Turning Japanese...

Today dawned grey and overcast, which was disappointing! Back in Naples I had promised to go with Sophie to Las Iguanas in Milton Keynes, but we discovered yesterday that they were closing today for a three week refurbishment. I suggested we go to the Japanese restaurant we spotted in Northampton a couple of months ago instead, and invite Keith and Mike to go with us.

Keith wasn't interested but Mike readily agreed so at 12pm we set off. I parked in the Mayorhold car park and we walked down to Castilian Street through the market square. Things hadn't improved since I used to do this every Wednesday and the atmosphere in town was still decidedly edgy. It certainly wouldn't be my first choice for shopping!

Akasaka was empty when we arrived which didn't surprise me, it being a Monday lunchtime, and I had expected it to be closed when I'd checked the opening times the previous day. The waitress was very friendly and we had a good look at the menu before deciding. The restaurant has a special lunchtime menu which made it easier for us to order and we chose a spicy ramen soup of noodles and chicken (Mike), a chicken Katsu curry (Sophie) and Tonkatsu with Yaki Gyoza for me which was deep fried pork slices served with rice, dumplings and vegetables. We all shared a bottle of sparkling water, but if we ever go back I'd love to try the Sake.

Our food was delicious and Mike's soup looked particularly good and was very hot and spicy.

We only had chopsticks to eat with but we all coped admirably with them, even though we did borrow Mike's soup spoon to scoop up the last bits of delicious rice! We managed to east an ice-cream for dessert, although I don't think they were traditionally Japanese! The bill came to £35 for the three of us which I thought was really good value. We will be back!

The plan was to have a drink at the bar that Sophie wanted to go to before we went on holiday but they're closed on Mondays so we went to John Franklin's again. Mike went off to meet his mates but while we were sitting enjoying our drinks (I had coffee, Sophie had a Mojito) he called us to say he wanted to come home with us rather than getting the bus.

It had been a lovely treat and we will definitely return to Akasaka, hopefully with Keith so he can experience the delicious food. In the evening we prepared king prawns for dinner which was fiddly and messy! We were having just a starter and dessert and Keith had made a chocolate cheesecake,  but it took us ages to de-shell and de-vein the prawns and then coat them in breadcrumbs before frying them. The dish was a bit of a disaster, to be honest, as Sophie found them chewy and the rest of us found them tasteless! At least the cheesecake was a hit!