Abeno Too

If you want Chinese food but don't fancy your normal noodles, rice and meat combo's this is the place to go.

While there are a selection of rice and noodle dishes on the menu these should really just be ignored and you should go for either the okonomiyaki (a kinda savory pancake which is made fresh at your table on a hot plate) and om-soba (noodles and meat wrapped in an omlette which is then covered in sauce) from which they have a number of meaty choices to suit all tastes.

Dishes are about £10-£12 bracket so not cheap but certainly worth it; it's an experience and a good one at that :>

One thing to note - there are now three restaurants in this chain in London and this particular venue is probably the worst due to the fact that it's really really small and feels rather cramped when it fills up with hungry people.

Abeno Too is a decidedly slow food restaurant. If you want fast food, don't come here, but the wait is worthwhile. On a hot day, the hibachi grills can be a bit overbearing, but the quality of the food even makes the heat bearable. There's an extensive menu, but as the other reviewer said, you come here for the Okonami yaki, a grilled Japanese egg and cabbage pancake, with a variety of fillings- from the daily specials to fish, meat or vegetables. The Japanese beer selection is good, as is the tea. It's quite small, gets busy, and averagely takes about 20 mnutes for one of the staff to rustle up a pancake. The waiting is good, and order up some miso or edamame to satiate your hunger while you watch the culinary magoc unfold before your eyes. The staff are sweet and friendly, but I think it's better to sit at the counter than a table......you can carry on a conversation better at the counter, whereas the cooking process seems more intrusive at a table. Not cheap, but not expensive either. A deluxe pancake will leave you bursting, and with a starter or salad and a few beers, you're looking at about 20 pounds a head.

At this restaurant, they serve a type of Japanese food called Okonmi yaki as well as some other Japanese dishes, but really it's the Okonmi yaki that's the highlight of the visit. It's quite difficult to describe, but it's almost like an omelette packed with cabbage and whatever else you ask for. But the strange thing about it here is that they not only mix together what would normally be quite unusual mixes of food which end up tasting amazing but they also cook the dishes on a hot plate built into your table. Then to finish it off, they decorate the dish with various sauces and sprinkles, one of which are fish flakes which are so finely sliced that they waft with the heat of the dish. A startling sight. Also because they have cooked it on the in built hot place on your table, your food stays warm however long you take to eat it.

The seats double up as coat and bag storage space. and because you're sat on them, you can feel happy to be relaxed whilst you're eating and not have to keep looking out for your bag.

The grilled dumplings stuffed with avocado and tofu melt as you eat them, they are so good that I'm thinking about going back there now as I write!