/ LUCY LOVES TO EAT

Kyoto Day 2 - Mitsui Garden Hotel and Exploring Nishiki Market

September 18, 2015

After a wonderful stay at Kikokuso on our first day in Kyoto, we head over to Mitsui Garden Hotel in the Sanjo area. At a much more pocket friendly stay of £60 per night (Kikokuso was £330 a night including a kaiseki dinner and traditional Japanese breakfast), this is going to be our hotel for the rest of our stay on Kyoto.

September 16, 2015

I hate it when summer ends. No more blazing sun, bright blue skies and green, green grass or evenings finished with al fresco dining.

Fear not, this is where the new Pizza Express at Merchant Square Paddington comes in!

September 14, 2015

The best dim sum in London? This is not a statement I could make lightly, but Royal China in Queensway deserves that so.

September 09, 2015

After a relaxing afternoon exploring Gion, we're back at the ryokan for an early dinner.

Kikokuso is simply beautiful and encompasses everything we thought a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) would look and feel like. It's a step back into old time Japan, and generations of this family run business is evident in the photos that are dotted around the inn.

September 07, 2015

Day 5 of our Japan honeymoon and we are set for Kyoto. Tokyo has been wonderful and we are sad to leave, but we know there is still so much more fun to come. We're booked onto the 10am bullet train that departs Tokyo station, so after 4 hours shut eye and very groggy, we stumble over to Shinjuku station.

September 05, 2015

Last few hours left in Tokyo and we squeeze in Roppongi Hills, the most sensational ramen at Mutekiya Ramen for dinner and a very quick glimpse of Kabukicho and Piss Alley.

Once we arrive back into Shinjuku station after a day trip to Hakone, we go back to our hotel round the corner for a quick freshen up. I love the location of our hotel, and being so close to Shinjuku station was just super for quick refreshers like this. Hotels in Tokyo are not large in size, but they are super clean and very comfortable. We loved our stay at the Hotel Sunroute Plaza, and the vending machines with drinks and ice cube extras were such a nice touch.

We make our way to Roppongi Hill's Tokyo City View Observation Deck to catch the evening views over this incredible city I have come to love in just a few days. From Shinjuku, it's a direct 10 minute ride on the Oedo Subway Line.

Roppongi Hills houses apartments, offices, shops, restaurants, an observation deck, a museum and recreational areas. This spider figure was pretty cool, very large and quite eerie at night!

These night view photos of Tokyo give me goosebumps! It's so wonderfully romantic and alive with bright lights from around the city and cars zooming about. The observation deck was a peaceful way to spend time soaking in this amazing city and I was happy that we were able to make time to see this.

A cafe inside Roppongi Hills. This is the kind of stuff you see all around Tokyo and there is just no other city like it.

Whilst we were on the observation desk, we saw the lights from the rainbow bridge and the ferris wheel, but didn't manage to see Tokyo tower light up. As we left and were on our way out, we were lucky to just catch it as it lit up!

Our evening ended romantically with a golden heart, a pond, and sparkly Tokyo Tower in the background.

Our bellies were rumbling by now. We had missed dinner and it was close to 10.30pm as we left Ropponghi Hills. There was a ramen bar on my eat list we had yet to tick off, and after a bit of stumbling around, we finally got ourselves to Ikebukuro. From Ikebukuro JR station, it's the East Exit and a 10 minute walk to Mutekiya ramen. This ramen joint is open until 4am every day!!

And the queues at nearly midnight are still nuts.

Once we are finally inside, it doesn't take too long for our food to arrive. And the ramen was sensational!!

The broth was just so delicious and coated every strand of the bouncy ramen. Adding freshly pressed garlic and a splash of vinegar took this bowl of awesomeness to another level! This was serious travel food magic.

The gyoza's were missable though.

This was our favourite place for udon in Tokyo and mustn't be missed. There are chains all over Tokyo, and whilst we couldn't see an English name for it, the Japanese characters were easy to recognise.

Back at Shinjuku and on our way to Kabukicho, this little takoyaki van had midnight-snack written all over it! I've heard Tokyo takoyaki differs from takoyaki in Osaka, the home of takoyaki and that it has a cleaner flavour.

I was happy to test out that theory although we had not yet headed to Osaka at this point on our trip. I have to say I didn't enjoy Tokyo's version too much. There was a lot of dough and just a bit average. Still, I liked that I could buy takoyaki from a van at 1am!

As you're not allowed to take photos once inside Kabukicho, Tokyo's red light district, we just took a quick stroll through. Nothing unusual or dodgy to report, but all the men in black suits standing outside the club and bar doors were a little scary at this time of the night.

5 minutes round the corner is the famous Piss Alley which we knew about after seeing it on B -K yu's blog. We imagine this alley would be busy in the evening with lots of tiny but incredibly cozy izakayas to offer a chilled beer and lots of beer snacks and light grills. Sad we weren't able to fit it in this time, but this is on our hit list when we eventually make it back to Japan.

And that's the end of our amazing adventures in Tokyo.

This was the most exhausting part of our honeymoon. We literally hit the ground running as soon as we landed and throughout the 4 days, we had about 5-6 hrs sleep every night after walking for an average of 12-14hrs during the day. But it was worth the sore feet and tiredness to see/eat/experience Tokyo to the max on our short time here.

We're heading to Kyoto first thing in the morning. Sayonara Tokyo, but it's not goodbye forever. I'll be back.

