Japanese Restaurant?

[beeny]

Ok, so I found this on the 'Gold Thread' chain and I can be of no use there and didn't want to give false hope by posting some unrelated bollocks but... japanese restaurant??

I want details and I want them now. Help me sinners.

Thanks

[hr]

'But what do I know? I'm a bear; I suck the heads off fish.'

[Amorphous]

It's on Market Street between Marmaris and Luvians (roughly). Never been in it myself, but it looks quite nice.

[Don]

It's called L-Orient, I haven't been yet but planning to go soon, I haven't heard any bad reports which is always a good sign. Their menu is downloadable from their website http://www.l-orient.co.uk .

If anyone has been could they please post on here and say how it was?

[hr]

Daz, makes your whites #gggggg

[Idioteque]

I was there on Saturday night for dinner. The food was good but I wasn't that impressed with the service.

Some of the group had ordered sushiu and others ordered from the restaurant menu. They didn't seem to coordinate when any of the food was ready so a couple of people had their main turn up without the rice (came about 10mins later) while others had to wait at least 10mins for theirs to turn up - not too impressive.

This was especially disappointing as the food wasn't cheap (at least £15 or £16 for a main and they state that sushi orders have to be at least £17.50 per head) but it was tasty.

Friends who've been there for lunch are really positive about it though - maybe I'm just overly critical!

Quoting Don from 13:23, 19th Feb 2007
It's called L-Orient, I haven't been yet but planning to go soon, I haven't heard any bad reports which is always a good sign. Their menu is downloadable from their website http://www.l-orient.co.uk .

If anyone has been could they please post on here and say how it was?

[hr]

Daz, makes your whites #gggggg

[hr]

Ah, there's no justice like angry mob justice

[Freaker]

That menu on the website I find highly surprising - I was there last night with a few friends and we had about ten things to choose from, half of which were just varieties of Sushi. Maybe that was just an evening menu, or a temporary menu, but the selection did not impress us much.

The food was very nice, although portions were rather small for their price and some things just didn't go together so well (Miso soup in a nice, apparently traditional bowl, but bowl made of plastic, and with no proper spoon). I spent about ten pounds for a soup, a small noodle dish and a softdrink, which I would think is a bit expensive - but then it did all taste very nice.

Apparently it is owned by the same people who own the Thai restaurant just around the corner, does anyone know any more?

[hr]

I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.

[sabra_girl]

I thought L'Orient was great until I heard that they'd stopped doing their Bento Boxes (great wee selection of rice, sushis, miso soup, etc) which were fantastic value and usually under a tenner. If that's true then I won't be going back and I'm really disappointed because their stuff was great. I'm hoping they keep doing the boxes at lunch times at least but I fear otherwise... A real shame.

[hr]

"There are not very many desires in life which we can actually meet. For instance, 'I want to meet the love of my life'. Probably not today! But 'I want a cup of coffee.' That I can do!" Chris Thile (Nickel Creek)

"One word Jim, two syllables: demarkation." Dwight Schrute (The Office USA)

[Fenella]

Quoting Idioteque from 14:48, 19th Feb 2007
I was there on Saturday night for dinner. The food was good but I wasn't that impressed with the service.

Yeah, I would agree with that. I went with my dad and my two brothers last weekend. We were all given our food at different times, and there was about a half hour difference between me getting my food as the first person served and my brother getting his as the last person served. I had finished eating before he had even begun.

I thought it was such a shame, I was really excited about getting a Japanese restaurant too!

[Bryn]

Quoting Freaker from 16:05, 19th Feb 2007
(Miso soup in a nice, apparently traditional bowl, but bowl made of plastic, and with no proper spoon).

Um, you don't drink Miso with a spoon.

[Freaker]

Ah well, sorry about that. That would explain it - I guess whoever told me about the spoon (and I was ignorant enough to not question it) must have confused it with another traditional type of bowl...
(which doesn't make the bowl being plastic any nicer, though)

Quoting Bryn from 17:42, 19th Feb 2007

Quoting Freaker from 16:05, 19th Feb 2007
(Miso soup in a nice, apparently traditional bowl, but bowl made of plastic, and with no proper spoon).

Um, you don't drink Miso with a spoon.

[hr]

I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.

[David Bean]

I think your problem with the menu is that they're planning to have two separate dining areas, one a proper restaurant and the other more of a lounge bar affair with a more limited selection, and they haven't quite opened the restaurant yet. Chances are, the menu on the web site is for the restaurant; I don't know exactly when it's opening, but I gather it won't be long.

