Oliver Maki, Soho: Hah! I spent £70 quid on lunch! £70 just for my food and drink! Hah. Heh. I don’t know how that happened. OK, I do know how that happened. SUSHI at a Bahraini/Kuwaiti restaurant in Soho and I am so not an oligarch. I liked the modern clean-lined space, and I liked how friendly the proprietor and waiter were. I liked the loos. And the origami chopstick holder. I also liked the sushi. But I really can’t go around London splashing out £70 on lunch all the time now, can I? (To be fair, this did include a small £15 sake and I may have over-ordered food-wise. Also, they did give me a free umbrella, which I prefer to think of as a £35 umbrella so maybe I just spent £35 on lunch.) The Verdict: Only for special occasions or when someone else is paying. (Get the Jewel Box!) Or when you need an umbrella to go with your meal. Or well, when I make the millions that I deserve.

Sakana Sushi: Aldgate East: In contrast, I’ve eaten at Sakana Sushi on Commercial Street a couple of times now and I always waddle out for £20. (It probably helps that they are BYOB, but still, even with a £15 tiny bottle of sake, that’s £35.) (Note Yelp says they are not BYOB so call and check. They were BYOB in November and December of last year.) This space is super tiny and super brightly lit, but the service is sweet and the menu is interesting and the prices are very easy on the wallet. Help a sister out and go eat there. Bring your friends. If I had any criticism, it’s that the lights are too bright. The Verdict: The prices are so right, it’s a no brainer.

Tajima-Tei, Leather Lane: Why have I not eaten here before?? This is the most Japanese-feeling Japanese place I’ve eaten at in a while. The staff do that Japanese greeting shouting thing when you enter and the lunch special list is super-long…a cornucopia of bento box and combo options. (I am a sucker for any combination of anything that arrives in small amounts.) I arrived early but by the time I left, the place was packed with local city workers, including many Japanese-speaking ones. The mackerel in my bento box was particular delicious. I quickly fell in love with the restaurant, the staff and the food and I will be back many times. The Verdict: Fun for everyone.

The post All of The Sushi I’ve Been Eating Lately first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Now, all these years later, I can’t even remember what those tough times in 2008 were. But I remember that Tokyo was the answer. Tokyo and sushi and sake and patterns and wrapping paper and basements of department stores and French pastries. Many French pastries.

And it was the answer. I stayed at The Prince Park Tokyo and it was amazing. The toilet in my hotel room!! It was my first experience with Japanese toilets and my life has never been the same since. I had a good time at The Prince Park.

On my last night in Japan, I spent all of the remainder of my money on a slightly worn room at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. Yes, I was all very “Lost in Translation.” (It was a nice hotel, but it really didn’t compare to the lightness of the Prince Park.) That night, I had drinks with an old British friend from my Munich ex-pat days at the bar all the way up at the top of the Park Hyatt. In the twinkling darkness of the bar, we talked about our magical Munich expat time. I am grateful to that summer.

So what I’m saying is…It doesn’t take a lot to get me emotional about anything Japan and Tokyo. I am easy when it comes to Japan and Tokyo. Very, very easy.

I just bbq’d all this and more for lunch at Kintan and now I am going out for dinner. 🙁

A photo posted by Krista (@kristainlondon) on Jan 25, 2015 at 8:23am PST

It doesn’t take much to get me excited about Japanese barbecue either. So when the very kind people at Kintan on High Holborn got in touch and asked me if I wanted to drop by with a friend, I was grateful. Because you see, I already owed my friend Natasa. So this was a way of paying her back. I said yes. But in hindsight, I didn’t really know what I was saying yes to. It sounded like a drink and a snack and I was happy for that. But no. It was a monster of a Japanese barbecue. Filet mignon, rib eye, short rib, skirt steak…plus prawns and scallops and halloumi cheese. All on the barbecue. Plus hot oiled seared salmon and tuna tartar on cubes of rice, fried, on the side. And edamame and noodles and salad and miso soup and did I mention the rib eye??? Oh yes, and mochi ice cream. MOCHI ICE CREAM. Stick a fork in me. I’m done. 

