The Japanese Canteen

The Japanese Canteen is a pseudo-​Japanese bowl shop — donburi bowls, ramen bowls, yakisoba bowls, and bento… boxes. Either way, the food is alright, albeit heavily-​sauced (i.e. noodles swimming in teriyaki sauce). The food is relatively expensive for the quality (~£6−7/bowl). However, they are nice enough to provide 10% student discount, and bottles of Sriracha abound.

No flavor at all in the ramen. Bought soy sauce and ginger for 1.5 pounds and dumped sriracha in to try to get any sort of flavor. Meh

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.

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.

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 Unilocal).
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.

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.

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!!)

Hard to find seat at lunchtime but be patient. Healthy yummy go go.

I actually don’t know whether to leave this place a good or a bad review. admittedly, the takoyaki (octopus balls) are nice not the best ive had, but nice. the pork and chicken katsu curries are alright. not great, not bad but alright. a lot of their dishes are not japanesethey may potentially consider changing their name to something a bit less misleading! the staff need to be re-​trained in the art of making the custiomer feel valuedto be honest, it’s not great. what it DOES have going for it is that it seems cheap. but that old adage is there for a reason, you really do get what you pay for.

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.

I tried the Takoyaki in this shop it is the best thing I have EVER eaten. It was cooked fresh while I waited and it was perfect. How many things can you say that about?

This is a chain and has a number of locations around the city. The food is OK, with Udon being your best bet here. The ramen is not the best but is very healthy. The prices are good, around £6 for soups and decent bento boxes. The katsu is good. This place is convenient for me and I go sometimes for a quick fix.

I was in the area, well I work nearby anyway, so I thought I’d drop in. Had the Chicken Yaki Undon, (I know I’ve spelt that wrong) for £5.95. Sat at a window table as I thought it would be nice to look out at the world and show everyone I can eat with chopsticks. Wasn’t as easy as it usually is when eating Thai or Chinese, the Japanese noodles were very long and difficult to control. If anyone had looked in the window they would have seen a very undignified diner, I did notice an oriental couple giving me a sideways glance. Anyway I did manage it in the end and it was very tasty. There wasn’t many customers in at the time of my visit, I hope it was because it was early and not my noodle wrestling that made them stay away.

Quick, easy and fairly cheap (especially with the 10% student discount in the afternoons).
The food, to be fair, isn’t brilliant, but there are a couple of good dishes and it can be relied on for grabbing a quick bite when you’re passing by and don’t want to stop at one of the rubbish Chinese takeaways nearby, nor sit down for a proper meal. So easy I inevitably keep going back.
One thing to bear in mind is that the food quality and wait time seems to vary depending on what time you go — late evenings are slower but the food appears to be freshly cooked, whereas lunchtimes tend to be quicker (about a 3 minute wait).
NB there’s a charge for using credit cards.