lunch – Pheebz Eatz

Arossa Shibuya

I normally just update my Instagram & Facebook, but I am reviving my blog. Expect records of my absolute favourite eats that you absolutely should go to – because you wouldn’t doubt me, right? And watch this space for travel destinations too. The hospitality industry needs a lot of love right now.

As a starting point, it’s only fitting that I write about Arossa Shibuya, a small restaurant serving up Australian / Australian-inspired fare (yes, they have kangaroo). I can’t actually count the number of times I’ve been there. I would probably be embarrassed to know the number.

My previous office wasn’t too far away and if I timed it write, because Arossa is rightfully a very popular lunch destination, I could arrive, mildly out of breath, and squeeze onto a table just before midday.

Then, they stopped lunch service and I was very sad.

But now they’re back, and with a brand new menu offering to boot. 1600 yen gets you a starter, a choice of main (two pastas, one chicken, one pork and one steak dish) and a dessert, with your choice of tea or coffee.

The most important thing you need to know: everything that passes your lips will be brilliant. The staff are also warm, welcoming and accommodating.

For starters, starter looks like a dessert: an organic vegetable parfait comprised of carrot mouse that hides lentils, topped with consommé jelly and more veggies.

Last week, for main course, I chose their weekly tomato pasta – a delectable ragu topped with grana pedano. This week, ichibo (hipbone cut) steak from Australian beef with alshings of garlic butter and potatoes crisped to perfection.

Dessert was also smooth and well-balanced coffee blancmange topped with coffee jelly. Also sampled almond babaroa (Bavarian cream).

Dinner is around 6000 – 8000 yen, although that’s entirely dependent on how many of their Australian wines you decide to sample. I’m looking for an excuse to go, so by all means, invite me! In the meantime, I shall be a faithful regular lunchtime visitor.

Arossa Shibuya

Opening hours:
Currently subject to change. Please check their Facebook or call the store (some staff speak English): 03-3469-0125

Review: Blacows, Ebisu

I got into a heated discussion this evening about burgers in Tokyo. I have yet to have one that can live up to Honest Burgers glory (see praise here, here and maybe here). Meanwhile, see Tokyo horror stories from Village Vanguard Diner and JS Burgers here.

So the challenge is on! First of all, time to clear my burger review backlog…

Blacows, Ebisu

This is one of the highly recommended burger places in Tokyo, always making top cut lists. Their website is full of alluring rhetoric of how much care they’ve put into everything in the burger. They don’t just put bacon in their burgers, they put bacon from “enzyme-fed Chiba Nadeshiko Pork, abundant in oelic acid which has been shown to have positive effects on beauty and health.”

Yes, they actually imply that eating their bacon will make you beautiful. I have rarely enjoyed a burger webpage so much… for the wrong reasons. This webpage didn’t invoke immediate salivation but more like grins of disbelief… Continue reading “Review: Blacows, Ebisu”

Review: Daidarabou, Takasaki / 大大坊、高崎市

Daidarabou / 大大坊

I love adventures but sometimes I feel that I am a stranger in my flat, because I am home so infrequently. This weekend, I would’ve maybe tried to take it easy (I can hear my friends’ laughter echo as I write this….) but I had to catch a train to somewhere. Yes, had to. Let me explain… Continue reading “Review: Daidarabou, Takasaki / 大大坊、高崎市”

Review: Tokyo Mabo Shokudo, Akasaka / 東京麻婆食堂、赤坂

We were on our way to get a sandwich from a sandwich shop.

Now, before you leap to any hasty conclusions, I should say that sandwich shops are fairly rare in Japan. Unless you head to the convenience store and pick up some dubious plastic-wrapped item, you are more likely to be heading to the noodle shop. Or the bento store. Rice. Noodles. Those are your carbs.

So heading to the sandwich shop could definitely be considered “doing something a bit different” for lunch.

I must confess that I wasn’t 100% into the idea, but the sandwich store had very positive reviews and my colleague seemed very keen as she navigated us there.

