Last night, we celebrated Caitlin’s birthday at Abeno Too – a Japanese restaurant on Great Newport Street, near the Leicester Square underground station.  When I’ve thought of Japanese food in the past, it’s been sushi and tempura and restaurants like Feng Sushi in Borough. 

Abeno serves up a rather different fare.  The specialty here is okonomi-yaki: variations on the theme of omelette.  We shared a delicious Osaka mix, which included pork, kimchi (an old favourite from Korea!) and prawn, along with the traditional eggs, dough, ginger and spring onions.  We also got to sample a vegetarian om-soba (fried noodles wrapped in omelette), and some very tasty aubergine and squid side dishes.

Abeno Too isn’t a particularly large restaurant.  Arriving at eight o’clock on a Saturday night, we had to queue outside for a table for five to become available.  Bags and coats were stored inside the bench seats, and the omelettes themselves were cooked on hotplates in front of us.  Unfortunately the small space, the close proximity to other dinners and the hot-plates soon made the temperature inside the restaurant just a few degrees to high to be totally comfortable.

That said, the staff were lovely and the food was something quite special.  Starters, mains, dessert and a couple of glasses of plum wine squash came to about £20 per person.  Apparently the other Abeno branch (located near the British Museum and know as ‘Abeno’ rather than ‘Abeno Too’) is quite a bit bigger, so hopefully we’ll get the chance to check that one out sometime soon.

Tash