For some reason that I don't properly recall, a place called 'Brazil by the Kilo' made it onto my list of places to eat, it languished near the bottom of the list and it shut before I ever got round to going there. At least I think it did, because I think it was in the location now occupied by Feijao de Luis. There was also another Brazilian place on Oxford Street, I forget the name now but it was meant to be OK but I think it has also shut, either that or I just can't find it. I suspect these were in the area due to the number of language colleges at this end of Oxford St.

Anyway, Brazilian restaurants seem to have a bit of a problem with promoting themselves to the wider community. For example, I was never quite sure where either of the above mentioned restaurants were as I never saw their names, and I only know the name of Feijao de Louis because I decided to go in one lunch when curiosity got the better of me. From the outside you'd think it was called “Brazilian Buffet £6.50 eat as much as you like”.

Feijao de Louis is essentially a canteen over an unpromising looking shop right next to Tottenham Court Rd tube station. When I went it was packed with Brazilians, all seemingly enjoying a taste of home. The décor is plain and the tables very close together, but service isn't an issue as its a buffet and at least the eye-candy levels are high.

To eat you fill a plate from the self serve buffet then pay at the till before sitting down. It is only when you sit down that you see the warnings on your table about being charged an extra £5 for wasted food, and whilst the enforceability of that is dubious, its probably better not to overload that first plateful. Whilst I sat I watched lots of skinny Brazilians of both sexes go up for plate after plate of seconds, which makes me wonder where I'm going wrong, I blame metabolism.

The food I'm afraid doesn't look very promising, and if it wasn't upstairs and so narrow with people behind me in the queue I would probably have walked out but as it was, I persevered. There is a salad bar, with very plain looking salad, basically cucumber, tomato, lettuce and a worryingly coloured coleslaw, so nothing to get excited about.

On the hot buffet, things initially weren't much better. There was rice with what looked like not a lot of previously frozen veg stirred through it. Carb overload was an option as there was also polenta, which unfortunately was not only bland but managed to be both stodgy and watery at the same time. There was a similar story with mashed potato which did not appear to be in anyway enriched. Some fairly tired looking veg almost completed the selection of side dishes. The first of the two main dishes on offer was roast chicken, again something of an achievement in managing to be very greasy in places and very dry in others and again, also severely lacking flavour.

So for all of those like me who've walked past a hundred times and wondered if it was worth a bash, now you know. Except you don't as there was a surprise saving grace...

The remaining side dishes were plain wholegrain rice, which was well cooked and nutty, and more importantly a dense black bean stew. Packed with flavour and utterly moreish, the bean stew had a great texture with thick gravy binding the almost mushy black beans. The final good point was described on the buffet counter as beef stew. Its something of a mis-translation and it was more like what we would normally call a pot roast. This was a very cheap cut of beef, I think brisket but am not certain, slow cooked so that all the fat rendered and the muscles softened, creating thick strips of beef full of flavour and awesomely tender.

As a result I don't quite know what to make of the place, certainly most of the buffet was utterly rubbish, and in that context its overpriced for lunch, as you simply won't want to eat most of what's on offer. But a plate of rice, pot roast beef and black bean stew was a delicious combination and made a change from the norm. A few quid less for just that plate and I would definitely go back, as it is I wouldn't rule it out but I struggle to recommend it whole heartedly.

NB Its open until 9pm, so the value is actually good for dinner, but all the other caveats apply, and the décor is not really suited to evening dining, however it may be a good option for student tourists on a budget needing a west end meal.

I was alerted to this by Charles Campion's blog on the evening standard website. I really don't understand how he can keep track of the quality of the 400 plus places in his food guide and discover new places, but hey, he seems to manage it without evident compromise and he's still doing a great job. Anyway, his write up of this place sounded so good that it went right to the top of my to-do list. It must have been a persuasively good review when you consider I already have a long-standing list of about 50 affordable(ish) places I want to go to, not counting the ones out of my budget that I occasionally say 'sod it' and go to anyway.

There is something of an explanation as to why it went straight into the top 40 at number 1, I have a good friend who lives in Bethnal Green and I also go climbing in Mile End about once a week and often meet her afterwards. Now anyone who regularly reads this (I remain amazed that you exist and thank God that at least vanity publishing no longer costs money thanks to the internet, anyway I digress...) will know I am partial to a curry. However, variety is the spice of life etc., and whilst Gourmet San's review was positive for any location, a different option in Bethnal Green certainly pushed it up the list.

