The **Now Eating** Thread
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... for the uneducated - so it's not bisto/jus, but it's doing a dam good impersonation ? duck gravy ? ... with smoked salmon and wasabi.
Caporegime
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That is an abomination of sushi 
Caporegime
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- 20 Oct 2002
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- Wish i was in a Ramen Shop Counter
Went to Kibou Sushi today in Cheltenham, it has 4.9/5.0 average on Google reviews…..hmmmmm
I didn't have sushi, may be next time as fresh fish is fresh fish, I thought I try something that you need involve more cooking.
First up Chicken Karage, well seasoned, soft and fresh out of the fryer. Pretty good but the sauce is a bit weird, like 1000 island.
Ebi Gyoza, disappointing, may be because I was expecting large pieces of prawn inside like a Chinese version you get at dim sum. This had more greens (I think chives) inside than prawns, can hardly taste of prawns. It was all chopped up and mixed with the chives.
Lastly, Pork belly ramen in pork broth.
I'll start with the good.
The egg was done well, part boiled correctly. The pork was soft and the single piece of Pak Choi was cooked well.
The bad…that broth, terrible. It was way way way too salty. It ruins the dish, it has no actual flavour apart from salty. If there was, it was all masked by the salt. A good ramen broth is normally so nice, I end up finishing everything and I drink it out of the bowl. I had NO urge to drink this broth, it did not taste of pork, in fact I only ate half the noodles because the broth was so salty.
This isn't trying to brag by my own bowl is a lot better. This ramen is a massive fail.
All in all, I was hoping this place to be good, I really want it to be good so somewhere I can go in the UK for good japanese food but I don't think this place is it, at least not the 2 of the 3 things I ordered.
I didn't have sushi, may be next time as fresh fish is fresh fish, I thought I try something that you need involve more cooking.
First up Chicken Karage, well seasoned, soft and fresh out of the fryer. Pretty good but the sauce is a bit weird, like 1000 island.
Ebi Gyoza, disappointing, may be because I was expecting large pieces of prawn inside like a Chinese version you get at dim sum. This had more greens (I think chives) inside than prawns, can hardly taste of prawns. It was all chopped up and mixed with the chives.
Lastly, Pork belly ramen in pork broth.
I'll start with the good.
The egg was done well, part boiled correctly. The pork was soft and the single piece of Pak Choi was cooked well.
The bad…that broth, terrible. It was way way way too salty. It ruins the dish, it has no actual flavour apart from salty. If there was, it was all masked by the salt. A good ramen broth is normally so nice, I end up finishing everything and I drink it out of the bowl. I had NO urge to drink this broth, it did not taste of pork, in fact I only ate half the noodles because the broth was so salty.
This isn't trying to brag by my own bowl is a lot better. This ramen is a massive fail.
All in all, I was hoping this place to be good, I really want it to be good so somewhere I can go in the UK for good japanese food but I don't think this place is it, at least not the 2 of the 3 things I ordered.
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Sorry to hear the ramen wasn't any good 
It probably has such high reviews because most of us Brits don't really get access to proper high quality Japanese food, so were easily impressed by whatever we do get. Like my pics above, which I honestly thought were pretty good. Not perfect certainly, but good. *shrug*
It probably has such high reviews because most of us Brits don't really get access to proper high quality Japanese food, so were easily impressed by whatever we do get. Like my pics above, which I honestly thought were pretty good. Not perfect certainly, but good. *shrug*
Caporegime
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Sorry to hear the ramen wasn't any good
It probably has such high reviews because most of us Brits don't really get access to proper high quality Japanese food, so were easily impressed by whatever we do get. Like my pics above, which I honestly thought were pretty good. Not perfect certainly, but good. *shrug*
It looks good, the meat and the egg was done right and the ramen was cooked right but that broth was not good. A ramen broth is the soul of the ramen, it is what the whole dish is sitting in, swimming in and it's flavour goes into everything else so when it is good, you want to eat more and you end up drinking it.
To illustrate my point, this is tsukemen, tsukemen is a kind of ramen where the broth comes in a separate bowl. What you do is dip and eat, because of this the broth typically is MUCH MUCH richer and thicker than your normal ramen. So in the end of the meal after you have eaten all the noodles you will have left over broth. Because how rich and thick it is, it's quite strong on its own to drink and restaurants actually will top it up with some hot water for you to turn it into a more regular soup if you ask. People do this in Japan and then they drink the broth at the end, its a done thing.
The broth in had today was too salty, no flavour, everything in it was too salty as a result. So when I had no desire at all to finish it, no urge to drink it clean. I actually didn't even finish my noodles, there were some left. When the broth is bad, the whole bowl is bad.
Oh, their egg wasn't marinated, boiled well, but unlike the real McCoy, it isn't brown like the ones in japan. When you don't marinate it, the yoke just pour/slips out which you can kinda see a bit of the half egg at the top.
From Japan, see the underside/edges of this.
When you marinate an egg, it turns the yoke into more jelly like, as opposed to runny. After 24 hours it goes like this.
This was one of mine.
So I guess I take back what I said about the egg….it was boiled right, but missing half the cooking process.
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Caporegime
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The owner certainly didn't like my review ! Posted this because I hadn't logged in for 5 days!
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Resta..._Cheltenham-Cheltenham_Cotswolds_England.html
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Resta..._Cheltenham-Cheltenham_Cotswolds_England.html
Soldato
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That looks fantastic Merlin5! Was that in London?
Soldato
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Kibou Sushi is awesome!! Been there loads, never had anything less than a great meal there.
It's called Aksular in Potters Bar. Was a lovely quite warm evening to eat outside. They gave us a free plate of turkish delight and turkish tea.
