ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon 12: Kineya Mugimaru

For reasons that felt somewhat outside of our control, there has been a bit of a gap since our last gyudon so we have been stuck on 11^[1]. As we are not aiming to be Spinal Tap, I did not want this to be the case.

The last eighteen months or so has seen a fairly large hit to the restaurant sector in London and we have not always been allowed to go to restaurants in that time. Even so, the project was still something that I thought of “finishing” with the one that would take us to twelve. I would finish something that I had started.

As it happens, on my walks around the area, I do, of course, still keep an eye out for interesting eateries and was recently made aware of Kineya Udon - though due to the udon part rather than the gyudon part - opening relatively nearby in St Pancras Station. I used to work around here and knew that there were a few things around here but I was very much drawn to the station based noodles concept. I may have mentioned my romanticised view of “tachisoba” and this was pretty damn close. I went there for the udon^[2] and was a) very happy with the nostalgic taste and b) made aware of GYUDON. Actual gyudon^[3]. I messaged Paul and told him that it was back on^[4] and we organised a time.

St Pancras Station is beautiful from outside the front-facing on to Euston Road (or whatever it is called at that point) is wonderfully ornate with the interior being refurbished to a lovely standard. The back end of the station is modern, and designed to be a juxtaposition from the front and I think it works very well. As Eurostar comes into St Pancras, there are quite a few decent amenities and fairly good quick food options in a light and breezy environment. Kineya Udon is at the rear of the station near the domestic platforms but also fairly near the exit to Kings Cross station so it is fairly easy to get to.

The ordering method befits both an udon place and a train station as you do order and pay before sitting. There are two touchscreen menus from which you can order part of your meal - you select and are given a receipt to hand to the cashier. Rather oddly, in my opinion, you can order the bulk of your meal but you pick up options after ordering from the screen, so for example, if you want a korokke, you cannot order at the menu, you have to pick up later from the freshly fried section in the style of a canteen. As would be entirely appropriate, we ordered a gyudon each, a zaru udon to share and some tempura bits and bobs. As an exercise in nostalgia, we also got some fried chicken pieces.

As ever, we started on some of the sides and I knew what to expect with the udon. Zaru udon is pretty simple/basic and so you do have to get that right - you cannot rescue it with sauce. And they do get it right here, with a simple sauce and nice noodles. As expected, this was good and being able to add sesame is always a winner. The tempura was fine although nothing special but entirely in keeping with the concept. The chicken was very “convenience store” style which I was not a fan of but Paul was very happy with. Again, probably more as an exercise in nostalgia than taste! The pieces were fairly oily and tasted kind of unhealthy - again that would definitely hit the spot for a lot of people.

Although it had not been the whole pandemic time that I had not had gyudon, this was still pretty highly anticipated by me although there was something that made me think that it might be that good. It looked quite good with an egg included in the bowl and quite a liberal sprinkling of spring onion. The taste, however, was quite plain. I struggle to even remember the taste in all honesty and it did not taste particularly of gyudon. The beef was a little thicker than ideal and was not marinated sufficiently for my taste. The biggest indicator was how the rice stayed very white with little flavouring coming from the topping - it stayed unseeped. The portions were a decent enough size so we were quite satisfied in terms of the volume but the taste had let me down.

Kineya Mugimaru is yet another place where the food is generally good but the gyudon is not up to the standard that I want. I have been back to Kineya and will go again for the noodles but the gyudon search continues [Gyud]on and on.

It is also worth mentioning that there appears to be a branch in Cambridge so this one has spread outside London!

Cost of gyudon: £9.60

Kineya Mugimaru
Unit 27B, The Circle, St Pancras Station, London N1C 4QP

<sup>1. And when we started, I thought 12 would be the last gyudon -being a monthly idea for a year but I am not the best at this regularity stuff.↩
2. It is worth pointing out that I came across Marugame Udon not long after this which opened in 2021 near Liverpool Street Station. It takes this udon concept and pushes it further into a large restaurant. It is very good and a hearty recommend from me.↩
3. As it happens, I then found a couple more places within the next few days that had gyudon in the Holloway area - there seems to have been some gyudon growth in the last year or so.↩
4. “Like Fat Pat’s thong” ©The Thick Of It↩</sup>

ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon 11: Shinobi Sushi

There has been a bit of a gap since the last LondonGyudon (10) post but in that gap, I have eaten some gyudon. Firstly, I have taken the opportunity to return to Shitamachi Ramen and enjoyed a little more of their gyudon. Secondly, I had a short break in Japan with visits to both Matsuya and Yoshinoya in Tokyo^[1] which have been labelled as a LondonGyudon (0) post. I'm not sure if these have recalibrated or reset my tongue to the tastes to expect but it does mean I've had some tasty food in the interim.

I noticed Shinobi Sushi as I was walking home from Archway fairly recently and told Paul about it. Actually, I have noticed a few more places offering gyudon over the last year or so but often they are not shown properly online. Anyway, this was space I had walked past many time and has changed hands (and cuisine types) many times over the last decade or so and seemed better utilised as a fast-food space than a restaurant. There were seats but it had the ambience of a delivery kitchen with some seats. As the name suggests, the menu was largely based around the sushi offering and it feels like it is well placed to be a sushi delivery service in the North London area.
Walking in on a Tuesday evening, the pale wooden flooring was utilitarian and there was a distinct lack of custom. I had eaten here before on my own and it was not particularly busy then but there were quite a few deliveries taken by scooter riders so I knew it was fairly popular. That continued to be the case on this evening too. We sat and took the menus^[2] to see what was on offer. We ordered the gyudon but also added vegetable gyoza and some uramaki (inside out rolls - rice on the outside) and waited.

