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Grilled skewers at Bincho - © Jonathan Perugia
We liked the original Bincho, with great Thames views and space for a theatrically long open grill, but this surviving branch has a better vibe. It's darker, Soho-boisterous, more cramped and closer in feel to the Japanese booze-with-food izakaya model than its spacious but over-refined progenitor.
The key feature remains the charcoal grill, here located near the entrance, on to which chefs throw little skewers of meat, fish and vegetables. This is the more enjoyable section of the restaurant, since you can watch the flames and smell the smoke, but there are also couply tables in a second room to the rear that are often less hectic.
Setting a minimum order of two skewers from the yakitori and kushiyaki lists seems a little mean, but share them around and you'll soon have assembled a tasty meal at not unreasonable cost - perhaps vary favourites like pork belly, eel or asparabacon (asparagus with smoky bacon) with more outlandish options such as sunazuri (chicken gizzard).
Among the larger dishes, we enjoy the iwashi shio-yaki (salt-grilled sardine, threaded on a skewer as if still swimming). Do try the premium sakes, served to be drunk from an unwieldy but flavour-enhancing cedar box, the masu.
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What is 'following'?Transport Leicester Square or Tottenham Court Road tube
020 7287 9111
Lunch served noon-3pm Tue-Sat; 1-3.30pm Sun. Dinner served 5-11pm Mon-Sat; 5-10.30pm Sun
Main courses £1.50-£2.50. Set lunch £6.50-£8.50. Set dinner £10-£25
Credit cards AmEx, MC, V
Facilities
Babies and children welcome ( high chairs ), Booking advisable, Separate room for parties ( seats 18 ), Available for hire, Disabled ( toilet ), Takeaway serviceUtterly overpriced for totally unremarkable food. Incompetent staff, a complete RIP OFF.
I agree with the last bad reviews. Went there last evening. The service was ok but the food was really bad. Absolutely no taste and a very salty bill at the end. We paid £65 for four and we ate just a few things from the menu. Absolutely not recommended!!
This restaurant has on its menu a number of items labelled things like tomato bacon, or aspargusbacon, which means they've wrapped tomato and asparagus in bacon. It is a remarkable achievement to wrap some food in BACON and still make the resulting product taste of ABSOLUTELY nothing. It is even more remarkable that this restaurant has decided to sell the said tasteless foodstuff for absolutely obscene amounts of money for a tiny portion.
I spent £30 on things wrapped in bacon, tasted nothing and left hungry.
A note of warning for the uninitiated. When they talk about skewers, forget the idea we have of the ones you think of on a barbecue, in the supermarket or at the kebab shop where several pieces of meat sit with bits of vegetable. They're idea of a skewer is one item.
And remember that although they state the price per skewer, you must buy 2 skewers of each dish, so for example, a mushroom skewer priced £1.90 is one mushroom, cut in two and put on two skewers and costs £3.80. An eel skewer is a slice of eel, the two skewers costing £5.10.
Having eaten last night in the Farringdon branch and, with no alcohol, walked away with a heft bill, an empty stomach and a rather joyless and tasteless exeperience, I would advise that you give this a miss. It's new, has a lack of customers and hopefully should close soon.
If you like paying obscene amounts of money for tiny amounts of mediocre food whilst having terrible japanese electro music blasted into your ears this is the place for you!
The best non-sushi Japanese food ever! We found everything super fresh, tasty and so cheap! No fass serving and open plan kitchen really make you feel at home, something particulalry difficult in Soho these days. My favourite is the chicken oyster, not to be missed...
Most delicious JP grills I've ever tasted across London.
Staffs are so nice with decent service.
This is the best place for me to catch up with my friends, but the price to students are quite expensive.
The food was delicious - we had duck, beef tongue, eel and beef, could recommend all of them, except the latter one, so don't go for the traditional chicken/beef selection, try something more interesting (and more tasty). The rice with garlic bits was also very good, miso soup - one of the best ones that we tried in London.
The service was very fast and we were looked after to the max.
The environment is cosy, though the smell of grilling is the only irritating bit, as it was strong throughout the place and got into our clothes.
Definitely misleading as a cheap eat. Tiny portions on each stick and paying extra for dipping sauce is cut throat. Tried the 7 samurai choice, and the only tasty morsel was the chicken. Nice looking venue tho'.
The food is great. Try rice with chicken and mushrooms. Tables are a little bit low so it's difficult to eat. I will definitely come back. Cheers!
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