Soo full. As stuffed as one these guys. A photo posted by Krista (@kristainlondon) on Jan 25, 2015 at 7:42am PST

Natasa and I did the best we could to clear our plates. We finished nearly everything but the noodles (low light of the meal) and some of the skirt steak. We made room for a sweet, sweet extra dessert from the sweet sweet proprietor, whom we can only wish we had met earlier. Because the only real downside to all this gratefulness and sweetness that I have for Kintan is that when we really needed service, staff were curiously absent. Empty dishes languished for ages. Water glasses went unfilled. I lost my napkin and there was no alcohol so I became cranky.  But yet…Kintan is the type of place I want to go back to. On a Sunday afternoon, even on a desolate stretch of High Holborn, Kintan was full of Japanese families and their children. I love that sort of thing and I can only hope that next time Natasa and I return, we are with a group of eight or ten or twelve and can share the Japanese love. And be grateful for it. 

The Verdict; Delicious fun for the entire family! But don’t over-order! Take your time! And book that trip to Japan with your family before it’s too late.

Big Bad Disclosure: I was a grateful guest of Kintan, along with my friend Natasa. I estimate our tab at about £110, before service. We tipped on the full amount, as you should. 

The post I Am Grateful for Japan and All the Japanese Barbecue first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

I am feeling grateful a lot these days. Lest I become one of those self-help blogs (not that there is anything wrong with them), I will leave that there and refrain from writing a post entitled “10 Reasons Why You Should Be Grateful Too.” Instead I will simply reflect, positively so, on the mindshifts I’ve been experiencing lately. Guys, I think I’m going to become a Buddhist.

Who am I kidding? I don’t even know what being a Buddhist means means. I just know I like this guy, whom my friend Aileen introduced me to a couple of months ago. (She didn’t introduce him to me in person of course. Just via the interwebs. He’s very ill at the moment, actually.)

Let’s go back to being grateful. It was this spirit of gratefulness that led me to say “yes” when the extremely, extremely kind people at Kouzu, — a new Japanese restaurant catty-corner from the Middleton’s favorite hotel, The Goring — got in touch and invited me and a friend to visit. I have already written a lot on the subject of blogger freebies. So have a lot of other people. And you know what? I’m tired. And I don’t care anymore. Life is yours to live. Live it. Be grateful for the doors that open in life, especially the doors that let you close those others you’ve been holding open for too long.

Cocktail hour with @leeturnerconn thank you @kouzu_london @jprmediagroup

A photo posted by Krista (@kristainlondon) on Jan 17, 2015 at 10:18am PST

Be grateful for delicious pear-y cocktails at Kouzu made by the particularly competent and endearing barman. I was very pleasantly surprised by the seriousness of the cocktails at Kouzu. I wish we had had more cocktails. Especially after my friend broke her glass of wine all over our table and the floor, drastically cutting into our alcohol consumption. 

Still thinking about the delish yellowtail with truffle at @kouzu_london last night. Thanks again @jprmediagroup A photo posted by Krista (@kristainlondon) on Jan 18, 2015 at 3:59am PST

Be grateful for the soft and lovely yellowtail with truffles that starts your night off just right.

And then be grateful that a girl that you don’t know can lean across a restaurant table during dinner to kiss her boyfriend and set her hair on fire and survive to tell the tale. (Wish away the smell of burnt hair in the moments afterwards…wish it away.)

See, this is why no one should ever invite me for an “invite to review.” Because when you invite strangers into your space,  you can’t control what will happen, what people will see, what people will feel. And I, unfortunately, will write about the things that do happen and the things that I see and the things that I feel. As long as everyone is cool with that, we’re cool. We’re grateful!

Loved the spicy tuna rolls at @kouzu_london @jprmediagroup

A photo posted by Krista (@kristainlondon) on Jan 17, 2015 at 3:11pm PST

Hey, the spicy — crunchy — tuna rolls happened and they were fab. I could happily survive on these forever. Also happening…the aburi. All the aburi! We delighted in the aburi. My friend hasn’t stopped talking about the aburi since. It’s getting a little annoying, actually. (Aburi is nigri, partially grilled.)

Less happening: the lamb chops. But then again, after eating lamb chops at Tayyabs all these years, I don’t think I can eat anyone else’s lamb chops again. I wanted the lamb chops at Kouzu to be more smoky, more barbecued.

Most happening: Aromatherapy Associates in the loos! I love Aromatherapy Associates!! I am grateful for Aromatherapy Associates. You should be too.

Also most happening: Beautiful chairs. I am a sucker for beautiful restaurant chairs.

In sum, everything at Kouzu is very beautifully presented. And our server, a wonderfully lovely marine biologist from Poland, was absolutely perfect and fantastic. It was refreshing to have a server who knew something about fish!! (Discussion topic of the night: bottom feeders, literally and figuratively.) Idea…all marine biologists should intern in Japanese restaurants!

Not so perfect and fantastic…there was only one other table of two seated in the entire restaurant when we arrived. Where did Kouzu try to seat us?? Right next to the only other people in the restaurant.

Me to everyone: “Uh, this is weird.”

Couple mainly to the hostess: “You must be joking. Look at all those empty tables!”

Me: “Seriously, can’t you seat us somewhere else? This is so weird.”

I know there is an order of things and there are reservations and logistics and operations to figure out but…this was just weird.

Also weird… after the hair incident, having to point out the large, burnt hunk of sad blond hair lying on the floor outside the handicapped loo.

See…this is why no one should never invite me anywhere. Danger! Danger!

The Verdict: I like Kouzu. I will gladly return and eat all their yellowtail with truffle and drink all their Japanese pear margaritas. You should come with me so we can eat all their spicy tuna rolls together. Let’s just not set anything on fire.

Big Bad Disclosure: My friend and I were guests of Kouzu. Our meal was roughly valued at £140 or so. This was extremely generous of Kouzu. Extremely. I am very grateful to them because it meant I got to spend a night out with my friend who has 3-year-old twins and is limited in her social cavorting. It was nice to be able to treat her. I was grateful for that opportunity. 

The post Kouzu, London first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

United Ramen, Angel: I want to like United Ramen because it is local for me. But they do strange things with their ramen– like add Yorkshire pudding — and their noodles are kinda sad, like from a package. The service has been sweet and attentive on both my visits, although I learned the hard way during my first visit to shell out the £1 for the bottle of water or else you will find yourself begging every five minutes to have your 4 oz glass of tap water refilled. I’ve ordered the same bowl of spicy ramen on both visits and the first bowl was colorful and, well, spicy. The second bowl was not very colorful and not very spicy. Hmmm. I have a bad feeling I will find myself back here quite often in one of those “Well, I don’t really want to go there but it IS close so…” The Loos: Narrow, green. The Verdict: Fine.

Portal, Clerkenwell: Portal has been around for years and I’ve always wanted to try it. So after a particularly long day at work, I decided to drop in and have some snacks at the bar. The vibe was weird…there was really no one there. Friendly bar service but oily, burnt pimientos de padron. No thanks. Also, the place really smelled like gas but the staff looked at me like I was crazy when I said so. The Loos: Unepxlored: The Verdict: Meh.

Ippudo, Tottenham Court: Truth be told, after reading all the London restaurant blogs, I really wanted to go to Kanada-ya. But the queue was too long and much like I don’t like running for trains, buses and elevators, I also don’t wait to eat in lines longer than 10 minutes. So I went to Ippudo instead, where there was no queue but still a buzzy, full atmosphere. The staff all shouted at me in Japanese when I entered, which was slightly alarming. (I may have been a little fragile from drinks on Blackheath for the fireworks the night before.) I liked the noodles at Ippudo — snappy, dense — but I wanted a soy egg, not a regular one. The Loos: Some of the nicest I’ve seen. Very clean and neat and spa-like. Well done, Ippudo. The Verdict: I sort of want to go back but I want to try Kanada-ya first before I do.

Tayyabs, Whitechapel: My friends B&A emailed me as I was leaving work the other night and asked the question to which there is only one answer: “Do you want to go to Tayyabs?” I said “Yes, I will be there by 7:30 pm.” And I got straight off one train and onto another, in search of lamb chops and all the smoky daal. And while the table of 20 young, drunk investment bankers was certainly distracting, it didn’t distract us from devouring all the food. Our server: “I think it’s too much. You’ve ordered too much.” Us: “Have you seen us eat here before? It won’t be a problem.” The Loos: Quite fancy and new upstairs with good tilework. The verdict: Go and go and go again.

The post Where I’ve Been Eating in November, So Far… first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Reunited and it feels so good. Long-time readers might remember Canadia Boy (aka Bryan) and Stacey from my London years, they of the lovely wedding in Biarritz which included a side-trip to San Sebastian. They too have decamped to Washington DC, so along with Julie and DC’s favorite morning show TV host, @financialista. We found ourselves at the lovely and peaceful Izakaya Seki in the U Street Corridor, where we promptly ordered everything off the menu. A real Japanese menu will all sorts of real Japanese things and no volcano rolls in sight. Each item better than the last. I would eat here every day if I could, and bring Bryan and Stacey and Julie and Jessica with me.