We did not have to wait long for the food to arrive and it all came together too. We started with the “sides”. The gyoza was not as expected with the dumplings themselves being softer than expected. I like gyoza that are asymmetrically fried to have a soft side and a crispy side but this was soft all the way around. The sauce provided was also atypical in the sense that it was sweet chilli - something that is not really considered “Japanese”. The taste of them was alright but it wasn’t gyoza as I would think of them. The uramaki was salmon and avocado with a healthy amount of ginger and wasabi to garnish. The uramaki was pretty good as it was well constructed and stayed as a single piece. The fish was nice and went well with the avocado. As expected, the sushi was fairly decent and I can see that this was probably the focus. So, onto the gyudon. As a result of the previous food and the decor, I was not expecting a particularly Japanese gyudon and in this sense, I was not disappointed. I was, however, disappointed with the gyudon and the taste of it. The bowl already had some bright red ginger added and this did give a spike to the taste but it was a heavy bowl of beef. The oily beef glistened and was fairly chunky giving the look of beef on rice but not gyudon. As it was an atypical gyudon, it felt like it had something added to give the meal more heft (it was a more expensive dish than most on the menu) but nothing more elaborate than salt, maybe. We both finished the bowls off and although it wasn’t a lot of food, it was still just about sufficient.

Overall, the food was a little disappointing and, like a lot of the meals had in the project, felt a little like a Japanese theme restaurant and I can imagine it doing fairly well in smaller towns. I am not sure I saw any Japanese people there, in fact, so it is likely to be an element of tourism to the meal design. I guess the sushi was fairly good and does explain the name and the continuing business they do to the local area but I think I can find places that I prefer to deliver to me.

Cost of gyudon: £11.50


Shinobi Sushi
85 Junction Road, London, N19 5QU

<sup>1. A visit to the Koshigaya Matsuya was my original plan but that wasn't quite possible due to my planning. ↩
2. The menus were fairly shoddy black and white photocopies really strengthening the feeling that this was not designed as a place to visit.↩</sup>

ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon 0: Tokyo Edition

A little bit of a cheat in that this is about Gyudon that is not in London but the zero tag feels appropriate - this being more like a prequel but made afterwards. This may involve a little retconning but I will try not to. I visited Japan at the tail end of 2019 (after a particularly disappointing set of electoral results) for a fairly short time. It was a simple trip for me and allowed me to wallow in a bit of nostalgia by visiting Shinjuku, Akihabara and other places in Tokyo while also having a trip to less familiar places using the exceptionally good JR EAST and South Hokkaido rail pass. It was a great opportunity to eat some very nice food around the country^[1] of which gyudon was definitely one to go for.
The important thing about gyudon in these conditions is that it is pretty much everywhere and so I did not actively search them out - I happened to come across these visits. In fact, these were not the only times to Yoshinoya (also had breakfast one) or Matsuya (Hamburg steak, kalbi beef etc) but they were the only times I had gyudon.
In my time, there were two apparent behemoths of the gyudon scene: Yoshinoya and Matsuya so those were the ones I wanted to go to. Actually, Sukiya is a huge chain but I am not sure that I ever went there.


Yoshinoya
I was staying in a hotel nearby and decided to pop out to the Yoshinoya that was nearby as a quick and convenient meal. As I entered, I looked around and was asked to sit down - which I did at the bar. I was struck by the fact that the person asking me to do this from behind the counter was not (ethnically) Japanese although she did interact with me fully in Japanese. I was given a menu to peruse and I decided on a Gyudon set which had many options. Yoshinoya seems to have loads of variations - a little like how Burger King advertise the “your way” burgers. I went for a set that was a standard size bowl along with a lettuce salad, clam soup and a raw egg.

I waited and the food arrived not long after and the first thing that I noticed was that the salad dressing came in a packet rather than given bottles to add. I wonder if this is to make the delivery and take away portions of their business even simpler but I do not remember this from before. It was a little disappointing in all honesty and did result in the salad being very plain. “Plain” is an apt word and I found the beef to be a little flat tasting. This was clearly a cheap beef, I do not question that (or mind) but it did not have much flavour. I probably had not had a “Yoshigyu” for a decade or more but it was a fairly quick reminder of why I did not like it so much. I added the whisked raw egg on top and sprinkled quite a bit of ginger on top in order to give it a little spikiness but it was not a meal that could be properly rescued. The pickled ginger was tasty and added some verve to it but I was left unsatisfied. The soup, which was not a standard side was fairly good - I did enjoy it and the mussels were of a decent enough level - though nothing special of course.
You will have noticed that I did not pay before the meal and the point when I chose the meal from a menu, that did involve interaction so it isn’t quite the anonymous experience that you get from Matsuya (and I sort of prefer). The bill came quickly upon request and the food was quick and suitable to fill you up but I was not left sated when I left. I hoped Matsuya was not a false memory. This ended up being a reminder of why I did not have Yoshinoya^[2] much at all.


Yoshinoya Otsukaeki
2 Chome-46-3 Minamiotsuka, Toshima City, Tokyo 170-0005, Japan
〒170-0005 東京都豊島区南大塚２丁目４６−3

Cost of gyudon: 352円(＋税) (approx 140 yen was £1 at the time)



Matsuya
This was my personal favourite chain of fast food places in Japan but I did actually have other food more often than the gyudon and I liked the basic salad as an accompaniment (to the dressing!). I went to Nakano and it was raining hard but the visit seemed a good use of my time.

Entering, I was not asked to sit down or given a menu - instead, I went over to the vending machine and made my choices. There are quite a lot of places in Japan where you pay by vending machine first and I think that this means that the staff do not have to handle cash (and food) which is a wise thing to do from a hygiene perspective. It also means that you have paid before you get any food^[3] which is a fast-food convenience. In the past, these machines were tall multi-button machines that had all the different menu items written (in Japanese) and would spit out tickets for each of the items that you would then give to the staff. The process is the same now but the machines are now touch-screen and available in different languages to assist visitors. They still print out tickets (rather than sending the order to the kitchen) so it is basically the same. I ordered a classic combination of gyudon, salad, soup and a raw egg.

Matsuya is usually a mixture of bar seating and a few tables and I usually went for the bar seating as a solo diner. My food arrived quickly and I went to the condiment selection available on the counter. I added some sesame dressing to the salad, schimi spice to the soup and some pickled ginger to the gyudon along with the raw egg.
As always, I started with the salad and soup - both items that I would normally describe as unremarkable but hitting all the right notes. The salad is very basic with a sprinkling of sweetcorn^[4] but with a selection of dressings, it could be varied easily and I added sesame. And the dressing is moreish enough to make the salad something to add to all meals. The soup is always included with the gyudon and would, therefore, be fairly basic but it was warm and had the umami that I wanted. The gyudon itself was exactly what I wanted - a Greatest Hits of all of the gyudons I had had in London. Salty and sweet at the same time with the onion and beef. There was a tanginess to the ginger and smooth taste with the raw egg poured on top. This was not the disappointment I was fearing after Yoshinoya at all. This was worth waiting for...

