Trash food – you know: fried chicken, mac ’n’ cheese and doughnuts – may have reached haute saturation levels but we’re not done with it just yet. This year, it seems the junk food movement has taken a Nippon twist. Thanks to a new crop of izakayas and their take on bar food, we’re swapping our sliders for hirata buns, buttermilk chicken for chicken karaage and pickle backs for sake bombs.
It all started at Flesh & Buns with soft hirata buns filled with crispy piglet belly, moreish fried wings and sweet kinako donuts. During the Christmas period, we were all over their Japanese Fried Chicken (JFC) Festive Feasting Basket, with BBQ mayo and shichimi sauce – we hope this makes a comeback.
Then, taking it up a notch came Kurobuta, Scott Hallsworth’s Japanese pub complete with rock ‘n’ roll tunes and dishes dedicated to ‘Junk Food Japan’. We can’t get enough of the Wagyu beef sliders with umami mayo and the tuna sashimi pizza drizzled with a truffle ponzu sauce, all washed down with alcoholic slushies and frozen tankard beers.
Now, we’re hitting up Beer & Buns, a crowd pleasing ‘speakeasy meets Japanese dive bar’ serving up a menu of hirata buns (again with the buns!) with four choices of fillings including chicken karaage with yuzu kosho slaw. Or go for the fried chicken wings and spicy Japanese popcorn! And then, of course, there’s the drinks list: Beer & Buns boasts Britain’s largest selection of Japanese craft beers.
And finally, opening this week we have Shackfuyu, a pop-up restaurant by Bone Daddies. The ‘drinking food’ menu – with all food prepared in a pizza oven – features mentaiko mac ‘n’ cheese, fried potatoes with Japanese curry sauce and hamachi tostadas. Order a few yuzu margs or sake cherry gimlets alongside.
Now all we need are the ‘hot menu’ (read: fried chicken) vending machines…
