Lunch: Tue-Sat 11.30am-2.30pm; Sun 12-4.30pm
Dinner: Fri & Sat ONLY, 5-8.30pm
Sushi: Thur 5-8.30pm.
Closed Mondays.

If your only experiences of oriental food have come through big restaurants, fast-food-style or takeaway outlets, Edamamé’s genuine Japanese home cooking will be a blast of clean, fresh air.

Tiny, clean and light, Edamamé’s informal atmosphere is intentional. The restaurant does not take bookings, so you are likely to find yourself sharing tables with other diners in proper noodle-bar style. At lunch they operate a pay-as-you-order system which keeps the diner turnover high, true to the refuelling-stop ethos of restaurants in Japan. All this and more is explained on each table’s display card and/or the menu, which assists you in choosing what and how to eat (eg. do as the Japanese do and order many small dishes to share; most people find a rice and two main dishes are enough for a meal for one; etc.), and the staff (normally the proprietors) are friendly and keen to help.

And now: the food. Six of us ate dinner in style, clearing every dish and basket placed in front of us and putting away a flask of sake and a bottle of deliciously sweet plum wine with it. No first trip to the place would be complete without the restaurant’s namesake, the addictive baby green soy beans that you can pop out of their pods and munch whilst deciding on your mains (don’t get distracted!). Veggies tired of getting distinctly fishy dishes when requesting a vegetarian option will be delighted by the menu’s division into the following categories: 1) meat, 2) fish, 3) vegetable dishes with fish stock, 4) vegetarian dishes with no meat or fish content, 5) salads.

The vegetarians amongst us sampled the tofu in both steak and deep-fried chunk form, and whilst slightly disturbed by the texture (imagine eating blancmange with chopsticks – quite unlike the rubbery stuff you get in supermarkets), we agreed it was worth a try. The fish-eaters made up the bulk of our order, choosing satsumaage (fishcakes like cocktail sausages in appearance and outer consistency – curiously addictive); samonbatayaki (chunks of salmon in butter); samon teri (delicious fillets in house teriyaki sauce) and the evening’s fish special: fresh salmon, leeks and sticky sushi rice in papery seaweed cones. The meat-eaters made quick work of the deep-fried pork cutlet, pork loin in soy and ginger (‘tender, sweet, delicious…could have eaten a lot more of it’) and the evening’s meat special: rump steak rolled around asparagus and leeks. In addition we shared seasoned potatoes, miso soup and the unmissable vinegary seaweed and cabbage salad and had one rice each, enjoying chopstick-fishing for the grains languishing in our soy and wasabi dipping dishes.

In contrast to many other oriental eateries in the city, the portions placed before you at Edamame look tiny, but don’t panic: the sticky white rice is of the sort that fills you up after a couple of mouthfuls, and the small dishes soon add up. We didn’t use any restraint, excusing our indulgence on the grounds that Edamamé don’t do desserts and we’d already had the plum dessert wine with our mains. As a result we spent £17 per head, though you could have eaten well for £10 (rice and other sides start at £1.50, main dishes are £3-£6). The plum wine was reasonable at £12, and had we liked, we could have sampled such intriguing Japanese drinks as calpis chu-hai (yoghurt and vodka) or oyuwari (vodka, hot water and a sour plum).

In short, Edamamé have got the whole dining experience down pat, and clearly attract many loyal customers as a result. From the moment you come through the hanging drapes at the door you feel that this is something special and different, and you will leave satisfied that it has been.

One last well-kept secret: they also do take-out if you turn up and ask.

(Please note that this is a review of a evening dinner session, and that menus vary at lunchtime and on sushi night. See Edamamé’s website for details.)

Su Jordan

Caroline Stacey in the Independent, March 2001:

'Tiny Japanese diner opposite New College. It's cheap and cramped (you may have to share a table), cheerful, doesn't take bookings and is highly recommended for sustaining homely meals. No formulaic noodle bar, this has lots of veggies (from the edamamé soy beans after which it's named), interesting fish such as octopus in batter with fish flakes and seaweed powder, and meat plates for £5-£6. Sells Japanese beers, and French wine at £2 a glass."

October 2000:

Tucked away on Holywell Street, opposite New College, Edamamé is a tiny Japanese restaurant hidden in the middle of a residential terrace. It blends the styles of "katei ryori" (home cooking) restaurants and "izakaya" bars and, on Friday and Saturday evenings, offers a dinner menu of around thirty dishes, very reasonably priced between £1-£6. On Thursday evenings they have Sushi night, when - in order to preserve an atmosphere free from any other interfering foody smells - nothing cooked is served.

Vegetarians are well catered for, but the menu includes several meat dishes and, of course, a variety of fish and seafood items. Somewhat inexperienced in Japanese cuisine, my companion and I selected a mixture of dishes to share, tapas style. We chose the special, sashimi, raw salmon served with wasabi and shredded mooli (£6), shogayaki (stir-fried strips of pork loin marinated in soy and ginger, £5), yasai itame (stir-fried oriental vegetables, £4.50), edamamé (boiled Japanese soy beans, £2.50), miso soup and rice (£1 each).

The dishes came in waves. First, the edamamé which came in their pods ready to be popped, swiftly followed by the rice and salmon. The latter was extremely fresh, and dipped in the accompanying wasabi mixed with soy sauce was a delicious delicacy which my companion claimed she could "eat all day". Whilst savouring the salmon, our other dishes arrived. The stir-fried vegetables included beansprouts, carrots and babycorn - fresh and simple. The pork was the only let down, somewhat reminiscent of bacon and not sufficiently gingery for our taste. I enjoyed an Asahi lager (£2) whilst my companion chose sake (£3) but there are also shotchu (spirits) and choya (Japanese plum wine) on offer.

The restaurant space itself is spare, packed with tables and stools, and simply decorated with mirrors and bamboo blinds. Despite its diminutive size, however, it doesn't feel unduly cramped (though be prepared to share a table). There are no reservations so you may have to wait 5 or 10 minutes for a table. Although these factors along with the opening hours don't make Edamamé an obvious choice for an intimate meal for two, the high quality of the food and the friendly service make it an attractive option for an early evening weekend meal.

Total bill for two including drinks: £27.60 (+ 10% surcharge for cards).

Mark Schofield