I would definitely recommend a visit to Matsuya whenever you can!


Matsuya Nakano
2 Chome-29-8 Nakano, Nakano City, Tokyo 164-0001, Japan
〒164-0001 東京都中野区中野２丁目２９−8

Cost of gyudon: 320/380(premium)円(＋税) (approx 140 yen was £1 at the time)

<sup>1. The point about the food I had in Japan is that you could get some pretty decent food at fast-food prices such as Tempura bowls with rice or udon, Japanese curry and then more “local” delicacies such as Beef tongue, seafood bowls etc. The food was wonderful throughout.↩
2. I did quite like the breakfast options available.↩
3. It is worth noting that this seems to be how McDonald’s operates stores in the UK now.↩
4. Paul remembers a phrase I used when he came to visit in 2003 and I said that the Japanese had “elevated sweetcorn to its rightful place” by adding it to salad. This may have been at the very first Matsuya [link to original blog post] we shared, in fact, and so, in essence, where the project started from. ↩</sup>

ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon 10: Shitamachi Ramen

Although it has been a while, the “Gyudon in London” project has not been entirely derailed. There are not that many places that advertise gyudon, as I have said before but I have noticed a few more places serving it on menus (usually posted outside). And number ten was spotted in such a way.

Returning from the lovely East Anglian city of Norwich^[1]

in the evening, I was hungry and fancied some dinner. I used to work around Liverpool Street and was sort of familiar with it and, although it changes, knew there were a few lunch places that might be open. In the arcade, a place was open amongst the shuttered stores - Shitamachi Ramen. I used to have lunch in the arcade fairly often and was always struck by the incredibly long queues outside the foreign exchange place that would stretch for a few shops - I guess that counts as good footfall for the other shops there too.

Only after ordering my chicken ramen did I notice that this Ramen bar was not just a ramen bar. Next door was another place called the Japanese-sounding “donburi” and next door to that was another Japanese-sounding place called "Kano Udon". Most intriguing. They were all connected behind the counter and so shared kitchen space meaning that even though they were shut, you could order from those other menus within Shitamachi Ramen .

Checking the menu, I saw that there was gyudon and then that meant, most of all, there was hope.

Externally at least, this felt right and ticked boxes for a gyudon shop:

Cheap

Quick, bar seating or *standing*

Inside a railway station

What it didn't have was that many people; plastic food to illustrate nor a ticket vending machine. But it was pretty close and it had hope. I texted Paul the menu and we were on our way^[2] - but only after I had actually had dinner which was that chicken ramen. I had to text it as there did not appear to be a website - just an instagram account @donburiuk.

A few weeks later (which you must appreciate, after almost a year, is actually pretty quick) we found ourselves walking over London Bridge towards Liverpool Street Station in something of a reunion after eleven months. Were we still friends? This walk would be a test - and that it was not even 6pm meant we had to kill some time too so the test was more than just a walk, it incorporated a drink too. But, not for too long as Shitamachi Ramen closed at 7 pm so we needed to have a fairly early dinner.

Walking in, I was rather tickled that the owner seemed to recognise me from my previous visit ^[3] so we had a quick chat and introduction. After a little discussion, Paul and I had a look at the menu to decide the side to go with the two gyudons - some gyoza, karaage and takoyaki. Classic

The order came all at the same time and we separated the three sides evenly amongst us. The rice bowl was surprisingly big but the topping of beef was not over all of that rice and was accompanied by a fairly large handful of lettuce to fill that space. I could tell that it was a good portion size but it did feel that they had skimped on the beef. Initially, at least. The sides all looked pretty standard - there isn’t much you can do with them visually but the proof would be in the eating.

I started with the takoyaki which I already knew. I really love takoyaki and these were passable - they set off the memory of takoyaki and that is good enough for me at this price (less than £3). I’m not sure I have ever had good takoyaki in the UK as it feels a little cold but even poor takoyaki tastes great!

Next, was to start on the gyudon and that could be different visually. The gyudon was at the basic end without egg or pickled ginger. That would add some different flavours but also adds some colour - in this case, the green lettuce seemed an odd look. I am not sure I have seen lettuce with a gyudon before. As I mentioned, I was a bit concerned because of the size issue. This was a misplaced concern as, once I dug in, I could see that it was also deeper than I had thought and was pretty good value. That wasn’t the only concern allayed and, as ever, I started with the rice and this was well cooked with just a hint of beef on it - that lovely clean white taste was still there. And the beef itself? Well, it was a bit stringy and really tasty. This was a winner from the first mouthful - and the few after that. Paul was in agreement too, this was a good gyudon and after a little mixing with the lettuce to try it out, it could also be judged to be well balanced with the greens. Delving deeper and deeper into it, the beef flavour started to mix with the rice in that pleasant way and this I found particularly satisfying. I then tried the other sides we’d ordered with the gyoza being pretty tasty but the karaage being quite exceptional. The sides at Shitmachi Ramen are pretty cheap and the karaage was just £2.10. The same chicken is also used in the ramen (which I had had earlier) but in this form is truly brilliant. I have to be honest, I am not quite sure why, but the coating is really nice without being at all overpowering. It tasted so nice, it even reminded me of the quality of the sweet potato at Machiya although maybe not quite there. But, taking the price into account, it was really quite excellent. Finishing off the gyudon after having more sides meant I was left with the flavoured rice that is always a joy to mop up.

Shitmachi Ramen was a surprisingly good find and the gyudon was fantastic - especially after so long and after a few disappointing meals in the last few. The gyudon was great and grew on me over the course of the meal. It is absolutely the kind of thing that I was searching for: quick, cheap and unpretentious. I think it is probably the second-best gyudon that I have had over the project behind only Koya (link) but it is far cheaper and is much closer in style to what I was actually after. It is a bit of a shame that I don’t commute via Liverpool Street station any longer! It is a shame that there is no egg or pickled ginger which would make it have the perfect feel for me. But it is very, very close to what I wanted from a gyudon. And all of that is without taking into account the karaage chicken which is just excellent. It was wonderfully soft and the coating was moreish.

