Despite vigorous attempts by people, many of whom should know better, and others who know little at all, to suppress them, more natural methods of cure and prevention are advancing in popularity. Since most of these are taken by mouth it is by no mean surprising that restaurants see themselves as having a hand in this movement.

"You are what you eat" is a well known catch-phrase that has about it the ring of truth, and many feel that the structured pattern of modern life is not conducive to natural eating. Itadaki-zen seeks to play its part in restoring a more natural basis to the potentially joyful habit of eating out and eating well as a means of achieving an agreeable taste and the healing qualities that go with the food.

Diners will encounter rice, root vegetables, seaweeds, soya beans and by-products prepared with care and unhurried methods. Side dishes of grilled tofu with a special sauce called yangyeom are accompanied by seasonal vegetables simmered with tasty sauce, large non-seaweed sheets, bean sprouts seasoned with yangyeom, cold tofu with special soy sauce topping ginger and spring onion blend with fresh roll, spring green lightly boiled sheet enfolding okara and vegetable filling, followed by seaweed salad and miso soup.

Special dishes are popular both for diversity and value, amply demonstrated by the neba-neba-don, rice with sliced Daikon radish, okjura, nattou and shredded nori seaweed. NebaNeba means 'sticky', like the sticky ingredients from vegetables good for the immunity system. Followers of sushi will be pleased to see a special sushi menu, with such treats as vegetable sushi rolls, Agesan, a dish of of fried beans curd, carrots, cucumbers and Shiitake mushrooms, and wild garlic rolls made from wild garlic leaves, cucumber and carrot.

In terms of desserts kanten jelly, made from seaweeds, is a vital ingredient in producing such mouthwatering looking confections as soymilk pudding, a delicious mango pudding, a sesame pudding, and the wonderfully named and accoutremented fruits-awase pudding.

The lunch box is a time honoured institution in far-Eastern lands, a little something to keep the engine turning, soothe maybe. The mixed rice version packs a punch with mixed rice of five kinds of grains, five seasonable vegetables simmered with tasty sauce, along with Nori's seaweed sheets and bean sprouts seasoned with Yangyeom special sauce. One of the even more nutritious dishes is Hijiki-no-nimono, a combination of mix vegetables, fried tofu in shoyu sauce and hijiki, a variety of seaweed full of calcium and iron.

But my money goes on the homemade kimchi, naturally preserved vegetables in a piquant blend of red chilli, fine nuts, ginger root, crushed garlic and many other ingredients. Amongst all this beneficial and kindly food it seems at first strange to spy bottles of Whitstable Bay ale, until on closer inspection they turn out to be organically produced. Wines from a well spread net include some impeccable names, and of course, traditional Japanese sake.

Eating at Itadaki-Zen can be a highly refreshing and pleasant experience. Its art gallery establishes the contacts between good art and good food, and their excellent Website will tell you more. Students should take note of the fact that they can always benefit from a 10% discount.