Kurumaya - delicious Japanese in the City

Another week, another lunch - this time Japanese with some of the girls from the office.

We were in the mood for something a bit more exciting than Itsu or Wasabi, so we headed to Kurumaya on Watling Street for some upmarket Japanese cuisine. The basement restaurant has a very comprehensive menu - offering everything from enormous 8-person sushi platters to bento boxes, teppanyaki and assorted noodle dishes - and the fact that you have to take your shoes off adds to the authenticity of the Japanese dining experience!

My only complaint is that the size of the meals is pretty variable: you can't really tell how much food you're going to get (even the pricing doesn't provide much of an indication). Last time I ate here, I struggled to finish an enormous bowl of seafood udon soup, whereas on this occasion my mixed seafood teppanyaki (see below) was pitifully small compared to the dishes served up to my peers.

Still - it was delicious: juicy chunks of fish, large, flavourful shrimp, and rings of tender squid, all drenched in an exquisite buttery sauce (which I tried - and failed - to scoop up with my chopsticks!)

Mixed seafood teppanyaki (with fish, squid, prawns, and stir-fried vegetables). Small, but delicious nonetheless!

In addition to the beautiful sushi set and the tempura udon soup pictured in this post, my group also enjoyed chicken katsu curry, a set of temaki hand-rolls, and a plate of sashimi (I didn't want to have to lean over everyone to get photos, so no pictures unfortunately!). Everything was reported to be delicious, and there was not a speck left on any of our plates at the end of the meal.

Tempura udon soup

If you're a fan of Japanese food and you're looking for somewhere to go for a lunch-time treat, I would definitely recommend Kurumaya - just make sure you book in advance, as the restaurant is usually pretty busy!