I would really strongly recommend Shitamachi Ramen. I want to try out the other shops under the banner too but first, I want to have the gyudon and chicken again.

Cost of gyudon: £7.90

Shitamachi Ramen

The Arcade, 5, London EC2M 7PN

<sup>1. Norwich really is quite delightful and I have only become aware of its charms recently. It has also recently been described as one of the most irresistible cities in the world [link] so you should check it out if you have not been before.↩
2. The way to planning, not actually eating, yet.↩
3. When I had come before, I got chatting to the owner in a way that is not really normal for me and would seem quite out of character for most that know me. I asked a few questions about the gyudon (whether they had pickled ginger) and I got asked a few questions back about why I knew the food and so on. It was nice, we spoke a little and I explained that I had lived in Saitama many years ago [see my reblog for more details] and that I was doing a gyudon project. He seemed intrigued by this but I explained that I could not have gyudon as I needed to have my gyudon buddy with me.↩</sup>

ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon 09: Dozo Sushi

In all honesty, the well is running somewhat dry for this project and each new entry is requiring more and more effort to do. Paul found a place in Willesden (Sushi Masa, visited in a previous form: Sushi Say) but I didn't particularly feel like the journey so persuaded him to visit Dozo Sushi instead. We were going on a Monday and I'd never heard of it before the Sunday (the day before) when I walked past it. I often walk past Japanese restaurants and now I try to check the menu to see if I can add some water to the somewhat dry well.
Situated in Soho, on the outskirts of Chinatown, it had a good location and competition nearby in the form of Eat Tokyo (Holborn branch visited) and plenty of others further afield. This suggested it had to be good in order to keep competitive and there would be plenty of potential customers^[1].

We met at quarter to seven on a Monday evening so I was surprised to see a fairly lengthy queue out of the door. This seemed a positive point to recommend it and the majority of those people had oriental^[2] skin - this had to be good, surely. I checked inside about the queue and was told to wait outside which seemed obvious but is always worth checking in case people with bookings are queueing. This queue was constantly outside the door, even once we went in, so it was consistently popular throughout the evening. As Paul and I do understand, to varying degrees, Japanese, it took moments to confirm that the voices we heard in the queue were not Japanese and so, the chances were, that the people were not Japanese either. As I have mentioned quite a few times, this is not a factor that particularly bothers me but it is worth thinking about what you would think of a French restaurant that had groups of German people in the queue. Or an Indian restaurant with mainly Bengali^[3] patrons.

Once shown to our seats (which were sunk into the floor in a pleasing Japanese touch), we were told that we had a 90-minute time limit for our seats which made the popularity of the restaurant even clearer. Ninety minutes isn't too bad but the fact that they have to say at the beginning, almost a caveat emptor, it really drove home how popular it was.
Of course, we ordered two gyudon and the sides were some yakitori and some nasu dengaku (a sweetened aubergine dish) that seemed to be a decent size. We didn't wait too long to have cutlery and soup delivered to the table. I'm not sure "delivered" is the right verb here, it was placed on our table without eye contact or words spoken. There is a school of service where you are invisible to the customer, placing things there as they need them without bothering them. This requires an understanding of how you may be inserting yourself into the customers' evening which is fine - this was not like that. Here the items were delivered to us, placed in approximately the right place but not with a comment, just put there. Not particularly carefully, and not subtlely either - it was the worst of both schools of service. I am not usually bothered by this, it is a kind of service I often like - quick and direct. The soup was, however, not particularly hot and although I wasn't bothered enough to mention it, Paul did actually ask for it to be replaced. The yakitori, which was pleasant enough, was next but was just a skewer each, as we knew, and so was more of an appetiser than a side/starter.

Next was the gyudon itself, quite a bit later and served in large, stone(ish) bowls that gave the impression of a bibimbap and looked like neither a gyudon nor a bibimbap but was definitely beef with rice underneath it. Other than the beef, there was quite a lot more to go with it with veg and egg to go with the beef and the dish is described as "sliced fillet of beef with shitake mushrooms, carrot, onion & seasoned egg on rice". These extras are not things that I have seen before in Japan or outside Japan so it was an interesting idea. In the end, it reminded me of a chicken katsudon (which has a chicken cutlet and soft egg fried and sort of scrambled with it to give a sweet combination) but with beef and some other veg too. The other food was off-putting and the chunky meat was absolutely not what was expected. It felt like all of the different ingredients were working against each other and the bowl as a whole seemed to lack flavour while, at the same time, being full of flavours drowning each other out. I remember describing Peruvian food as full of flavours being piled on – as if they were bored and just said: "oh put this in too" but that is done with some aim to get to an end goal. Here, it felt careless and lazy and like a concoction of leftovers without something that binds them together. Some of the best food around is made of leftovers but it needs something to make them work. After having almost finished, the nasu dengaku was brought out and this ended up being more appropriate than we had imagined when ordering as the sauce was so sweet! I rather liked it in the small doses but Paul scraped the sauce off after the first mouthful. I am a bit of an aubergine fan so I did enjoy it subjectively but it wasn't a particularly good nasu dengaku objectively. It had the sweetness of a dessert^[4] and I am not usually a fan of Asian desserts. We did get given the dessert menu afterwards too, which was a nicely presented set of wooden boards, that I felt was quietly impressive.

