The Japanese Canteen

If I could give this place no stars I would. As someone who doesn't eat meat, I was disappointed to find stray pieces of beef in my Prawn Yaki Udon noodles at The Japanese Canteen today. When I mentioned this to the staff they were uninterested as though it's a common occurence. The place isn't cheap enough to be so disinterested. If i was Hindu or a lifelong vegetarian I would have gone crazy at them. They don't deserve any custom, but cater to people who are too penny pinching to go to the Itsu across the road. Once Eat Tokyo opens on Red Lion street, it won't be long until they lose much of their custom, deservedly.

Easy quick lunch option. Not the greatest Japanese food you'll ever have but hearty hot food that is reasonable value.

As its name implies, the Japanese Canteen serves sushi (in prepared boxes) and hot dishes, such as noodles and chili fried rice. The last time I went there, I tried the beef chili rice, which tasted pretty okay, though a bit wet.

Price-wise, most of the hot meals go for around 5 to 7 pounds, which is around the average of the Japanese shops around this area. But sushi is rather expensive, with most going for at least 80p each.

If you want a quick meal for lunch, then this may be a place to go, but it’s not a restaurant (with tables for at most 3 people), so don’t expect to go for dinner with friends or anything.

The Japanese Canteen on High Holborn is another location of this chain fast food joint that seems popular with the lunchtime business crowd. I’ve given a go a few times, but they seem to keep disappointing me regardless of the dish that I end up choosing. Fair enough that the a pork katsu rice dish is only about £5, but there was too much of an in balance in the dish with too much rice for the pork, not to mention how dry the pork was from being way overcooked.

I found their takeaway sushi just as boring, with a shoddy rolling and cutting job making most of the sushi rolls simply unappetising (and it’s really not that hard). I heard that the soups are reasonable but I’ve been enough times to make me not want to return.