Tokyo Diner

True to our odd eating hours on a Sunday, Stuart and I decided to try out Eat Tokyo on Romilly Street in Soho. The food was pretty tasty and the prices reasonable when I went with a friend a few months ago. Lo and behold .... Eat Tokyo was closed when we got there about 5PM. Perhaps we should have tried Kyoto Restaurant right next door (my google searches have brought back some pretty good reviews for its sushi)? We headed to Tokyo Diner in Chinatown instead. Sitting on the corner of Newport Place and Lisle Street, the restaurant has been around since the early 1990s. I've passed it numerous times but I've never been in. It's a compact restaurant with policies of no serving of tuna and no tipping. Certainly not a problem for us.

Stuart ordered the Chicken Katsu Curry (£10), which came with a whole panko crumbed chicken breast sitting on a pile of rice with a side of Japanese vegetable (potato and carrots) curry sauce and little side of salad greens. The chicken was nicely crumbed and very crispy. The curry was the standard Japanese sort that could have come from a packet. It was still good though :) The potatoes and carrots were nice and soft. Not mushy, just soft but still holding it's shape.

I had the Chicken Katsu with sauce (£9.70) served in a large bowl with rice and salad. The sauce turned out to be a drizzle of donkatsu bulldog sauce over my chicken. I say bulldog sauce but it could really have been any brand. My chicken katsu was exactly the same as Stuart's - a big piece of chicken breast. It was nice that it actually tasted like chicken and not some mushy bit of non-discript piece of meat. I did find the overall dish slightly dry (not even the extra drizzle from donkatsu sauce bottle provided helped), so maybe the extra 30p for some curry sauce would have been worth it. We also had a bowl of miso soup each (£0.80 per bowl) - which in true Chinese home style I poured over some of my rice ...haha....

Verdict?
The food is nothing fancy but solid and satisfying at reasonable prices. It makes a nice change from the Chinese food I would have when I'm in the area. However, a plate of rice piled high with roast meats from a Chinese would still be cheaper :) However, a large portion of rice is free on request.

Tokyo Diner
2 Newport Place, London WC2H 7JP