Read the rest of our honeymoon here.

September 02, 2015

Want to eat some great Japanese food but not sure how to find inexpensive Japanese restaurants in London?

Japanese food has become one of my favourite cuisines over the years, especially after our honeymoon in Japan, and I am always up for a Japanese meal when in London. I'm not talking about your usual sushi from Wasabi or Itsu, Japanese food is so much more than just sushi.

Here are my favourite authentic Japanese restaurants in London that averages £15-£25 per person for dinner.

1. Koya Bar

Koya Bar specialises in handmade udon, a thick chewy round noodle made from wheat and rice flour. This restaurant is just like the udon bars on the streets of Tokyo, and there is no other in central London. Order the udon cold with a side of hot soup, this ensures you get to try the bouncy, toothsome noodles before the hot soup softens it. My pick is always the delicious beef in soup with cold udon.

2. Eat Tokyo

Not too much of a secret amongst Japanese foodie fans. I go to the Holborn branch, but there are other branches too. The humongous sashimi boat is only £35 and can feed 4 easily. As they are so busy all the time, the freshness and quality of ingredients is apparent. The menu is huge too, ranging from the excellent value bento boxes to unagi don to deep fried oysters. See my full review here.

3. Tonkotsu

Battle of the ramens in London are still going strong and out of all the big ones (Shoryu, Bone Daddies, Ittenbari, Kanada-Ya), my favourite is Tonkotsu in Soho. The ramen is springy with a slight chew to them and I like that they are not too eggy either. The fixin's and soup base are also great, my picks are the Tokyo and Tonkotsu ramens.

4. Nagomi

A cute and quirky little Japanese restaurant just off Oxford Street. The cooking is homey, such as their pork simmered with potatoes in dashi, and their Takoyaki is also a close replicate of the famed octopus balls in Osaka. See my full review here.

5. Lingo

One of the newer Japanese restaurants in London that opened it doors around 2 years ago. Peek through the window and you will see mainly Japanese customers, a great indication of authenticity. Bento boxes, sushi and katsu dons are my orders here.

Do you know of any inexpensive Japanese restaurants in London that should be on this list too?

August 31, 2015

Quite a few years ago, Yuen Long used to be a town I'd go to quite often or even stay the night during summer holidays in Hong Kong. I had friends who lived there and during that time, I got to eat twice at Tai Wing Wah restaurant, one of the must eats of Yuen Long along with it's famous 'wife's cakes'.

Tai Wing Wah is famed for it's brilliant 'Walled-Village Cuisine', and you can expect seriously hearty and homely cooking with many dishes that just cannot be ordered in the usual Cantonese-Peking restaurants. However, Yuen Long has since become a long way for me to go and I just can't find the time, so when my friend told me that Tai Wing Wah had branched out into Wan Chai, I jumped on it for our dinner meet up. This was awesome news!

August 28, 2015

When the weather is miserable outside, there is no better way to cheer myself up than to stay at home, drink lots of hot tea & snuggle up. This week was the perfect opportunity to do just that with the tea that The Tea Makers of London* sent to me earlier this month.

Tea is a big part of my life, and I'm super fussy when it comes to authenticity. Be it English Breakfast tea, Chinese teas or Japanese teas, it has to be high quality and I have certain brands I stick to. So when the lovely people at The Tea Makers asked if I'd like to try their tea, I was keen to see if they passed as 'proper tea', using high quality tea leaves as opposed to the lower grade scrap trimmings often used in pre-packaged teabags.

August 26, 2015

When Ala and Jennie both tagged me in the Food Bloggers Get To Know series, I knew I would have fun writing this post. The #fdbloggersGTK tag was put together by Loriley so that we can all get to know each other a little better. What a great idea!

Thanks to Ala and Jennie for thinking of me, I loved reading through your posts and getting to know more about you guys. Here's a little about me and my blog:

August 24, 2015

It's Day 4 and our last day in Tokyo. We set off early with an ambition to complete the Hakone tour in half a day so that we still have a bit more time to explore the last bits of Tokyo.

Hakone is a part of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National park where visitors are able to get a glimpse of Mount Fuji in the near distance. The train journey from Tokyo is around an hour away and we bought the Hakone Free Pass which includes a round trip on the train from Shinjuku Tokyo and unlimited use of all associated transport within the Hakone area.

LUCY LOVES TO EAT

SLIDER

Kyoto Day 2 - Mitsui Garden Hotel and Exploring Nishiki Market

September 18, 2015

Al Fresco Pizza at Pizza Express Merchant Square, Paddington

September 16, 2015

Royal China Queensway, The Best Dim Sum in London

September 14, 2015

Kyoto Day 1 - Kikokuso Ryokan and A Kaiseki Dinner

September 09, 2015

Kyoto Day 1 - Riding The Nozomi Shinkansen And Exploring Gion

September 07, 2015

Tokyo Day 4 - Roppongi Hills, Sensational Ramen At Mutekiya Ramen, Kabukicho and Piss Alley

September 05, 2015

My Top 5 Inexpensive Japanese Restaurants in London

September 02, 2015

Tai Wing Wah's Walled-Village Cuisine 大榮華圍村菜, Wan Chai Hong Kong

August 31, 2015

Snuggling Up With The Tea Makers Of London

August 28, 2015

Food Bloggers Get To Know: #fdbloggersGTK

August 26, 2015

Tokyo Day 4 - Hakone In 6 Hours

August 24, 2015