desserts too.

Conclusion:....... Restaurante O Cerveirense.....Delicious!

My personal rating system gives (out of 10)

Taste of the food: 9

Price: 9

I do hope you find my comments useful in some small way.....

If you wish to contact the Restaurant directly, it is:

No38 Rua Nova do Almada.  Tel: 213433589 Lisboa, Portugal

Lisbon (lisboa), is a lovely destination for a winter holiday, perhaps I was very lucky with the weather, but out of a total of 6 days it did only rain for one afternoon. I was told it usually rains much more, but please do not let that put you off from going. Even if it does rain there are a few very, very large shopping malls, and of course lots of the other regular attractions, like museums, churches and the dozens of patisseries to help keep you fairly cosy, perhaps over coffee and cake.

One word!...........Ramen!!!

ITTENBARI......?

Two words!...........Tasty Ramen!!!

I don't know if you have ever tried to find some good, honest, traditional Japanese food in the UK, but when you do, the taste of a good one will come to your tongue like a "bolt from the blue" as to how tasty it actually is.

When compared to the amount of times I have had to face the anticipation of the requested Ramen dish from the menu to arrive, only for it to have something not quite right about it, either the noodle is the obviously "instant" type, or the broth is like water with some soy sauce thrown in, or the person adding the topping has misplaced their personal copy of the menu notes of what's actually supposed be in it.

So!.......when I first visit any Japanese style establishment, I always hope for at best an OK palatable bowl of......Soup!.

At first glance form the outside, it looks like the usual double cloth draped above the entrance one might expect from any Japanese Sushi place.

Going inside, the temperature is quite high and steamy. Also with the heat comes the smells and aroma from the very large pots boiling on the stove (over the counter), to your immediate left.

Once further inside, the server comes and tells you that this is a cash only restaurant and if you agree they quickly show you to your table.

The décor seems on the "minimalist" style, with simple chairs and tables, good thing there seem to be enough servers about, and they all look fairly happy, although not very Japanese looking, in fact the only one that looked quite Japanese was dressed as a chef and was one of them who later actually brought one of the bowls of ramen to our table.

At first glance around it seems on the small side, (makes me think it's not very authentic, or not very busy and can not afford to upgrade to larger premises), these are my own personal initial thoughts before being seated, but later on it became quite busy, so that was a relief.

Once the actual menu comes lets hope what arrives looks like the pictures, now between which to choose?. They have a choice of 3, between Shoyu and Miso, with a Tonkatsu unavailable at the moment

Yes!......They do offer the other items like the Gyoza, amongst other items, and of course the obligatory Sushi. Where would we be without some Sushi.

I chose the Shoyu, oh!, and I have gone for the 'deluxe' size, (£10.90) and why not some Gyoza for an appetiser before the ramen arrives. It's cold outside, so I will try their Barley tea...... The drink called Calpico I have never tried before, so I will try today. It tasted quite nice, it's very  refreshing although perhaps more for a hot sunny day.

 

When the bowl arrives it really looks promising with the "look" of authentic ramen, all is well at first impression, it even has the correct ladle, (which some places just give a tablespoon!).

The smell drifting up from the bowl smells really good, if it's going to taste anything like it smells I will be really happy.
The bowl is fairly large and although it's not quite full to the brim, it does hold a lot of ingredients and plenty of broth.

There are 3 slices of roast pork. The toppings look correct with the right amount, (too many and the broth, well, there just wouldn't be enough).

It's all looking good!.....I'm going to taste!

Oooooh!................ Wow!............The flavours!......... Now at last, that's a very very good one. At least my search was not in vain. the UK actually has at least 1 very good Japanese ramen house. I have tried a few others, which I will write about at some point.

All too soon the bowl is empty. I can't wait for my next visit.

Yes! the bill does arrive way before your actually finished your meal, but that's probably because the building inside is relatively small,(although they do have seating upstairs too), and they don't have the spare table space for people who stay and chat long after finishing their meal.

It does seem to get very busy at times, with a lot of Asian also frequenting, which is a sign (in my mind), of a good noodle house.

Some of the other items on the menu, well, they may not be the main reason why you would go looking for Ittenbari, but I most definitely highly recommend the delicious ramen.

Conclusion:....... ITTENBARI......Yum!

My personal rating system gives (out of 10)

Taste of the Ramen: 9

Price 9

When you find a good ramen all of the other points won't really matter too much apart from cleanliness.

ITTENBARI
84 Brewer Street
London
W1F 9UB

Tel. 020 7287 1318

www.ittenbari.co.uk  info@ittenbari.co.uk

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