K-10, 20 Copthall Avenue, EC2R 7DN
You'll hear K-10 commonly reviewed as "one of the City's best Japanese conveyer-belt resturants". I harbour a suspicion that this might be because there aren't any others (I can't think of any), but the fact is the food's very good and the sushi very fresh, prepared in front of you by a team of industrious chefs working inside the conveyor loop. How do they get in there? I have no idea. I assume they pole-vault in before any of the customers arrive. Or perhaps they're actually imprisoned inside the loop and never leave. In which case: lucky them.
The resturant provides take-away sushi upstairs with the dining room tucked away below, down a curved staircase. It's bright and clean-looking, with a selection of pop playing in the background at a volume sufficiently discrete to not be a distraction (pop's essential cheese for a kaiten restaurant, as I'm sure you'll agree). The counters have little recesses in them which harbour the usual condiments - soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger, as well as napkins and chopsticks. Still and sparkling water are on tap, which means you can potantially have a very cheap meal indeed.
If you haven't been to a kaiten ("conveyor belt") restaurant before, here's how it works: each plate cruising past you on the belt is colour-coded. A menu on the counter tells you the price of each colour - all you do is pick whatever you like off the belt as it passes, hang onto your plates, and at the end of the meal someone comes and tots it up.
The only problem I've ever had in K-10 is that the atmosphere's so laid back and the staff so unobtrusive, it's sometimes hard to grab someone's attention to get a drink. The raised finger and vague waggle of brows which works so well in most City joints doesn't wash here and on my first trip I eventually found myself pouncing on a passing member of staff like some sort of dehydrated praying mantis. It's a minor complaint though, and certainly hasn't deterred me from going back there regularly.
As with all good things, there's a knack to successful dining at K-10: arrive bloody early. Any later than 12.05 and you'll find yourself in the queue - which extends from the dining room on the basement floor, up the stairs and out onto the street, such is Londoners' craving for raw swordfish, green tea custard and california rolls (not all together, obviously). My own recommendation is that little thing with the light green seaweedy stuff on top. It's so good it may eventually be criminalised.
K-10 is open from 11:30am to 3pm.
Average Price: £20
Telephone: 0207 562 8510
Map.
The resturant provides take-away sushi upstairs with the dining room tucked away below, down a curved staircase. It's bright and clean-looking, with a selection of pop playing in the background at a volume sufficiently discrete to not be a distraction (pop's essential cheese for a kaiten restaurant, as I'm sure you'll agree). The counters have little recesses in them which harbour the usual condiments - soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger, as well as napkins and chopsticks. Still and sparkling water are on tap, which means you can potantially have a very cheap meal indeed.
If you haven't been to a kaiten ("conveyor belt") restaurant before, here's how it works: each plate cruising past you on the belt is colour-coded. A menu on the counter tells you the price of each colour - all you do is pick whatever you like off the belt as it passes, hang onto your plates, and at the end of the meal someone comes and tots it up.
The only problem I've ever had in K-10 is that the atmosphere's so laid back and the staff so unobtrusive, it's sometimes hard to grab someone's attention to get a drink. The raised finger and vague waggle of brows which works so well in most City joints doesn't wash here and on my first trip I eventually found myself pouncing on a passing member of staff like some sort of dehydrated praying mantis. It's a minor complaint though, and certainly hasn't deterred me from going back there regularly.
As with all good things, there's a knack to successful dining at K-10: arrive bloody early. Any later than 12.05 and you'll find yourself in the queue - which extends from the dining room on the basement floor, up the stairs and out onto the street, such is Londoners' craving for raw swordfish, green tea custard and california rolls (not all together, obviously). My own recommendation is that little thing with the light green seaweedy stuff on top. It's so good it may eventually be criminalised.
K-10 is open from 11:30am to 3pm.
Average Price: £20
Telephone: 0207 562 8510
Map.