Then we crossed a street and she smelt the mabo dofu. Continue reading “Review: Tokyo Mabo Shokudo, Akasaka / 東京麻婆食堂、赤坂”

Review: Uzumaki Bekkan/うずまき別館

20160107_122912 Yesterday, I went to film sumo wrestlers stomping in the new year at a shrine in Tokyo. Which was a fantastic experience.

Every year, the top-ranked sumo wrestlers go to Meiji Shrine where they perform Dezuiri – a ring entering ceremony, which involves some impressive foot-stomping and feet shuffling. Continue reading “Review: Uzumaki Bekkan/うずまき別館”

Review: Hacienda del Cielo, Daikanyama

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I have never been to Mexico and so I can’t tell you what authentic Mexican food is.

What I can tell you is that:

A Mexican friend assures me there is no actual Mexican food in London
The best “Mexican food” I ever had was in an underground restaurant attached to a hotel in Brasov, Romania – see the Bella Muzica.

I’m always fairly disappointed by whatever burrito, enchilada, taco-variety I order. With that in my mind, I wasn’t particularly hopeful for my chances in Tokyo.

However, I had heard of Haciendo del Cielo, ensconced in Daikanyama, one of Tokyo’s trendiest neighbourhoods. Continue reading “Review: Hacienda del Cielo, Daikanyama”

Review: Priya, Hiroo, Tokyo

Chef's special lunch — Chef’s special lunch

As you may remember, I get very strong cravings for Indian food lately and to say that these have yet to be satisfied would be an understatement – I was so disappointed with one meal that I refused to pay for all of it.

But I’d spied an Indian friend on Facebook dining at a place called Priya, and I thought maybe my luck was finally in. On a particularly rainy, stormy and miserable day, my accomplices and I dripped and shivered our way over to Hiroo and our noses were immediately greeted by warm, spicy and enticing scents. Continue reading “Review: Priya, Hiroo, Tokyo”

CELEBRATE! KERB at the Gherkin is back!

Once upon the time, Kerb market started introducing really great street food to London. Londoners, all too accustomed to cardboard pre-packaged sandwiches, were very excited by this sudden flavour explosion across the capital. Kerb became really popular and started sending traders to the Gherkin, allowing all the City workers to be well fed too.

But one day, something terrible happened. The City of London decided that it was far too pretentious and sterile to allow a lively, delicious and buzzing street food scene to thrive. It banned Kerb from cluttering up its tightly controlled urban environment.

However, people of the City were very sad. They were hungry. And they were angry. Even worse, they were hangry. Their Thursday al fresco lunches were replaced with bland ‘al descos’. Perpetual gloom settled over the City and it rained every day (oh wait, that might just be England).

Talks between Kerb and the City of London continued, and the City had to grudgingly admit that a lot of people missed street food. So several negotiations and dinosaurs later, and after the slaying of a few metaphorical dragons, Kerb triumphed in the Battle of the Bland, and glorious grub once again glimmered at the Gherkin.

The Londoners rejoiced and not even the perpetual rain could dampen their enthusiasm or their appetites.

The End.

In other news, I tried a Bacon Candy Mother Flipper burger (bacon fried in maple syrup, American cheese) and it was awesome.

Review: Dozo, Old Compton Street, Soho

Originally published under my alias Queen Spatula on Tryum.com. Check out the site for more great foodie recommendations.

If, given the Christmas splurge, you’re hardly feeling flush for cash this January, it can be highly inconvenient to find yourself in central London and in desperate need of lunch. Such a situation can also ruin any new year resolutions you’ve made on healthy eating.

Let’s consider the following dilemma. You only have £6.90 to spend on lunch. You could get a burrito and screw the health repercussions. Or you could get a take-out salad and a juice. You may feel saintly but your stomach will likely be despondent within a half an hour, and the chances are that some pre-packed lettuce really didn’t excite your taste-buds.