Dozo Sushi is a strange restaurant and although I was not expecting much, I was not expecting that. It is so popular and that is something that I did not really understand from what I saw. The menu was reasonable but not cheap like a number of other restaurants – and so not cheap enough to be a proper USP. In essence, this felt like Chinese food dressed up to have a Japanese look which was not what we were after. The decor was appropriate enough but it did, after eating the food, feel less like a Japanese restaurant and more like a Japanese chain restaurant in China. That does not mean it would not appeal to lots of people and I guess that explains the queues and general popularity of Dozo Sushi - I can only assume that it has been to the taste of a guidebook writer that has added it to their list.
After finishing up, we had been there for an hour but less than the 90 minutes we had been allotted and we wondered whether we should stay longer to use the time^[5] we had been given even though we had nothing left to order. We didn't. Also, rather tellingly I did not utter the words "gochisousama" (see link for explanation ) upon leaving for two reasons – a) the food was merely OK; b) I just don't think anyone would have understood…

I am not sure that I would go back to Dozo Sushi at all. The gyudon we have had has been fairly mixed in quality but this was definitively the worst and furthest away from expectation. Unlike at other restaurants where the gyudon has not been great, there has been a certain je ne sais quoi that makes me think that the gyudon is not a fair way to judge the overall restaurant (most notably at Machiya) but here, the gyudon really feels like it pointed to the approach here and it felt like Japanese food cosplay to some degree. Not what I am particularly after and I would not recommend to anyone else, really.

Cost of gyudon: £9.80


Dozo Sushi
32 Old Compton St, Soho, W1D 4TP

^{1. In spite of this location, there was actually something about it that made me think it might not be that good, and had altered my expectations accordingly. It was probably the fact that I had not heard of it.↩}

^{2. "Asian" for those schooled in the American ways.↩}

^{3. This isn't a simplistic position, most of London's Indian restaurants seem to actually be Bengali - and they were the same country for much of the past.↩}

^{4. This did not stop us from getting some actual dessert, in the form of ice cream, afterwards from Amorino. ↩}

^{5. This discussion reminded me of a piece of research that I had read about in Freakonomics (http://freakonomics.com/2013/10/23/what-makes-people-do-what-they-do/) where parents at a kindergarten would come later than they used to once fines were introduced to (ostensibly) discourage lateness. It was then seen as a price for lateness rather than unacceptable behaviour and treated, as large companies around the world do when they don't like laws, as an operating cost rather than a deterrent.↩}

ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon 08: Kurumaya

Finding places that do gyudon is getting harder and harder to do now but there are still a few around. Google Maps seems to have recently started pushing me restaurant information through the android app which is actually quite useful. I think it has worked out which places would be of interest to me and put this restaurant in my feed a while back. Kurumaya is a mini-chain of two restaurants around the city area and we chose to go to the Barbican branch as it was said to be more intimate.

Upon entering, the restaurant was surprisingly empty and felt like the kind of place that was going to shut for the day in half an hour. In fact, it felt odd enough for me to check that it was indeed open. That is usually a terrible sign for an eatery but I am a little more aware of the economics of dining in the area - it may be more of a lunch spot and so could still be very good and popular^[1] yet still empty. I think we were the only people in the seating area of about 20 - at least the service would be good. As mentioned in the Tokyo Diner comments (link), non-Japanese staff (or at least those that look non-japanese) can put people off and the staff here were not apparently Japanese - two things now that would put off the wary. Again, I don't subscribe to that view but worth mentioning.

Obviously, we ordered a gyudon each but the sides were open to change and we went for a salmon and avocado "california roll" and a spinach salad as the supplementary parts. The sides came first so we had them before the mains partly because they were so good, we did not want to wait. The rolls were quite well balanced and delicate while the spinach was simple but with the magic of sesame dressing - what more could you want? More dressing, I guess. The gyudon itself, that was quite a dark colour and not what I would expect from a gyudon. A lot of the taste can be seen from the photograph in all honesty. It is glossy and thicker than I would like with a bit too much sweetness. The beef was thick and "good" and accompanied with a salad that seemed quite out of place. As now seems to be more common at this part of the project, the bowl of food was acceptable but it was not like the gyudon I expected. The rice was also flavoured by the meat but also the salad and other bits that went with it. This wasn't something that I particularly cared for but it tasted quite nice - although not quite the kind of thing I would return for.

I have to say, I am not sure that I would recommend the restaurant from what I saw. The gyudon was not great and although the sides were nice, probably not enough to come back for when there are other, similar places that are easier to get to. I think it would be good for lunch based on a hunch more than anything else. I might try that hunch out.

Cost of gyudon: £12.50


Kurumaya
74-75 Long Ln,EC1A 9ET

^{1. This is a more common thing in the city, or "business districts" in general. I've often wondered what it must be like to come to London on the weekend and go to the city without knowing too much about it. London would be quire dead and you'd wonder what the fuss was about.↩}

ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon 07: Tokyo Diner

The West End welcomed us again as we headed to Tokyo Diner via an aborted visit to Japan Centre ^[1] I had been to Tokyo Diner before and was a fan of the simplicity of the food and menu - I am not sure it has ever changed. The restaurant has been going for a while and, strangely for Japanese restaurants in London, was not staffed by Japanese people but a mixture of nationalities although they did still use smatterings of Japanese in speech with the ritualised greetings and goodbyes. I think this is the kind of thing that makes some people doubt the quality and "authenticity" of the food without trying it which does annoy ^[2] me a little. Although it is difficult of things that don't annoy me a little.

Of course, we both ordered gyudon and the sides, this time, were tofu and broccoli. As we had both eaten here before, we were kind of aware of how the sides would be which meant fairly basic but solid. I enjoyed them both with their subtle, simple flavours.

The gyudon tasted quite different from each of those we had already eaten and it wasn't clear straight away as to whether it was good or not. Visually, it looked right as it wasn't too dark and the beef looked suitably stringy. It was, however, not quite right and the meat itself was a little flaky like tuna which made the whole dish feel a bit weird.

I like Tokyo Diner and the service and selection is very good overall. It is located really conveniently near Leicester Square on the edge of Chinatown so is a good place to meet. The gyudon wasn't what we wanted and the flakiness of the meat was just not the right texture for us but the restaurant as a whole is definitely a recommended "starter" Japanese place. It is odd because the sides were also not great (although they were good) so it is odd to recommend but this is based on much of the rest of the menu which is quite decent and is very easy to eat. The restaurant is very welcoming and the staff are helpful and friendly with an ambience that lets you linger.The menu is written in a charming way and there is a clear sign that tips^[3] are not expected nor accepted and if for nothing else, that is reason enough to support the restaurant.

