A head-scratching double take on The Strand Bringing an under-appreciated cuisine or dish to foreign shores is an effort fraught with all sorts of logistical, culinary and financial difficulties. Reviewing such an effort isn’t as arduous, but still has pitfalls of its own. Yen, a new restaurant on The Strand, is a purported specialist in … Continue reading
A review from someone who can tell the difference between chicken and pork tonkatsu Machi-ya is an odd name for a Japanese restaurant. A machiya is a traditional Japanese house that can be very atmospheric and are thus increasingly popular with tourists visiting Japan. Indeed, I briefly considered staying in one during my trip to Kyoto … Continue reading
Uniquely Japanese in more ways than one Eccentric cultural institutions usually lose something in translation when they’re transplanted outside of their home country. Monster truck rallies, Eccles cakes and Viz magazine are prime examples. The izakaya is another. A Japanese staple, these bar-cum-restaurants are often translated as pubs or gastropubs, but none of those names really quite fit as izakayas are subtly different … Continue reading
This Japan-focussed article is a break from The Picky Glutton’s usual London-based coverage For a country on the far side of the world with a reputation for being expensive and inscrutable, Japan holds an outsized place in our collective culinary consciousness. Its quixotic and singular culture might be one reason, becoming the archetype of the … Continue reading
Grizzly gourmet or gastronomic gimmicks? Most business lunches are rather staid affairs full of talk about quarterly results and brand actualisation strategies, but one sure-fire way to spice it up a little is to have it at Archipelago, a smaller, rather unusual restaurant in Fitzrovia just around the corner from the BT Tower. Archipelago is … Continue reading
I’m a big fan of meat, but I can respect the choice of vegetarians to avoid the bloody stuff. Two of my regular dining companions, the Prancing Hippy and the Flame Haired Squelchie, are vegetarians. Technically, the Hippy is a pescetarian as he does eat fish and other seafood – presumably they don’t deserve his … Continue reading
The Picky Glutton 
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