Katana @ The International

Bowgreave

Works for us 3rd January 2009

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Katana is part of a chain that runs a mix of restaurants in central London and, in our exoperience, the best part. It is incredibly good value and the frequent email, Toptable and other marketing methods they use make it even more so.
Have eaten here around four times and the food has been consistently good, with decent portions too. My son rates their green chicken curry as the best he has tasted and I can recommend the musssaman curry and the steamed sea bass fillet. Have we been lucky or some of the other reviewers been unlucky? Perhaps a bit of both.

jan08

Katana 7th October 2008

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Confusingly named, the Katana restaurant is still one of my favourite restaurants in the West End. The service is exceptionally high, from the moment you walk in. I don't think I have ever been asked before if I am happy with the location of the table when seated! The decor is modern and well patronised by business types, but as the service is so friendly, it's also relaxed and unpretentious. They describe themselves as pan Asian - quite an eclectic menu and the food has always been good whenever I have dined there. If you book in advance, you can also take up one of their spacial menu offers which then makes it very good value for money.

tapdancingcat

Good value 10th September 2008

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I have been to this restaurant three times now, and i have used the offers offered on thier website and found the food exceptional for the price. Its only let down is the staff are not the brightest buttons and the survice can be a little slow!

blondie_wandie

So-so atmosphere, so-so food 1st September 2008

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Headed to The International for a bit of variety from our usual trips to Covent Garden. Great location- Trafalgar Square on the door step, the National Portrait Gallery just across the road, Covent Garden a 5 minute walk away. The only problem came with the service not being great- bit pretentious and didn’t really seem all that bothered with Customer Service.

The food was OK- unfortunately there are a number of Asian restaurants round London that are far supreme. They seemed to want to be an ultra trendy haunt on St Martins Lane that does unusual food- unfortunately the two didn’t fit all that well and I would prefer to head to an actual Asian restaurant rather than one that tries to make the whole thing too trendy.

hunkychunky

mrs elizabeth ashby 21st July 2008

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Katana is ideal for a pre theatre meal, as the Duke of York's theatre is round the corner. We reserved a table for two, the set menu at £14.95.
Poor choice on the menu, so we asked to see the à la carte menu. The prices were outrageous so we stuck to the set menu.
Thai Green and Red Curries were very bland, rice and noodles were an added cost. We will not return.

mangoeater

Boring Food, Great Location 15th May 2008

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I recently took a client for lunch. This is a well-decorated (modern clean lines) place in a lovely location. But if you love Thai food, this is not the place for you. This is where you can take friends who usually dont eat foreign food. I can't beleive there is actually a chef here, because the food was gloppy, overly sweet, and uninventive.

The appetisers all came with sauces that looked and tasted like thousand island dressing- thick, creamy, too sweet, and gloppy. This included the chicken satay. The actual chicken was tenderly grilled, but flavorless, and the sauce ruined it. The chickpea patty appetiser was actually decent.

The curries had no real flavor, other than way too much coconut milk and too much sweetener. You'll find the same curries for half the price in any high street Thai restaurant. The "inventive" duck red curry with lychees tasted like a dessert, with no real flavor.

The service was very polite and well intentioned, but quite new (we had to go and ask to have our water refilled; and our appetiser plates cleared).

The bar below seemed quite trendy. I'd recommend this restaurant only if you need someplace sophisticated but not overpriced in the Trafalgar Square area. If you are looking for brilliant cuisine, skip this place.

amandaharrison at 08/06/08

Totally agree, and when I went here with a client we were the only people there which was very embarrassing. I think there is some kind of deal with toptable so it gets high positioning on search...

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amandaharrison

Yeuch. 7th February 2008

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I'm not even sure what I've given the one star for. It wasn't the food, the atmosphere, the room, or the service that's for sure. I'll give it for the location which is a hop from Charing Cross or Leicester Square.

The food was vile. I had what was supposed to be "Salt and pepper tofu, green mango, Thai shallots, chilli, coriander & nam jim". God knows what nam jim is, but what I got was something that looked the sort of thing remaining in a frying pan when you've done an egg badly with some unidentifiable veg and certainly not green mango, or, if there was, it was masquerading as something else.

Then I had "Roast duck breast & lychee red curry, bean sprouts, bok choy & crisp shallots". How I was supposed to eat it is anyone's guess. The bowl itself was pretty, by the way, but inside it the duck had slimy fat on; the curry was reddish creamy slop; two lychees and no shallots. The bok choi, when I found it, was OK.

Mint tea was served in a dirty cup; and the teapot had had its broken spout glued back on again which made for some rather attractive staining and made me squirm thinking what sort of germs were lurking in the cracks.

Service was pathetic, I think the waitress was embarrassed, either at the food, the ambience or the generally shabbiness of the place.

Yeuchh. I haven't been somewhere so horribly bad with such uncared for slop for food for a long time.

Need to know anything else?!!