I've been there a couple of times now on my last visit, because I'm a big fan of Japanese cuisine and the food I had when I was there was some of the freshest sushi I've had. The service, I find to be a mixed bag. One of the girls who works there is an old friend of mine, but the second time I went in (when she wasn't there) I sat waiting to be served only to be invited a few minutes later by another friend to join his group who'd just got there and had had their food served. When I eventually caught the eye of one of the rather, dare I say, innattentive members of staff, I was informed that they had stopped serving food. I would have protested that had they bothered to serve me in a timely manner the issue wouldn't have arisen, but I gathered that they had closed the kitchens and weren't likely to do anything about it. Thankfully my friend and his group offered me some of their food, so between that and scamming more salami from my academic daughter and her flatmate, I didn't go too hungry.

If you're interested in finding out more about the place, there's an article in the latest edition of St Andrews in Focus (an excellent issue all round, I might add). It was written by the proprietors to be one of those delightful fluff pieces that the wonderful editor Flora prints so readily, but at least it gives you the essential facts about the place.

[hr]

Psalm 91:7

[mcg23]

okay this is somewhat unrelated to l-orient but i have a food related question (sparked by their menu). what is it with cultural restaurants in st andrews (such as Chinese, Indian, Japanese etc) always having a selection of "European" dishes on the menu? is it a UK thing? I've never really seen hamburgers served at Japanese restaurants or chips served at a Mexican restaurant back home (in the US) unless they were 'fusion' restaurants.

just curious if there was any reason (im not judging UK food which im sure ill be accused of doing ). to be honest, it wouldve been nice if i couldve gotten hamburgers or chicken anywhere when i was a kid!

[mcg23]

you weren't being stupid. a lot of restaurants serve miso soup like this: http://www.zakazsushi.ru/img/miso_soup.jpg
(that was the best picture i could find of that sort of flat spoon miso can be served with)

Quoting Freaker from 19:44, 19th Feb 2007
Ah well, sorry about that. That would explain it - I guess whoever told me about the spoon (and I was ignorant enough to not question it) must have confused it with another traditional type of bowl...
(which doesn't make the bowl being plastic any nicer, though)

Quoting Bryn from 17:42, 19th Feb 2007

Quoting Freaker from 16:05, 19th Feb 2007
(Miso soup in a nice, apparently traditional bowl, but bowl made of plastic, and with no proper spoon).

Um, you don't drink Miso with a spoon.

[hr]

I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.

[nighteyes]

I think its a UK thing as almost every menu I have ever seen has the chips and chicken thing. I think its the restaurants being prepared for families eating there with the one member who will sit grumpy complaining about the "foreign muck" or the dear old granny that would die if she ever ate chilli. Quite good buisness sense really as they get customers that would not normally dine there. Also as I found in my childhood the best chips ever are from a chinese. Whatever the oil is that they are cooked in they taste ten times better than chips from a 'chippy' IMOH.

Quoting mcg23 from 02:12, 21st Feb 2007
okay this is somewhat unrelated to l-orient but i have a food related question (sparked by their menu). what is it with cultural restaurants in st andrews (such as Chinese, Indian, Japanese etc) always having a selection of "European" dishes on the menu? is it a UK thing? I've never really seen hamburgers served at Japanese restaurants or chips served at a Mexican restaurant back home (in the US) unless they were 'fusion' restaurants.

just curious if there was any reason (im not judging UK food which im sure ill be accused of doing ). to be honest, it wouldve been nice if i couldve gotten hamburgers or chicken anywhere when i was a kid!

[hr]

i didnt say i was consistant, just right!

[mcg23]

mm chips from a chinese place i'll have to try that!

[quote]Quoting nighteyes from 10:45, 21st Feb 2007
Whatever the oil is that they are cooked in they taste ten times better than chips from a 'chippy' IMOH.

[quote]Quoting mcg23 from 02:12, 21st Feb 2007

[Guest]

Did they take down the menu from the website? I don't see it anymore, but maybe I'm just missing it.

I went there a few weeks ago, to the louge bar part. I wasn't overly impressed. The sushi menu was very bare, and the fish wasn't of great quality (which is essential for sushi). I was very surprised that there was no (or maybe one or two) cooked sushi options. There also wasn't a great variety of fish--tuna & salmon mainly. The Japanese, non-sushi menu wasn't bad though.

As for the service, it wasn't good. I felt deliberately ignored. It was on par with Littlejohn's service. But, it was packed, and it had just opened, so I think that had a great deal to do with it.

However, this was (is?) before the restaurant opened. I'm interested to see the menu for the restaurant, as I'm sure it will be more varied than the lounge bar menu, and the service will be better, serving as a relief of the lounge bar from people looking for a restaurant experience. A more varied menu, however, doesn't fix the quality of fish.

I would go to the restaurant, just to see if it's any different. The price wasn't too bad for St Andrews & sushi, in my opinion.

RIP Cafe India