Terri (14 March 2006)

Having seen the funky tables from the outside, Abeno Too proved a very enticing proposition for dinner, especially with the heavy promotions on the windows propelling it forward as a cheap eat: good quality food that won't burn a hole in your pocket.

It's a very busy little eatery with very customer- intense delivery: food was cooked on hotplates on the tables by the waiting staff... and with the numbers of hotplates far outnumbering the numbers of waiting staff, we were happy to wait before being served.

Having been served our drinks we perused the menus. The dishes on offer are essentially variations on a handful of themes, nevertheless looking round, the food looked interesting and very fresh. As we waited for our food order to be taken, we watched as customers left and were replaced by fresh individuals, hungry for a bit of authentic Japanese cooking. The clientele is young and mainly consisted of couples (though that may have been a symptom of a Saturday night?!).

Ten minutes passed, then 20, then 30. We watched as the 'fresh individuals' had their food orders taken. Attempts to catch the attention of the waiting staff were thwarted by a downcast-eyes stance, or complete focus on cleaning the hotplates for the next customers. Enough was enough. Forty minutes supping a drink in a small, noisy eatery is not much fun. Give me a Breezer on the park bench any time!

We got up to go - a waitress even smiled us goodbye as we headed towards the till, coincidentally the same direction as the door. We asked to pay our drinks bill and, I kid you not, four of the waiting staff gathered round to try and work out what we had eaten (I began to feel a pang of guilt as the food left cooking on the hotplates began metamorphosing into lumps of charcoal). After much to-ing and fro-ing, suspicious looks, the gathering of plates from the couple seated next to us (trying to imply that we had eaten food off those plates!) and another wasted ten minutes they fina