Cost of gyudon: £9.30

Tokyo Diner

2 Newport Pl, London WC2H 7JP

<sup>1. The initial plan was to have gyudon from Japan Centre but a misunderstanding of what was in the menu meant a reallocation and a walk over to Tokyo Diner.↩
2. As does this idea that restaurants on holiday must be good if they have lots of “locals” in there. So does Burger King, why does that rationale not work for Burger King?↩
3. The dishes are arguably a little more expensive than they would otherwise be so the total amount paid is similar but is much more transparent. In Japan, it is not often that you pay service charges - the food itself includes that price.↩</sup>

ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon recap

Six down, an unknown number to go. That feels like a good time to do a quick recap of where w have been and the rankings of that. So here we go:

ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon 06: eat Tokyo

Eat Tokyo, although it does have a genuinely terrible name, is a mini-chain of Japanese restaurants around London and so must be fairly successful. Having been before, I can totally understand why and have seen how popular it is with queues out of the door on a regular basis. The reason? Good value Japanese food (although not Misato level value) with a really broad menu makes this a very accessible place to try Japanese food. This also meant, buried in there somewhere, there was gyudon on the menu so it popped on to our list.
I'd not been to the Holborn branch and thought it'd be a good pick as it was in a slightly different area than other restaurants we'd been to - you have to find bits of variety in something like this. Meeting relatively early in an area not renowned for nightlife, I wasn't expecting to wait but it was already full at 6:45 so we waited, briefly, to be seated and given the menu. Taken upstairs, the space was quite nice but it was also fairly loud and with a plethora of languages too so I can't help but feel that it may have found itself into a guidebook (there was also quite a few suitcases downstairs being stored, suggesting similar) or two. We were seated next to some girls from China (I think from their speech patterns) who happened to be fairly raucous and it was very much that kind of place - we struggled to hear each other.
The menu was vast, illustrated and covered in plastic (which I think I have only seen at Japanese restaurants). Most of it seemed to be taken up by sushi and that also seemed the most popular choice looking around - which of course was irrelevant as we would be having a gyudon each. The sides we went for to go with it were spinach gyōza and pumpkin korokke - both items that I had not seen before.

The food came quickly and first, surprisingly, was the gyudon in large bowls and liberally sprinkled with spring onion to go with the small amount of pickled ginger. Accompanying the gyudon was miso soup which was unexpected as it had not been mentioned but it was a pleasant addition. The bowls were large but, also quite full which is often not the case so it was a good value dish but with quality vs quantity a constant balancing act, I was not holding out much hope. With the first mouthful, I was impressed with the rice and meat which was chunky and properly covered the rice. Was it gyudon or just beef on rice? I wasn't sure but I liked it. The second mouthful confused me though - it tasted different but I wasn't sure why. The beef was fatty and wasn't marinated fully, I thought… But then the third mouthful changed again and I liked it again, it was an odd experience but I could not quite comprehend. The gyōza arrived with the korokke providing a change of flavour and texture. Both of the sides were excellent with the spinach gyōza being like nothing I'd tried before. Bright green, I wasn't sure what to expect but they had the right texture and were paired with a nice chilli sauce too to give a kick. The pumpkin korokke was pretty sweet but had the right texture to go with the chewy gyudon. Oh, the gyudon? Well, the portion was massive so actually, the sides were almost like a respite. The meat was enjoyably cheap and fatty making it closer to the gyudon I remembered but it was probably a bit too chewy. Especially for the portion size which made it quite an effort for us both which is quite a surprise for 2 mains and 2 sides between two. It was very good value and the gyudon was good. One thing that I felt let it down was the rice - or more accurately the way the rice had been flavoured. Normally, with the beef at the top, the sauce seeps into the rice making it take on the flavour but to varying degrees as you go through the meal. In this case however, and almost certainly not prepared like that, it was as if the rice itself was marinated and the beef put on top so you did not get the changing of the rice. I think that contributed to the feeling of the gyudon being massive as it was, effectively, the same dish throughout rather than being altered by ratio. That is nitpicking a little though.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the gyudon and soup combination as it was great value and reminiscent enough of gyudons past to hit the spot. The restaurant itself was better than I remember but it is not a place to linger due to the noise and pace of it - it is great for groups with such an extensive menu. I would recommend the gyudon but, ideally, it would be better shared in some way in order to break up that wall of taste. Had we had half a bowl of gyudon each (and half a bowl of something else), that would be more satisfying for me. I'd had thought a more mixed meal would also be enjoyable - I think I'll return with a larger group some time. You should probably give it a go too.

Cost of gyudon (w/ soup): £9.00

Eat Tokyo (Holborn branch)
50 Red Lion Street, London, WC1R 4PF

ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon 05: Sushi Waka

This would be the third restaurant that we went to that appeared to specialise in a particular kind of Japanese food but none of them had been gyudon. Sushi Waka seemed to be a sushi place, so it was still not specialising in gyudon, and took us to North London or Camden to be more specific. This was pretty convenient for me as I didn't live too far away and I know the area quite well. As a result, I had been to Sushi Waka before but had been to some other Japanese restaurants more often. My favourite Japanese restaurant is in Camden and is called Asakusa close to Mornington Crescent station and I also rather like Seto Ramen which is also nearby. As far as I am aware, neither does gyudon and so Sushi Waka it would be.

Camden is a bit of a nightlife area and there is a fairly "old" feel to the establishments in the area with the atmosphere having been set a long time ago rather than as a result of more recent redevelopment but there is still plenty of new to go with the old. Nearby the multiple Camden markets bring plenty of tourist footfall to the general area but Parkway is not so close to the market and so I imagine the restaurant does rely on regulars rather than drop-ins.

The first thing to note is that there was no "gyu-don" on the menu, only in set form. The restaurant feels different to each of the ones we've been to so far with very little pretentiousness which comes with being a more local kind of place. Sushi Waka itself must be of a certain vintage as it has a sign that gives that away if you know the details^[1]. This little fact, I love.

Camden has a few Japanese restaurants and parts of LB^[2] Camden have long been home to Japanese people which lends itself to less touristy restaurants, I hope. It was a pleasant restaurant inside but was not particularly modern feeling, or even "refreshed" with old looking décor and rather odd dining chairs which looked like conference or meeting chairs. It did not feel upmarket or downmarket, it just felt a bit local and quite unimpressive as a location. There is also a Japanese (tatami) room upstairs but we did not see that.

