Ippudo - bemusing but forgettable...

A couple of girlfriends and I met up for a long awaited chinwag over dinner at Ippudo. My bemusement started from the moment we walked into the restaurant to rapturous and incomprehensible shouts from every member of staff aimed at us (I think they were trying to welcome us in Japanese rather than frighten the living lights out of us), and increased through the night. 

The others ordered the famous house buns and tonkatsu ramen, of which I couldn't have any due to my intolerances, and I, surprise surprise, ordered salad as a starter and steak as main, with sauces on the side for obvious reasons. My bemusement increased when a different waiter returned to tell me that the dressing for the salad and the sauce for the steak were different - as I would indeed hope since one is a dressing and the other a sauce and they were two separate dishes - and asked if I would still want both on the side....? I am still pondering how to respond to that statement but I noted that the salad was sent straight back to the kitchen.

The salad was boiled kale served with asparagus, some orange, cashews and raisins - the sum of the dish was as good as the individual parts, but not better, probably due to the lack of said dressing (of which a non-freetarian friend tried and noted as forgettable). The steak was served with fried garlic, onion and spring onions, and unfortunately pretty forgettable too - as I am also pretty forgetful (or forgettable, if you wish), I tasted the sauce (before a dear friend reminded me of my freetarianism) and that was equally forgettable. The waiters on the other hand, were anything but - I was sure that they had run out of serving dishes when three different waiters came up to me at different times to ask if I had finished with my salad and steak despite both plates being half full, or at least with some food left, and my companions still midst eating. I ate up quickly, afraid they would literally pounce on those rarified plates and I be collateral damage! Stabbed by a plate, special as it is, does nothing for me.

Whilst my girlfriends and I had a great time catching up on Xmas and NY antics - we even had an indulgent 10 minutes talking about sous vide machines and upcoming food trends (beetroot anything in dessert and broth were our bets) - my fruit, jelly and red bean paste drowned in prosecco was as forgettable as the steak. 

However, the night was both bemusing and entertaining, the waiters were cheerful if not a tad scary, and I am inspired to cook a new recipe! Broth, not steak, that is.

Plates, or else: