Tombo

There’s always a huge queue to get anywhere for dinner when the Lates are happening around the museums in South Kensington. We walked around a few areas where the wait was ~45 minutes to an hour on a Friday night. With no reservations, Tombo were able to accommodate us after 15 minutes of waiting inside.
This place is fairly discrete and you might walk past it a few times without even noticing. However, once you realise that it has just about matcha everything, you can’t help but wonder if it knows what to do with all the green tea inside!
We ordered a few dishes from a very reasonably priced menu (you’ll expect to have a decent sized meal for about ~9−11 GBP, then add drinks and desert, and you’ll only be paying less than 20 GBP — in a pretty touristy spot of South Kensington, this one is going to be a hit amongst the students, i’d imagine).
The food came quite quickly. The salmon bowl is amazing — it has salmon prepared in three different ways (from tartare to miso cooked) and a bed of rice that is cooked just perfectly. The matcha latte is made just right too — you can’t go wrong with this as a drink. Save room for desert because the matcha menu is just as well prepared as the mains and drinks.
I would recommend this place if you’re after something that’s quick, light on the wallet and tastes as if it came straight from the walls of Tokyo.
Also, the service is top notch and the interior is designed so you can catch up with friends very easily over a meal or drink, and linger around until late in the evening.

miso aubergine bento box is a great choice for something light.
miso salmon bento is another go-​to choice.

Lovely café with an interesting Japanese menu. It’s limited but the bento boxes are very healthy and quite filling. They advise of gluten free options and even stock almond milk to make matcha latte which is amazing.
We went at 12 which was nice and quiet, it was heaving by 1.30 pm. The Asian staff are lovely, one non Asian (manager?) seemed a little abrupt though.

Close by the museums without being outrageously expensive? Count me in.
It’s a small place to grab a quick meal in between visiting the Natural History Museum, Science Museum or V&A Museum. It’s just a 5 minute walk literally across the street.
My parents had the Chicken Katsu Curry and it was good. It was what you would expect of a typical Japanese curry. I tried the Non Carb Bento (which is just the Bento without rice — although the vegetables and salmon also contain carbs so it’s more like low carb bento.). It came with a variety of sides and a perfectly baked salmon.

My friend and I wanted a cheap and quick dinner before going to the Royal Albert Hall. Tombo made a good impression at first but we weren’t convinced by the food. My friend had rice with teriyaki chicken and I had a noodle soup with tofu and both were ok but defenitely would have needed fresh vegetables to liven up the dishes. Maybe they make good sushi but I couldn’t really recommend Tombo.

Delicacy is always the stamp of good japanese restaurant, no matter big or small, cheap or expensive. You can always visualise the piece of carefulness and respect towards the food that paid by the chef. I had chicken katau curry with a Zen mocha, also many more. See pictures please.

Matcha ice cream is great and the selection of teas is also very good. However on a Saturday lunch we had to queue 20 mins. But it’s worth it.

really average and over priced. Food was blah, not a lot of flavour. When you are not happy with your meal you feel any amount you pay to be a rip off and the bento boxes do not come with miso soup! gasp. I had to pay an extra £3 for a large miso soup, and yes it was large but no tofu! gasp. Lots of seaweed.
Needless to say life is to short to re– eat at a place you do not love! I left feeling like I wasted money. I feel misled by all these raving reviews :(

THE BEST GREEN TEA IN THE WORLD!
Tombo is amazing. The service is brilliant, the food is DELICIOUS and the décor is beautiful!
Perfect for a quick, but lovely meal :)
Definitely buy some of their Bonsai, Genmaicha with Matcha tea to take away!

The original green tea is good in the aspect of legit flavor. If you go there for food, it is still quite yummy. However, the afternoon tea is not really attractive. I ordered that only for trying out and turned out to be not good at all. You can only have afternoon tea from 3−5pm and they actually decide the food not you. i.e. They may give you tart today or macaroon next time, and you have no choice. From Japanese service, I do no really like this. More, the sushi is not tasty at all. I am sure they did not make rice really traditional, and they should have warmed rice by hands, which obviously they did not do so. I would also use Chinese to comment since many Chinese people go there. 为了食物而去，这家店还是可以，抹茶，不是抹茶拿铁，而是纯正的抹茶很有日本原味，你能感受到抹茶在舌尖的停留，但下午茶并非吸引人的原因，一你不能自己选择有什么，也许今天他们马卡龙剩的多 就给你马卡龙，二寿司并不好吃，因为米没有经过手指按压 感受不到结合了手的温度

Rating this relatively high for the service as everyone was incredibly nice and attentive.
My bento box was half alright — the salmon was cooked very well and the accompanying salads were good. However, I’d appreciated more of the salad for the price I paid given that the additional costs to the restaurant is likely very marginal.

