The Japanese Canteen

Not your fanciest Japanese food shop, but for the price, it's actually pretty good portion sizes and value.

I got the beef udon. The noodles weren't the best and the beef was a little rough, but it was filling and only cost me £7. Not too bad.

Great sushi and Gyoza. Seem to be filled with students from UCL when I visited, not sure if it's like that all the time but I was there midweek lunchtime so weekends probably not as busy.

There are plenty of decent sushi places in the area so I wouldn't got out of my pay to eat here but defiantly the best place to eat if your local to Warren St and looking for a light lunch.

Also if you have the time go over to the excellent Korean supermarket which is just across the road.

I ordered a Chicken Donburi from Deliveroo and it was quite good and fairly priced.

Holy hell, I hated this place. At first, I was speechless and couldn't think of how to articulate why I didn't like this place, but then realized that would totally defeat the purpose of writing this damn review. But anyway, there is a chance that I went on a bad day, but even experiencing this once is one time too many!

Starting with the takoyaki, they are meant to be crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside but with chewiness from the octopus, and made using a fun little griddle that everyone is fond of watching (seriously, google or youtube it, haha). Granted, no fancy griddle here, so I assume that it's deep fried. When you bite into it, it was hard, and the taste was just strange with too much dough and not enough seasonings or okonomiyaki sauce! I just figured if I could drown this sucker in okonomiyaki sauce, it'd be better, but no dice.

My friend had ordered one of their ramens and the two of us could not finish it, despite starving to death. I don't expect them to be authentic, but that doesn't mean it can't be delicious. However, there was no flavor in it at all, let alone any aroma to the broth. Just loads and loads of salt. With an unpleasant broth, just forget the noodles and vegetables, they were a lost cause.

I think they can do so much better but in all honesty, this place perplexes me. I did not enjoy my food and cannot imagine anyone else enjoying this.

Japanese Canteen makes me sad.

I know it's hot outside, but I was sitting in a freezing cold room for two hours so I wanted something warm and delicious. And I love chicken katsu curry. I love it, and since it's so close to work, I figured why not? (Even though I was warned by Yelp).

It's okay. There was a Hawaiian restaurant in the bay area that made amazing katsu curry, and this was just okay. The curry was kind of bland. And it's served with a bit of chicken and rice. And it wasn't really that good.

Boo. Oh well, not everywhere can be good, and hopefully I'll find another katsu curry place that will be an improvement.

This place seemed to have a good selection of Japanese dishes, but it's more aptly Japanese fast food than it is truly authentic Japanese food. I ordered the yakisoba with chicken. I agree with other reviewers that there was a lot of sauce for the amount of noodles in the dish. The flavor was all right but nothing fancy. The value was also just "okay." I might give them another try, but I probably won't seek them out.

The Japanese canteen made me happy, just not for the reason they may have hoped!* This place has reasonably priced, stomach-filling, Japanese comfort food served by grumpy, non-Japanese folks.

Our katsu curry wasn't terrible...it just wasn't particularly good either. We had to ask a few times for our drinks as the lady behind the counter seemed to be in a terrible mood, and not keen to serve us. Ah well.

(*The happiness inducing part was when my boyfriend started his katsu curry...he told me that my home-made katsu curry is far better. Yay!!)

Very rarely do I dislike a place this much, but Japanese Canteen is one of those I hate. I'm almost ashamed to admit that I've been thrice, but purely because it's near UCL and indeed, a minutes walk from my halls in first year.

Food:

I remember thinking that it was a bit of a joke to describe their ramen as ramen. The curries are semi-acceptable though.

Drinks:

2 stars purely because this place introduced me to firefly tonics which I now love.

Bottom line:

If you're in the area, and craving Japanese, then there's a chance that you might be satisfied. You should probably just go to Itsu though.

What makes it worse for me is that so many people (at UCL) make it out to be decent or even 'good' (shudder). It isn't.

It's about 5 or 6 years since Japanese Canteen popped up in Hoxton Square, filled with Japanese and Chinese staff and serving cheap and delicious bento boxes, katsu currys and teriyaki.

Fast forward to the present, and now you can find Japanese Canteens all over town with cold, hard furniture, insipid and unseasoned food and a staff entirely from the nether realms of Europe.

Are Lvov and Oporto famous for their sushi? Thought not.

Student discounts after 2:30pm!

I've been wanting to try this place for a while, and today was the first time I had the chance. I got the chicken ramen with a clear soy base. It was pretty good, but also pretty bland until I added some sirracha sauce - at which point, I mainly tasted sirracha. I think that was down to my plain broth choice, though. Other menu options looked pretty appetising, so I'll probably be back to give it another go.