Sen Nin

Fiona L. ( 50s, Female, United Kingdom )

Want to chuck an egg into your hat? Happy to sit in a diners' line? Have you a really grumbling stomach? Roll up to Sen Nin! The man and I, and two open-minded friends were up for the experience.

The atmosphere manages to be both relaxed and festive – midweek – and the interior is more comfortable and sophisticated than the view from the street would suggest. The staff are charming and competent. The advertised showman element is whatever you want it to be: our chef played out his tricks (bottle tossing, egg lobbing, macho flames etc) in a deadpan manner, and he stuck to the serious business of cooking efficiently when he (correctly) judged that we didn't want to participate in the fun and games. (I do confess to enjoying watching the messy antics at the other stations as the night progressed however.)

You sit round a u-shaped grill station: we had the choice of sitting four in a line, or three with one round the corner, and we opted for the former. It was actually an ok format for drinking and chatting, but a busy weekend night might form more of a decibel challenge.

We chose set meals, the easy option. We drank our way through a very acceptable bottle of house champagne and some water, and sipped our miso soup as we waited for the real deal to start. Boy, were we hungry by the time our chef stepped up to the hotplate. And oh boy, how we had misjudged our order, which was deftly delivered in waves of over-generous portions. (You are hearing this from the woman whose ex described her as having an appetite like a bird – a vulture!)

The food just kept stacking up in front of us. It seemed a waste to leave chunks of nicely-cooked meat and seafood but one and all, we were stuffed to the gills, and no-one had a corner left to fill by around halfway through the toss-and-fry-before-your-eyes process.

The food is pretty simple and quite healthy – nothing wrong with that formula. I lost track of actual raw quantities being cooked, but can only assume Sen Nin regulars have played a hard game of footie, cycled there and/or jogged like Boris round Highbury Fields before heading for a Japanese pit stop. (I may just have hit on the explanation for the not-so-svelte figure of our Mayor despite his regular and much-publicised fitness activities).

Sen Nin is simply good fun – if that's what you want, and it has good food in spades – if you are after that quantity of nosh with good quality thrown in. Next time, I vow I'll throw an egg in the air and catch it in my hat, to general applause and laughter. Oh, and I'll take a doggy bag…