Mugen — Restaurant in London

The food is good and authentic Japanese. However, the waitresses there ruined the whole experience which was supposed to be great. We ordered gyoza and they didn’t serve it and we totally forgot about it because we ordered quite a lot of dishes. Then the bill came out, we didn’t notice that the dish was still included in the bill so we still proceeded with payment. After that, we just prepared to leave then one guy in our group realised that we just paid for something we didn’t get served so we called the waitresses and asked about this. They said that they would check it. It was 10 mins around the checking. It was the open kitchen so we basically could see that they were arguing in the back. And then the waitress who just served us came out and said “I think I served this to your table”. We were pretty off because we just wanted to make everything clear, not wanting to create trouble for them or something. And we insisted on the fact that we didn’t get served. And another 10 mins passed. Another woman came in and asked “You already paid so how could we solve it?”. Sound like an interesting question. My friend was nice enough to suggest them to bring the dish over and we could take away. Later, they brought the dish over, put it on our table. And that’s it. The only thing that we demand is apology. But nothing happened. Although the food was good, but the bad bad experience ruined the whole night. Especially when it was the day we congrated my friend on getting her promotion. It was supposed to be a trivial thing but the way they solved the problem was so bad and so victim-blaming as if we did...

We used to come her a lot before Covid and the food was always fantastic back then.

When we came this time, we were quite disappointed: *The sashimi salad - the salmon didn’t taste fresh *kushiyaki skewers didn’t seem overcooked (no burnt bits at all) but the yakitori chicken skewer we had was very tough and quail egg seemed just boiled in sauce rather than grilled - this was the biggest disappointment 1/10. *tempura was average and a bit soggy 5/10 *udon was average for the price but soup base was nice 7/10 *kamameshi clay pot rice - we ordered this but it didn’t come until after we finished everything else and then we were told it had to cook for 25 mins???? We had been at the restaurant for 1 hour when that appeared so not sure why this wasn’t brought out at the beginning so it could cook and not at the end of the meal? It was already super late and we had expected it to be all ready to eat but to have to wait again was unacceptable! Also this dish was actually quite average (love the eel taste but I don’t see the difference of this vs just getting an eel box besides burnt bits of rice). 5/10 Service was OK, the male manager was friendly but we weren’t offered the specials menu as we weren’t Japanese

Whilst there was a variety of dishes to choose from and I would probably try again if I was nearby but I probably won’t make a special effort to come here again which is a real shame as this used to be our favourite when we worked...

I went here just me and the wife before a night out and wanted a quikc, good, local meal around Farringdon where we were heading. Mugen was perfect from before we got there, The very kind gentlemen managing the service that evening went out of his way to find us on Leather Lane as it was dark and we couldnt find the restaurant being first timers Google maps took us to the wrong place somewhow....so we called and he came to find us. Amazing! Thanks for that. But to add, we both love Japanese food, and sometimes it can be hit and miss in London (especially the non traditional Japanese) but the food was exceptional for the price. Its a proper Japanese restaurant not like an Itsu Or Wagamama. We had a variety of dishes such as Agedashi Tofu and Yakitori skewers to Sashimi (Toro, Salmon) some rolls, and Sushi, all of it was excellent. The fish was excellent. The Toro was lovely (and was Toro which in some restaurants is either hard to get, or i have been given Maguro not Toro before) and this was the real deal. Lots of cold Sake to choose from. The only downside and this is small, but noticeable, is when you leave you do smell a bit of cooking. Sorry if some see that as a moot point but it was really notieable and the smell was on us all night when we left. Thats not a biggy but was a thing. Thanks Mugen we will be...