The post Izakaya Seki, Washington DC first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

I’m going to keep this short and sweet. This bowl of ramen at Bone Daddies in Soho in London is one of the most delicious things I’ve EVER eaten. And I don’t normally like ramen. Also, those eggs? PERFECTION. Ramen MAGIC. Crazy ramen magic. The broth!! I could drink that for the rest of my life and die happily.

The only bad part was the music. Not a heavy metal fan, this one.

The Verdict: GO. Now.

The post Bone Daddies, London first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

This is the “batara,” and it’s not on the menu. I only know about it because my first time here, a nice Brazilian lady clued me in on the secret off-menu items. I took a picture of my batara then and have been using that photo to place my order ever since.

“Why isn’t it on the menu?” I ask tonight.

“Because it’s special,” was the answer.

And then the staff convinced me to have some sake, served cold in a wooden box. And then an “ebiten” (deep-fried shrimp roll) and then the tender belly of some very delicious yellowtail.

Very convincing, these Brazilians. Very.

The Verdict:I might be slightly high on seafood as I write this. GO!

The post Nagayama Sao Paulo, I Love You first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

The more things change, the more things stay the same. Sometimes the simplest explanation IS the explanation. Sometimes, you have to leave to go home. Or come home to leave. Thankfully, the winter of my homecoming last year has not been repeated. Chicago is bright and cool and BRISK. The skies are stunningly, vividly blue. I’ve worn my boots just once. And my down coat — its buttons lost somewhere between last year and this year — also just once. Everything is lovely, but it makes me feel like we are on the cusp of something. On the cusp of something big. Something huge. Something terrible.

I am frightened.

So, um, I’ll just keep going out to eat then. Here’s where I’ve been lately:

Boiler Room, 2210 N California Ave: I loved the vibe of Boiler Room. I loved the loos. (Chicago Transit doors and, even, sound effects.) I loved the beer selection and I thought our service was pretty good too. But the pizza? Undercooked, and while at least the pepperoni had some taste to it, The Purist (mozzarella, basil, balsamic reduction) was pretty tasteless. The Verdict: Meh. So much promise, but not fully realized.

Keefer’s, 20 W Kinzie: My NY Strip Steak was good. The creamed spinach was good. The potato croquettes were excellent. But our server took FOREVER to take our order, and then he claimed we didn’t order calamari to start (we did) and then at some point, a fist fight broke out between other tables. ??? Oh, and I should mention that my friend who made the reservation is a very dependable, reliable person and I was there when she called Keefer’s and booked the table. Upon arrival, they had no record of our booking. They worked things out which was good of them, but still all very odd. Oh!! And then, when the bill came, we asked for it to be divided up amongst credit cards and that was one of the most complicated conversations I’ve ever had, for what was a basic math thing. The Verdict: I’d go somewhere else before I went back here, but I did like the vibe of the room with the radios in it.

Nori, 954 W Diversey: I dropped in here for a quick dinner after getting a haircut at Salon Blue on Sheffield, a place I’ve been going to since 1998! (Go see Amy. Tell her Krista sent you. Funnily, Chicago Food Snob has been going to Amy forever too!) Amazing. Anyhow, obviously Penny’s isn’t doing as well as it used to because this used to be part of Penny’s next door. I sat at the bar and had the Red Nori (spicy tuna, spicy shrimp, and avocado covered with tempura crumbs, red tobiko, and unagi sauce) and it was pretty enjoyable. But then I had the Crunchy Spicy Tuna maki and it was so depressing, it made me cry. There was no crunch. It was like they forgot a step. Roll the maki in raw tempura crumbs and…sigh. The Verdict: OK. Not great. I will keep searching.

Roka Akor, 11 W Illinois. I dropped in here for lunch with some colleagues this past Wednesday during Restaurant Week. The restaurant was curiously empty. Apparently, no one in The Loop wants to go north of the river, because Petterino’s is freaking PACKED every single afternoon. And Petterino’s is just good. And not as vibe-y as Roka Akor. Fascinating. Well, I had the restaurant week special and although I thought the Wagyu beef and kimchi dumplings were pretty luscious, the rest of the meal — the butterfish roll and the barbecued pork loin — were uninspiring. At $22 though, this was a very good value. The Verdict: Good. And the bar area seems good for solo dining.

So there we are. Some recent tries in Chicago. Until next time! Let’s hope it doesn’t snow like crazy in between.