I’ve been here quite a lot recently for lunch, dinner, and mid-​afternoon snacks. I like Tombo — I’m not usually too fussed about interiors of places, but it’s a nice place to sit in, helped by the friendly staff. I feel relaxed there. Tombo do a variety of things — katsu curry, noodle bowls, rice bowls, salads, and a bit of sushi as well as a bunch of desserts, mostly matcha based (yup, yum!). Generally, I go in for a soy matcha latte and an onigiri or a doriyaki — whilst the soy matcha lattes aren’t the best I’ve had in London, they’re nice and it’s a very welcome hot beverage option in SK (and eating into my time spent in Fernandez and Wells). They also have a small but nice selection of teas — I’m a big fan of their haiku ginger roasted hojicha.
The food here is decent. Unfortunately, the kitchen is pretty minimal, so things like the katsu are reheated using microwaves and don’t come out crispy. That said, the food’s not bad — the dishes are a decent size and I like the noodles: as well as standard toppings (teriyaki chicken, miso salmon), there’s a special item every day which is usually pretty good. I do like their salady things too — they’re simple (things like seaweed salad and sesame broccoli), but well put together and have great texture. I’ve not tried the sushi here yet so I can’t comment on the quality.
I’ll be coming here plenty in the future and I want to go back to try their desserts at some point as I do like my matcha cakes. It’s not cheap cheap here, but you can get a decent meal for a tenner and it’s just a nice place to be in. It won’t rock your world, but I always have time for good, simple food.

Tumbled on that tiny sushis place after a long day at the Museum with my BoyFriend.
This place got a really friendly staff, welcoming environment and some great food at great value.
£30 for two juices, a almost-​too-​big-​for-​one Curry Katsu Rice Bowl & a good portion size very tasty Chicken box.
I will definitely got back to that tiny place when in the area and obviously I highly recommend it to anyone.
My only down point, not enough sushis choices. Kinda disappointed on that.

Dropped by here last night on the way to the Royal Albert Hall. Decent Japanese with a small but well priced menu. Plum wine made a lovely apéritif.
Starters were small so not ideal for sharing, but mains were a good size. Everything tasted fresh with plenty of flavour. Great curry sauce that didn’t overpower the prawns.
Polite and happy staff — nice styling throughout. Chairs in the window were particularly comfortable which you don’t often get in a Japanese restaurant for some reason, they tend to go for simplicity over comfort.
Ideal spot if you’re in South Kensington as it’s just by the station.

Un japonais très propre dans ce quartier pleins de petits restos.
Ambiance Zen et moderne avec mobilier blanc. L’endroit idéal pour faire une pause déjeuner après les visites des musées du quartier.
Différent katsu curry sont proposés. J’ai pris le katsu curry chicken qui était bien bon, servi avec une petite salade de choux et du gingembre.

I remembered this almost minimalist white oasis from a visit a couple of years ago (don’t know what happened to my review from back then, but it would have been glowing) and was happy to find it still where I left it.
My previous experiences must have been mid-​week when the area is less busy, today’s visit was a massive disappointment. I can’t remember any time I was treated with such contempt upon entering a café.
The first member of staff didn’t know what to do with me when I said I needed a table just for myself (come on, this can’t be THAT unusual in London in the 21^st century!) and turned to the manager for help — who offered me a stool in the corner. This would have been bad enough had this been the only space left, but there were several free tables in the main dining area.
Needless to say, I left.

I love the interior design which is simple, clean, and modern.
The foods are delicious and the service was very nice!
They propose a japanese cuisine, with Temaki, Onigiri, Bento, and KatsuCarry!
Good place to have a quick meal !! and the desserts are great!

Went here before heading over to the V&A with a friend. Really tasty, and decently priced. The service wasn’t great… but it wasn’t bad, and certainly wouldn’t stop me from going again. Great for a quick lunch. There was enough space for my friend and I to get a table right away.

We came here for a quick meal before a show nearby, and we weren’t disappointed. We both ordered the chicken katsu curry as it is a reliable dish that we have had in other restaurants before.
The crumbed chicken portions were on show in the counter and they looked delicious. We placed our order and the meal was ready minutes later. We also had a couple of beers. The curry sauce was piping hot and I would dip my chicken pieces in it. I may have been a bit too generous as I didn’t have quite enough to mix in with my rice, but it was fine.
My wife had some dessert at the end: some mochi and black sesame icecream with a surprisingly good wafer.
The total cost was fair for what we ordered and we were satisfied with the dinner.

Great matcha latte, I loved it. The only downside was that they charged 50p for soya milk, which I consider expensive and it wasn’t specified in the price list. I thought that for this kind of drink, soya milk would be included in the price.
I should go back and try the sushi and bento, it must be good because there was a queue and all tables were occupied.

Great Japanese Café in South Ken, and perfect for escaping the tourist traps of the Le Pain Quotidien and Paul’s nearby. Located on Thurloe Street, also home to the nice and cheap Kulu Kulu Sushi, Tombo is a Japanese café combined with a deli. Although deli is probably not the word for it — as it serves hot food like bento boxes, dons (rice bowls), and noodles.
I fully recommend the matcha latte — which is matcha powder mixed with frothed steamed milk. Absolutely amazing! Their sesame macaroon was perfect — crispy on the outside, fluffy and light middle, and filled with a sticky and not overly sweet sesame paste, which had bags of that burnt sesame flavour.
Do try to go for the £4.50 drink + cake offer during tea time (3pm to 5pm) as its superb value for money, especially in South Kensington!
Full Review by The London Insider