Review: Jeux Jeux, Waterloo

I’m always on the hunt for useful places to eat on the South Bank, so long a wasteland of chain restaurants and nothingness. So after a visit to Jeux Jeux I’m happy to report that you can enjoy a perfectly tasty Hiroshima-style okonomyaki here now.

If you’re not already a fan, okonomyaki is a kinda sleazy, comforting, moreish Japanese dish with the main ingredients being pancake, cabbage and usually some kind of protein, while the main flavours come from the generous lashings of okonomiyaki sauce (sweeter and a bit less spicy than our brown/HP sauce) and mayonnaise along with various other toppings. The Osaka style, most common across Japan, mixes the cabbage and protein with the pancake batter to deliver up a thick mixed pancake of stuff for toppings. The Hiroshima style, only common in Hiroshima (but there are apparently 2000+ okonomyaki joints there!) layers everything: a pancake, topped with meat, then cabbage, then a heap of noodles, and then a paper-thin omelette on top.

At least, that was how it arrived at Jeux Jeux, the first Hiroshima-style I’ve ever tried. Our friends have eaten a few in Hiroshima and they declared this pretty good, approaching (but not quite equalling) what they had in Japan. I was certainly happy. The beef added to mine was full-flavoured and tender, the buckwheat pancake at the bottom adding its nutty-hay flavour to the slick of okonomyaki sauce on top. We had a couple of side dishes: lovely sticky pieces of pork belly, and some friendly white cubes of tofu coated in a white panko crust and dipped in tempura sauce.

We drank sake, but most other tables had beer or sodas; it’s a very casual, simple and good-value place for a quick meal. The vibe is canteen-style. Not really a place to linger or settle in for a feast.