We didn't pick so many dishes and supplanted the order of 2 gyudon sets with vegetable korokke and some house salad and decided we'd get more if necessary. The sets came with miso soup, pickles and fruit so we felt that had enough variety, initially at least. The food didn't all come together and was served, effectively, as courses with the korokke, soup and salad coming first, followed by gyudon.

The korokke was pretty creamy and tasty but nothing particularly noteworthy (it was just something I'd not had in a while) but it reminded me of supermarket food in Japan - in a good way. The salad was fairly plain and seemed to be more an accompanying dish rather than a course but we still finished it before gyudon was brought out. Interestingly, the table was clear as we sat down with no condiments, such as soy sauce and shichimi^[3] at all so the restaurant was obviously confident in seasoning appropriately. I was less confident and so asked for some shichimi to put in the soup but only wanted to have it with the gyudon.

The gyudon was brought out in quite large, solid bowls that felt more like bibimbap bowls, such was their heft. This is relevant as it made it enjoyable to hold when eating ^[4] with chopsticks. The big bowl meant quite a decent portion of rice and meat – and the meat was quite dark with a little sprinkling of pickled ginger. That, however, is just the mechanics, how was the taste? In all honesty, I was not expecting much with the colour not looking quite right. And that taste was very good. Surprising, but very good. The meat was sweet – far sweeter than I expected or probably (thought that I) wanted but quite easy to eat. Coupled with the rice, it was a great combination as the rice soaked up a bit of that sweetness. As I mentioned before, there were no condiments on the table and so no extra pickled ginger either but the sprinkling that was in the bowl was also very good and wonderfully sharp providing an excellent counterpoint to the meat and rice. I was genuinely surprised about how good it was. I was also heartened by the quality of the miso soup which felt deep and flavoursome which again was improved by the addition of a little counterpoint which the shichimi provided. Being picky, as I devoured the bowl, it did feel a spot dry but Paul said it was a bit "wet" for him so it may just have been the way we ate it. There was no egg to top the dish but we were both in agreement about this one – it was not missed. We both left our bowls without even a single grain of rice remaining and that sweetness of the marinade goes so well with the rice by the end, having seeped through such that the balance is spot on. It is a bowl that improves through the meal which is quite an odd sensation. Eventually, after being asked about whether we wanted anything else, we were presented with small fruit plates as a sort of dessert (although there is an actual dessert section on the menu) which was at turns very Japanese but also quite uncommon – I think the first time we have had it. It was a very satisfying conclusion to the meal which cleansed the palate and also gave a fresh ending ^[5] .

As ever, it felt a bit bad to miss out on much of the breadth of the menu (in this case, sushi) due to the project but it was not such a disappointing turn of affairs as it was in Machiya. The "gyu-don set" is a good meal in its own right and the surroundings are pleasant enough but I was truly impressed by the gyudon. It was not particularly nostalgic for me, but at the same time, it kind of was. I don't think the gyudon I used to enjoy in Japan was quite as sweet and it did not set off any repressed memories (as for the Koya meal) about gyudon so it was different to what I was expecting but not a fundamental diversion so it did tick the boxes. I would definitely recommend a visit to most people as the gyudon was really nice and the restaurant presents an atmosphere of a Japanese restaurant that is not quite as prevalent as it used to be. That lingering feeling of the past and not quite modern interpretation of Japanese décor is one that I really appreciate and is not replicated too much anymore. The gyudon was great and I'd be intrigued to try some more from the menu.

Cost of gyudon (set): £12.50

Sushi Waka
75 Parkway, Camden Town, London NW1 7PP

<sup>1. The Sushi Waka sign has a phone number that does not work any longer and has not worked since 1999 as Inner London's area code for telephone numbers changed from 01, to 071 to 0171 to 020 within about a decade.↩
2. LB meaning London Borough. LB Camden is fairly dense and, although an inner London borough and so smaller than others, covers Covent Garden in the south to Highgate in the north. The Finchley Road area had traditionally had quite a few Japanese ex-pats. They weren't immigrants, they were ex-pats.↩
3. Shichi-mi tōgarashi also known as nana-iro tōgarashi or simply shichimi, is a common Japanese spice mixture containing seven ingredients.↩
4. I like to eat bowls of rice held in my left hand rather than from the table but I have to say that I rarely do it in restaurants in the UK. I don't think I have been doing that on the gyudon project either but it felt really nice here. It is all part of the process.↩
5. It was not a true ending though, of course – it was only 8pm. Not too far away on Kentish Town Road, we went to the "Dirty Ice Cream" emporium Mamason. This is a fairly new Filipino ice cream bar that I had been to before and thought it worth checking out again for a dessert and/or drink. With a selection of ice cream and sorbet flavours that are rarely seen in London, such as ube and lychee, we thought it worth a try. And it very much was as the ice cream was excellent.↩</sup>

ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon 04: Machiya

Ramen has a sort of level of awareness in London at the moment stemming from a number of places that became popular enough to start mini-chains. One of those, and the branches I have seen often have queues outside, is Kanada-ya^[1]. Unlike Yamagoya, they do not seem to have branched significantly from their ramen but Machiya is supposed to be run in the same vein as Kanada-ya but with different dishes. It could be said that Machiya is a return for Paul and myself as this is actually where we decided^[2] on this project and it was as a result of gyudon here. My abiding memory of that meal^[3], however, was not the meat but the baked sweet potato which was genuinely amazing. I think we may have shared a few things including a gyudon then but all memories are clouded by that sweet potato.

Machiya takes us back to the West End and, more specifically, Panton Street near Leicester Square. It has a fairly pared down menu with a few specials but luckily, gyudon is a standard item - and is in fact boxed out as if it is a highlight of the menu. The general style of the place is casual and the menu is supplanted by a specials menu which is written by hand on a big piece of paper which is in keeping with the casual style. As it happens, there was little on the specials menu with it mainly being different cold drinks due to the slightly warm weather. Paul and I noticed that items we had ordered from specials menu before were now on the menu proper (including the aforementioned yaki imo sweet potato dish). Looking at the menu again, the items that jumped out were the ones we had eaten previously but I did want to try new things^[4] so we ordered a side salad and grilled miso aubergine to go with the gyudon.

