Adanami Shobo

Adanami Shobo is a little shop on Brewer Street in Soho that sells second-hand Japanese manga books.

BiBimBap

BiBimBap is a small, bright Korean restaurant in Soho that serve their tasty food still sizzling in the bowl.  I finally tried kimchee - a fermented vegetable dish.  It very nice and the whole dining experience was very quick (which was perfect for my afternoon of studying).

Lots of Polaroid photos of diners.

If you say the name BiBimBap and add a Bap and repeat it lots of times it sounds a bit like you are singing 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight.' And you can't ask for more than that from a restaurant.

Garlic and Shots

I'm not entirely sure if Garlic and Shots is supposed to have a theme.  If it does, then is it Sweden? Metal? Garlic? Shots?

My colleagues and I had some horrifically spicy 'blood shots' which would certainly have been the antidote for any flirting/pulling if that had been my aim for the evening.

An odd experience altogether in this bar really; as I was leaning to take a photo of this curious looking person a girl told me that I shouldn't be in the bar because I was wearing the wrong kind of clothes.  I'm not sure what she thought would be the right kind of clothes to go with garlic/metal/Sweden.  I've found so far whilst doing this blog that I've felt welcome everywhere that I have been to (apart from maybe the Gargosian where I felt a bit like I was in some kind of peeping tom experience).

Of course it could be that she objected to the fact that I had forgotten to switch off my MASSIVE chainsaw....

Then later in the evening I noticed that our table appeared to be a flat rectangle of wood placed on top of a wooden box and that if I lifted it slightly I could put my fingers in the box because it was hollow.  At which point I told me colleague 'this box thing appears to be hollow.' and he replied 'it's a coffin.'

Eat Tokyo

By the time I'd finished my meal in Soho I really did feel like I had the whole of Tokyo in my stomach!

My friend and I went for a (very) late lunch and the place was pretty quiet.  By the time we were finishing our meal it was just us and the staff eating there.

Wok to walk

Wok to Walk is, as I have now discovered, a chain of Asian style fast food places.  However, since the food was pretty tasty and given that there is currently only one outlet in the whole of England according to their website I'm going to keep it in my blog.

You choose a base, a meat (or tofu) and a sauce and then you can watch your food being cooked whilst you wait.

Wrap it like it's hot

This Lebanese place on Soho is essentially a fancy takeaway. However, as takeaways go it wasn't bad. The guy who served me was very friendly and they have a cool print on the wall of a group of students at an American university in the Lebanon taken in the 1970s.

Bubbleology!

How could I not stop by Bubbleology during a trip to Soho?

Bubble tea has several different English names, including pearl milk tea and boba tea.  It is originally a drink from Taiwan that ended up being popular in the USA and now over here in the UK.

I had a regular taro bubble tea for £3.25.  I was rather full afterwards and couldn't manage all my dinner (shame on me for going for bubble tea first!).  Taro is a little bit like sweet potato or yam.  

Taro bubble tea reminds me of going to a Pasar Malam on Penang Island with my lovely Couchsurfing host Hong and buying things for 'satu ringgit'.  It's great to be able to have the same drink right here in London.

http://www.bubbleology.co.uk/

Pubs you could get very lost in...

So London has plenty of 'Irish' pubs but I'm going to class the Porterhouse in Covent Garden as Irish for my blog because the first two pubs in the Porterhouse Brewery chain of 6 were in County Wicklow and Dublin.   I was here for a friend's birthday but I realised when I went into this maze of a pub that I'd been here before around January 2010 with an Irish guy I know, before I moved to London.

There was a band playing and although they were good, they were so loud that it was hard to hear what people were saying.  If we had been after a more boozy night and a boogy they would have been perfect.

 Combined contexts of pockets/handbags along with a selection of beers.  All you need for a good night out in London.

 The Porterhouse has a large beer menu, with beers on offer from lots of different countries.  Even though I'm not a beer fan, I'm sure I'd find something I'd like here.  I tried a passion fruit flavoured beer which was nice and sweet.

As an aside: Waxy O'Connors in Soho is also a maze of a pub, though the connection to Ireland seems to be limited to the name and the tree inside.  But it's not often you find venues with trees inside (Portobello Gold and Rainforest cafe are the only ones that spring to mind) so I'd say it's worth a visit on that basis.  I got stopped by a guy in Waxy's once who was unable to find his way out and said he had been searching for an exit for quite some time.  If you ever stop by and he's still there, help him out will you?

For for information about the tree www.waxyoconnors.co.uk/

The Nordic Bakery

A little cafe in Soho, the Nordic bakery sells coffees sweet pastries and also a few savoury snacks such as cream cheese on ryebread.

Orders come on a cute little tray - 80p for the cookie and £2.40 for the hot chocolate

 They also sell some Scandinavian produce - jams, crisps and juice - by the counter.

It's quite a small location and I arrived at about 16.00 so it was pretty busy and noisy. All the tables for 2 were full.  There are a few bench style tables that seat 6/8 people so I joined several two couples and another girl by herself on these.  I'm sure it's a bit more relaxing when it's less busy.

According to their website they also have a cafe in Marylebone.

www.nordicbakery.com

Arigato Supermarket

Country: Japan
Location: Soho

This little Japanese supermarket on Brewer Street also has a small area where you can sit and eat food that has been purchased in-store.

(Photo from the internet)

Taro Noodle and Sushi Bar

Country: Japan
Cost: 6 - 12 for a main course
Location: Soho

There are two Taro's in Soho, I went to the one on Brewer Street, the other is on Old Compton Street.

We arrived quite early for a pre theatre dinner and by the time we were ready to leave there were people queuing for a table.  My advice is either go around 6.30pm or book ahead if you are planning to go on the weekend.

The food was really tasty.

Website and menu: www.tarorestaurants.co.uk/taro_bs_home.html