Yoshino

Yoshino
3 Piccadilly Place
W1J0DB

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, May 30th, 2009

The Victim: Myself

The Damage: £30

The Background: I used to rely on my blog to remind me what I was doing on any given day. (Very helpful in my application for Indefinite Leave to Remain, for example.) Now I rely on Twitter. What a crazy way to diary your life.

That being said, I apparently didn't tweet about the 12 loads of laundry I did on Saturday, May 30th. (Oh, for an American washing machine! Really, people, how we live here without one, I do not know.) But then again, the Twitterverse probably doesn't want to know about that stuff.

Laundry works up an appetite. And I felt like sushi. I was willing to travel, but maybe not THAT far. (Like Sushi Say or Sushi Hiro or any of those type of options.) And as it turns out, a lot of Japanese places in Central London are closed for lunch. They're just open for dinner.

So Yoshino it was. Despite warnings and a bad review from Beas of Bloomsbury.

The Entrance: Yoshino is empty at around 2 p.m. when I enter. Very empty. There is one other customer on the ground floor and she is Japanese and happily chatting away with the staff. She later leaves and is replaced by an elderly Japanese man who also happily chats away. In Japanese. I feel left out.

The Staff: Are totally in a Madonna video from Blond Ambition. Headsets. Who are they talking to? My server is also kinda hot.

The Food: I just ordered a combo. And some agedashi tofu. The tofu itself was okay. The dipping sauce was bland, bland, bland. The sushi combo is fresh. The mackeral is particularly good. So good that I order more. And yes, my camera phone does totally suck. I know that. Thanks for reminding me.

The Decor: I think most restaurants should paint their high-volume areas at least once a year. Yoshino needs a good lick of paint.

The Verdict: This was okay. Of all the Japanese places I've reviewed lately, I still think I like Chisou the best. (For the food. Not the service.)