Also, you'll have notice I'm not exactly rushing out to try the newest places in town, the reason- I've only lived here for a total of 2 and a half years on and off and I don't have unlimited funds so there is no shortage of established places I still want to try (see reference to list). On top of that, I am not a complete neophile- I do go back to places I like, and so as I'm not in a rush I can let places settle in- after all I'm not being paid, why eat in a place when its likely to be finding its feet. The thing with Gourmet San is that Campion mentioned it had been open a year and it just seemed to have passed people by.

Well, it hasn't passed everyone by, the place is packed with Chinese customers and there was a short queue for a table. Of course its completely stupid to take Chinese customers as a good sign, 2 points- 1, if tourists followed that logic for British food they would be torn between McDonalds and Wetherspoons as the best provider of British food, 2, there are plenty of ropey restaurants in chinatown that still seem to get the relevant patronage. Still, ignoring my own logic, I took the fact that other than my friend and I, only one other table was not of Chinese origin as a good sign.

On the down side, judging by the décor, I'd say Campion underestimated at a year. The décor wasn't just bad in an amusing way, other than a couple of red lamps hanging it was nonexistent. I'm fine with that, but far more worrying, it was dirty. The wall next to our table was flecked with food stains, the type that may never come out now but would have been removed easily if this place was cleaned properly after every shift. There was also sort of an open kitchen, well there was a serving hatch you could see through. Normally I think open kitchens are both entertaining and encourage hygiene, here you could see a kitchen that, frankly, was not the shining stainless steel palace you might like, with domestic appliances and accumulated grease.

Of course we only noticed this after we'd been seated, but a bit of a hint was given when our cute waitress went to change both of the paper tablecloths on what was to be our table. What I assume was her boss barked at her half way through, indicating I imagine, that one of them was not sufficiently dirty to need changing (it had a significant brown stain), the paper cloth was immediately returned to our table.

For a second I thought about forgetting it, but, Campion knows his ethnic food, I have eaten well in worse looking places abroad, and I have probably eaten well in worse looking places in the UK where the kitchen is mercifully hidden. Also, as my friend pointed out, we had both cooked well out of dirtier kitchens as lazy students, and so far, no one has died.

If there was any remaining doubt that this was the real deal, with everything that brings, both positive and negative, then take into account that it is not a joke in Campion's review- there really are only four English menus. As one of two English speaking tables, we wondered at the slow service until we got two of those menus seconds after the other table had finished with them. The service was actually fine or better than fine from then on. There was little chance of having a lengthy discussion, but the orders were understood and the waitresses were both attractive and attentive. What more could you want?

The flipside of the lack of English menus was that no effort had been put into creating a dumbed down menu for us (or if it had, Christ knows what was on the full menu). Unsurprisingly I am not assisted by a mission statement on the menu, website or press release to allow me to pretend to know more about the food than I do. Based on what limited knowledge I do have, I think it was largely a Szechuan menu, certainly it was not the usual Cantonese numbers and there was a hell of a lot of chilli involved.

The menu was full of tripe, trotters, intestines and so on, all of which was being lapped up around us. However, we opted to wimp out a bit, as we just wanted a reliably good meal. Rest assured, we will be back in more adventurous mood based on how it worked out. It's also important to note that the prices encourage experimentation, with everything being less than a tenner (I think), other than a sea bass in 'spicy soup' (chilli oil), which looked delicious and topped the menu at around £15.

We started with the lamb on a skewer, having just one each. It was delicious, covered with chilli flakes, black from the grill, not quite as spicy as it looked (there were a lot of chilli flecks), but still with a good kick. The lamb was dry and charred on the outside but juicy on the inside, we could have eaten a fair few more of these.

We both ordered a bowl of rice and then different mains which arrived with a short gap between them and we shared. The rice was fine, glutinous and fit for purpose. I didn't pick up a menu (I suspect that leaving them with only three English menus would not be appreciated either by them or by you) and there's nothing online to remind me, so I don't have the names, but what I ordered was a prawn dish where the prawns were in a batter which wasn't at all greasy and the sauce around them was very spicy and full of green peppers as well as red chillis. The dish was simple but good, the food was hot but not (quite) as daunting as it appeared, and the prawns were meaty, sweet and springy. The overall effect was like the best sweet and sour prawns you've had, but with a massive kick. Absolutely delicious.

My friend had ordered a belly pork dish. Rather than being the thick chunks or even whole cuts of belly pork we're used to, here it was cut into very thin slices and fried. This worked amazingly, giving the pork a hint of bacon, but retaining the richness of belly pork, and with every thin rectangular slice having a delicious combination of fat and meat. The sauce was a little similar to the other with green pepper to the fore, but it had a huge amount of chillis. The kick was huge but in a sort of slow burn way, the chillis were fresh not dried but I've never seen so many in one dish, at first I was surprised it wasn't as hot as I expected but then it really crept up on you. A great dish.