The food came out as it was ready but we waited for the gyudon before starting. The bowl was topped with a beautiful looking onsen egg and pre garnished with pickled ginger - there was nothing to add. So, we dug in. The flavour was, however, missing a bit and was not quite what was expected from the look. The mixture of onion and beef tasted a bit anaemic - lacking the bold flavour I expected and had probably not been marinated enough. This was actually a disappointing first mouthful. Diving in again gave the same impact of "is this it?" (and I don't mean the vibrancy of the Strokes' debut album) to the beef. In all honesty, the egg was excellent and a mouthful with a bit of egg and pickle was pretty nice but there was no getting away from the lack of saltiness of the meat. The sauce was fairly weak and the onions were more oniony than sweet as they were not cooked through. As it happened, the bowl wasn't that big either so it wasn't particularly filling and had a lot more rice as a ratio than I'd want too. The other dishes were far better, and the meal as a whole wasn't bad. The yaki imo still an astounding combination of yuzu, butter and wonderfully smooth sweet potato. The aubergine had a nice texture with walnut and a little kick from the garnish but as good as those dishes were, the main was disappointing and so I was a bit disappointed. The meal as a whole wasn't so voluminous either so I was left a bit unsatisfied^[5] afterwards.

The thing about this project is that it is about gyudon so I feel bad that I can't particularly recommend a place that also happened to serve some exceptional food that wasn't gyudon. Service was quick, simple and easy and I will definitely return but I doubt I'll order the gyudon as a main (though it could work if shared) when I do. The location is really convenient, the food is generally good but it is too casual to linger there for a long time. With all that in mind, I do hope people go and have the yaki imo which is genuinely exceptional. The gyudon, less so.

Cost of gyudon: £9.50

Machiya
5 Panton St, London SW1Y 4DL

<sup>1. "ya" in this case just means shop and is a common suffix as in Matsuya.↩
2. In a sort of circuitous route. Paul mentioned to me the gyudon here when I asked about Japanese food around London which kicked off a nostalgic chat about Japan in general and also our first meeting there which revolved around gyudon.↩
3. And maybe food in that whole year, such was the quality.↩
4. I remember the chicken wings were really good, as was the yaki imo and I think we had some form of katsu so we didn't re-order (except the yaki imo, I'm not an idiot).↩
5. Satisfaction was gained by going on to have dessert at nearby Chin Chin Dessert Bar which was chocolate tacos with pineapple and habanero ice cream. It was pretty special.↩</sup>

ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon 03: Yamagoya

I had a feeling we'd end up in the south at some point but not as soon as number 3 but here we were near Waterloo. Yamagoya is a ramen chain from Japan (the first actually "originated from Japan" place we've come to on this) and so not necessarily the obvious place for a gyudon but there it is on the menu - in the other bits, "rice", section^[1] . I guess that is similar to going to an udon restaurant (as at Koya) so fair enough. Yamagoya is actually a pretty old chain of restaurants from Kyushu dating back to 1969 and the website has some nice photos of that time.

Having already fallen behind schedule a little by 03 (which was supposed to be monthly), there is always a risk that the bottom could fall out of the project unless it is worth doing so I felt a little internal pressure in this one.

The Cut is a road near Waterloo and Southwark with two three (one is hidden, I have been informed) theatres and a number of eateries including Yamagoya but, even so, the Japanese styling of the shopfront does stand out a bit. Walking in, I looked for a door handle but noticed it was a sliding door on a button which I thought a nice touch^[2] . Once inside, it was fairly obvious that this was a far more casual environment than we'd seen thus far and also that there was an active promotion effort to sell gyudon seen by the pictures at the entrance and inside. These three elements pointed to a very positive experience for me so my hopes were raised. Then I saw Paul seated at a table… Service was effectively self-service so there were no menus at the table but only at the counter so I went to have a look and we ordered two gyudon and a tofu ramen salad,^[3] seeing that we were in a ramen shop. Once ordered, they said they would bring it over which I thought a bit odd. In a true Japanese style, the food came when it was ready rather than together which was, again, just what we wanted.

Beef on rice is all you need for a gyudon, but a little bit of egg can help it along a bit and so to see a soft boiled "onsen" egg placed on the gyudon was something that warmed the heart. There was no pickled ginger in the dish, normally a point of disappointment but, even better than this, there was a pot of pickled ginger to use. The excitement and anticipation was high!

Digging in with the chopsticks showed that the volume of beef was not so high and the egg hid that fact a little bit so it would not necessarily be a filling bowl on its own. The beef was subtly flavoured and fairly light but was, of course, flavoured by the addition of egg. Having liberally sprinkled ginger over it too, (after having tried without), it was a pleasing combination but nothing special. I think, had I not tried other gyudons recently, I would have enjoyed this a lot more but it was actually quite average. Yamagoya is a ramen place and this was also a fairly cheap meal (the lowest so far) and with this in mind, it is an entirely acceptable gyudon but not one that I would travel for. We also received a tofu ramen salad which was a really nice mix of ingredients and quite refreshing and zesty. It worked very well as accompaniment and it made the size of the meal more appropriate.

In so many ways, Yamagoya is exactly the kind of slightly westernised version that Paul and I were looking for but I don't feel like it quite had it right overall. The casual setting, the counter ordering, the pickled ginger at the table and even the sliding door were all the details that I wanted to see. If I worked a little closer, I think I would go for lunch every so often as it seems a nice, quick meal that is the right size for lunch. I would not, however, travel too far for the gyudon but I imagine the ramen may be a little better and I will almost certainly return to try that out. Being a counter service kind of place is quite appealing and the fact you can eat and then walk out is a real draw to me - this could only be better if you ordered by vending machine. Maybe another branch will open.

Cost of gyudon: £7.50

Yamagoya

49 the Cut, London, SE1 8LF

1. A little like the salads in McDonald's - which are not really there for you to order but really just to give breadth to the menu to look.↩

<sup>2. The vast majority of doors for eateries in Japan are on these sliding doors - I assume a riff on the sliding paper doors that you find in homes.↩
3. This appeared to be a cold ramen without broth but a cold sauce to pour over the top.↩</sup>