Hare & Tortoise Blackfriars

The pubby name is a red herring: you’re more likely to sup on soup noodles & Asahi beer than a pie & a pint at the Hare & Tortoise. Now with a fistful of pleasingly stylish & even more pleasingly low-budget branches across the capital, it’s frequented by dreamers in search of that sub-£10 holy grail (think students, impecunious young couples & so on). The menu is ‘vast’, portions are ‘generous’, & the food not half bad. The core of the menu is Japanese (ramen noodles, tempura, rice dishes & sushi rolls), but you can cross borders for curry, laksa, spring rolls or chicken chow mein. It’s not so different from other noodle joints, apart from the fact that you can bag a table for two & aren’t obliged to sit elbow-to-elbow with strangers.