NALA Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in London

A tiny restaurant between Regent's Street and Soho is this unassuming little gem. In many ways it is a rememant of old London, a little independent. Over 20 years ago I used to work in a shop in Bond Street with this kind of spirit, but when I walked that street today, bar Fenwick it was unrecognisable; wealth and glamour lavish every shop, but they are now rather soulless experiences. Here though the staff care and the service reflects it and that is infectious, with the other diners being extremely accommodating in kind, a generous humanity exists here. The food itself is very good, depending on what you have, the choice is extensive. The Nigiri I individually selected was fantastic, though the platter my friend chose was just okay. The quality of the fish is exceptional however the platter had quite a few tampura and fish stick rolls, the latter I do not consider sushi in any regard. But the tuna was amazing as good as I remember having had, well above the standard of large commercial enterprises. The beef Gyu Don I ordered was also above standard and very enjoyable and reasonably priced. We did get lucky with the seating and managed to get a table for 2 for the 3 of us before being moved, but I didn't mind that because this is charming little restaurant, a link to what made London so vibrant,...

Found a hair in our kimchi twice. We didn’t let that ruin our experience… but then as I was ordering, I ordered a spicy pork don and then realised that’s not what I wanted and told the waiter 3 times I want the pork bimipap instead - mind you he hadn’t left the table or put in the order yet AND he noded. When my food arrived it looked different - I thought it was the bimipap but it looked different than the picture so I asked the same waiter if it came with an egg (like in the picture) and he said no.

I didn’t particularly like the dish it was too salty so I didn’t eat much.

When we asked for the bill the spicy pork don was on the receipt so I told them they had served me the wrong order. nothing was done they just said “is that okay?” I didn’t know what to say and I didn’t want to argue or make a scene in such a small restaurant so we just paid and left.

I’ve worked in restaurants before so I know the least they could do is remove the pork don off the bill seeing as we had multiple mistakes throughout the night - especially with hair incident TWICE.

Overall, the food was average, my friend got ramen and said it was too salty. Such a shame because I would’ve given this place another chance if they had handled their...

I came here out of the usual to get lunch today and ordered the lunch special spicy chicken don. The waiter took my order but didn’t give me a receipt. Another waiter came around and said if my order had been taken, I should wait outside. When I asked for a receipt, they said they couldn't provide one. I accepted this and asked how long the food would take. They said 10 minutes.

I waited for 20 minutes while others who ordered after me received their food. I went back inside and realized they hadn’t put my order through. When I asked again how long it would take, the person at the till responded, “It’s coming.” When I asked for a specific time, he said, “Do you want to negotiate with the chef? Can’t you see we are busy?”

The customer service here is terrible. Instead of acknowledging their mistake, they were rude and dismissive. I walked out without asking for a refund, telling them to keep the money because the experience was so bad. It’s appalling that they couldn’t simply own up to their error and chose to be rude to a customer instead....