The post Eating Out, Chicago Edition first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Vera: First stop, Vera in the West Loop. I like Vera for the sherry alone. Americans don’t drink enough sherry. So I’ve been drinking enough to make up for the rest of you, but you really do need to get on this and widen your drinking horizons. While we were at Vera, we settled in for mixed platters of meats and cheeses. My favorite dish of the evening though had to be the anchovies. I don’t know what it is about me and anchovies lately, but I just can’t get enough. I’ll be back here to sample more of the menu, as we were only there for sherry and snacks. The Verdict: Recommended for the sherry selection and the very nice Spanish menu.

Slurping Turtle: I dropped in here on a Friday afternoon…I think it was their first week of business. Well, that will teach me because I totally suffered the consequences. Service was ridiculously, abysmally slow. (All my American romanticizing about service in America while I was living abroad? I’ve yet to have my expectations MET…forget about having them exceeded. America, what has happened to you???) Service aside, my Yuke Tataki of beef tartar, spicy chili paste, sesame oil, and quail egg was pretty awesome. The pork belly snack was also pretty great. The Verdict: Recommended for interesting Japanese food and communal seating/solo dining.

Jerry’s: I ended up working from home one day for some reason or another and was going a little stir crazy so I needed to get out of the house for lunch. I discovered that there’s barely ANYTHING open on Division in Wicker Park during lunch so I found myself at Jerry’s, which was fine because I wanted a salad anyhow. Jerry’s is very low-key. I liked that. I also liked that they made their own sodas on the premises, so I had something lovely with lime and ginger. Then I ordered a salad, which actually came with a side. (!!!) So I had some creamed spinach. This was all very acceptable, although the service — yet again — was pretty poor. I had no idea where the guy was half the time. Maybe he was in the back making soda. The Verdict: Not a destination, but a good place for lunch.

So…that’s three places I’ve been recently. How about you? Been anywhere good recently?

The post Where I’ve Been Eating, Chicago Edition first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

The post Happiness is… first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Not a bad lunch if I do say so myself. And quite a steal at $8 for the set-menu. You should visit Yuzu. And soon.

The post Yuzu, West Town first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Right. So this post won’t make me any friends. Because here you have two guys who have done the hard thing…not only have the opened up a restaurant, but they’ve opened up a restaurant in a RECESSION. And it’s not a small restaurant. It’s a big one.

The guys behind Union Sushi & BBQ run a fun and popular blog, detailing the whole process. They’re great on Twitter. You want to love them. You do love them, because you feel like you know them. In fact, everyone does love them! You can see post after post on Twitter of people going to Union Sushi & BBQ over and over again.

But I don’t really know the guys behind Union. I’ve never met them before today. I’m not a professional restaurant critic. And I’ve only eaten three things on the menu, so it’s tough to argue my experience is representative of the menu as a whole. What I’m saying is…no one should really take me seriously, and never *overestimate* the power of this blog.

I order a salad to start because I’m trying to be good these days, really. It has frisee lettuce in it. This is totally my problem but I just can’t get down with frisee. It’s not my thing. It’s also totally my problem because the menu states very clearly…

baby arugula, tomato, frisée, red onion, yuba, tofu crouton, micro-greens + yuzu dressing

Let’s talk about the tofu crouton. I am a lover of all things tofu. But this tasted like it has been prepared ages ago and left to dry. In my opinion, this wasn’t freshly fried (or baked? I couldn’t quite tell) tofu. It seemed old. Stale-ish. The rest of the salad was fine though.

Then the skewers from the BBQ, which reportedly cooks at 600 degrees. Which I had to question because both skewers (beef tongue on the left, alligator on the right) were served lukewarm at best. So maybe they had been cooked at 600 degrees, but then they’d sat and sat and sat, waiting to be expressed to our table. The beef tongue was really very tender and flavorful. Only problem? The little crispy rice balls seemed stale to me. The alligator was less memorable…tastes like chicken, you know? And at $4 for the alligator skewer…the portion seemed small.

The chef brought us out some complimentary Spanish mackerel — normally something I die over. It looked beautiful. But it tasted like smoke and char, and the mackerel itself seemed oddly undercooked. All of this, of course, is in my opinion.

The decor in Union is young and fun. To my eye, it looked inexpensive, but like they were trying. I don’t know.

All that being said, I did like the tilework in the bathroom. This was very nice. Very nice indeed.

The Verdict: My one visit — exactly the reason why I’m not a professional food critic, people — was not too impressive. I want to love it here and I do love what they’re trying to accomplish but…it’s just not for me. There are some that will argue that I should go back and try more things. But there’s nothing really compelling me to do that.

The post Union Sushi & BBQ, Near North first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.