This place is licensed but Tsingtao is only £1.80 a bottles, so hardly more than you'd pay in a cornershop anyway. One of the most interesting, full on and enjoyable meals I've had for some time, comfortably less than £15 a head including tip and booze. Next time (and there will be a next time, and soon) we'll order one of the totally unfamiliar dishes on top of the others, not because we need the extra food, but the prices are so cheap it will hardly matter if it misfires.

This place is not perfect, I don't recommend it to the weak stomached, either figuratively or (I suspect, but hope not to get sued) literally. But I do recommend it. Wholeheartedly.

This is a bit of a brief post, I went here a few months back, wrote my skeleton thoughts when it was still fresh in my memory but then didn't get round to fleshing it out. Unfortunately the detail was lost from my mind when I went to write it up properly. I did consider just deleting my notes, but hey, this is a blog not a proper publication. I also wanted to publish the post as I had a great time, this place had some attention at one point but then seems to have slipped off the radar for a lot of people and deserves to be better known. That said, it wasn't struggling for custom, oh well, I've written it now...

This place is a very authentic feeling Izakaya sort of place on Gray's Inn Rd, not short of a Japanese businessman or two using it mainly as somewhere to get drunk. Fair enough. The décor is plain wood with Japanese posters and lanterns on the walls, fit for purpose and comfortable enough. When we went on a midweek evening there was a busy atmosphere and service was friendly from the word go. All the staff smiled constantly, were always around to get another beer but never intrusive.

It was clear from the menu that it would be possible to let the bill get out of control here, but by exercising a little self control we ate well and reasonably. This appears in Time Out's 'Cheap Eats', and on london-eating, reviews range from 'very reasonable' to 'a bit steep'. I'd have to say I'd side more with the latter, we had to order pretty carefully to keep within our stated aim for the night of 'cheap and interesting'. (As ever london-eating is utterly useless due to not having a feel for any of the writer's tastes, as another example, reviews for this place also range from 'I'm Japanese and this is the most authentic Izakaya in London' to 'I lived in Tokyo for 5 years and this is nothing like the real thing', but I digress).

We started with a delicious tempura, which contained various vegetables including aubergine and courgette, both of which avoided bitterness or sogginess. There was also prawn which was not overcooked, but was delicate in flavour and really very good.

We then had something which was new to me but I'm very glad I tried it. I didn't write the name down, just the ingredients, but a bit of internet research suggests it was Ochazuke and apparently it should be eaten at the end of a meal to prevent hangovers. No matter, it did very well as a shared starter. Basically it was rice in a sort of tea broth with pickled plums. The tea was weak and therefore not overpowering but the plum had a very strong flavour. The plums were sometimes sweet, sometimes sour and always compelling. This was very different but really moreish.

I then had great ubon noodles, the texture was lip-smacking and very slurpy and they came in a good tasty broth with no shortage of chicken and vegetables. I'm afraid I really can't remember what my friend had, but I do remember she was happy. We enjoyed a fair few beers as we were eating, which seemed to be the done thing, but kept the bill at just over £20 a head. Clearly it could very easily creep up, but we really enjoyed what we had so it was no chore to order carefully.

On the subject of cost it was nice to see service at only 10% suggested, I know its normal to have none in some Japanese restaurants, but hey this is Britain not Tokyo and I thought this was very fair (remember when it was always 10%- howcome after the introduction of the minimum wage its virtually everywhere gone to be suggested at 12.5%, and increasingly, 15%?). Also refreshing was that there was no attempt to fool you into leaving a second gratuity on the chip and pin machine. This, along with the happy atmosphere, cheerful staff and the good food all contributed to a very enjoyable experience. I will definitely be going back.

(Although obviously I haven't, so little time so many restaurants, I'm hungry though, sod it, I'm going there for lunch...feel free to imagine the sound of a door slamming, running steps fading away, a pause, running steps getting louder, door being unlocked...)

Went back for lunch with a friend and we both had the set tempura and sushi at £11 each. The tempura again was excellent, the star again was two big prawns, sweet and perfectly cooked, along with various veg. The sushi unfortunately was a slight disappointment, the rice was ok, but the texture was a bit hard and a bit cold. The salmon and tuna were fine, well cut but lacking any real depth of flavour. There was however also a piece of mackerel nigiri which had much more going for it, great melting texture and lots of flavour. There were also a couple of california type rolls which were fine. On the side was a bowl of very good miso soup, not overly pungent or cloying but with a good delicate flavour.

Just to be clear there was nothing particularly wrong with the sushi, it was fine and reasonable value. But its in the warm dishes that the real interest lies at Aki, and for those I can heartily recommend it.