Or how about option three: you could go to Dozo, get a delicious Japanese set lunch and feel absolutely amazing. This comes with the added bonus of getting to smugly gloat at any passer-bys with supermarket sandwiches.

Wedged next to Soho’s famous G-A-Y club, Dozo has a modest store front but a surprisingly authentic interior. It’s beautifully decorated – a large koi (carp) adorns the walls and low-set tables with a dropped floor replicate dining arrangements common in Japan. It’s a little dim inside but it’s an oasis of calm in one of London’s busiest districts.

Of course, you can’t see its exquisite décor from the outside. What is really going to draw you in is the following sign:

A lunch set for £6.90? Really?

Some scepticism is perfectly understandable. That is until you’re presented with a beef teriyaki bento with perfectly cooked rice, two sets of pickles, a side salad and some miso soup. The teriyaki sauce is fantastic – full of great umami flavour and steering on the right side of sweet – and the salad is fresh with a great tangy dressing. What’s more, if you have penchant for drinking the sauce – and who would blame you when it tastes this good – the waiting staff will take pity on you and provide you with a spoon 😉

There’s a whole lot more than teriyaki dishes in the 12 – 3pm offer: crunch on some prawn and vegetable tempura, tuck into tonkatsu (deep-fried breaded pork cutlet), slurp through some ramen or dine on some sushi. Again – any of these for £6.90.

So my sound advice to you is… go and strand yourself in central London immediately and wait for lunchtime. Dozo will leave you with a happy and healthy body and wallet.

Website: http://www.dozosushi.co.uk/soho/
Where: 32 Old Compton Street, Soho, W1D 4TP
When: 12 – 3pm weekday lunch, also open for dinner. Details here.

Review: Hurwundeki, Korean café, Bethnal Green

This is the era of postmodernism. Gone are the days of restrictive categories and set definitions. Why should a café just serve food? And why shouldn’t a hair salon serve a decent lunch?

Welcome to Hurwundeki – a place that can take care of both your hunger and your haircut needs. Located in the railway bridge arches next to Cambridge Heath station, you might be forgiven for thinking they sold tyres rather than Korean cuisine. Even more baffling, despite the industrial store front – blue corrugated metal – the yard is filled with ancient play park toys and eclectic chairs.

The inside, however, exudes a kind of shabby cuteness. Chandeliers dangle from the brick arches above tightly packed tables. There’s a simple open kitchen, which allows you to spy on large tubs of kimchi and other dishes being freshly prepared.

Peeking into the open kitchen... — Peeking into the open kitchen…

A cursory glance at the menu will tell you that there’s more than classic Korean fare on offer – udon noodles make an appearance and bulgogi beef is to be found holidaying on top of bread! Hurwundeki are proud to have just launched a fusion lunch menu, which includes Korean salads and Koran curries on sourdough bread (a new kind of open sandwich perhaps?). There are both traditional and modern Korean dishes with some surprises thrown into the mix.

I went straight for the classic – the beef bibimbap (£6.50) served with an egg yolk on top. I love this dish in that it is fresh and filling. Hurwundeki’s version did not disappoint and, mixed with the chilli sauce, it was the perfect pick-me-up weekend lunch that I was hoping for.

My lunch partner took a chicken stir-fry on rice – simple but tasty – and we shared some chicken dumplings or mandu (£4.50) on the side.

We were both feeling a little sleepy on a Saturday afternoon but again Hurwundeki had us covered: we happily caffeinated ourselves with a latte and a mocha. For those fancying something a little stronger, you can bring your own wine (or maybe even some soju if you want to keep things Korean).

Finally, if you feel you ought to smarten yourself up, step through the arch and get yourself a haircut in a room decorated with eclectic old objects, looking more like a period set piece than a hair salon.

Hurwundeki – Reasonably priced traditional and fusion Korean dishes with a whole load of quirky charm thrown in.

Website: www.facebook.com/Hurwundeki
Where: 98-299 Railway Arches, Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9HA
When: Mon – Fri 8am – 10pm, Sat 9am – 10pm, closed on Sundays.