Yen

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• What are these?

• Average price 2 courses:
   £6.95 (set lunch)
   £16 (evening meal)
• House wine: £11.90 per bottle

• Hitlisted
• High point: Quality seafood
• Low point: All those 'oohs' and 'aahs'
• Food served: Mon-Fri noon-2pm, 5-11pm; Sat noon-11.30pm; Sun 5-10.30pm
• Private dining: 40/120 dow
• Open since: 2002
• Also offers: Childrens high chairs, Wheelchair access, Take away, Pre-theatre menu

The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 is now in the shops.

This review is from the 2007 edition.

For those who venture to this slightly industrial part of town, inside the North Rotunda a warm welcome and something a bit different await. Yen is a family-run restaurant offering teppanyaki Japanese barbecue on the ground floor, where customers sit around a large hotplate as a chef cooks their food with great showmanship and the flashing of knives. Upstairs, a huge seated area serves food from a menu covering Chinese, Thai and Japanese cuisine. But the teppanyaki rather steals the show. It's quite a performance, though guests could possibly still enjoy the meal without so many 'oohs'and 'aahs'. The most striking thing about the food is the quality of the raw ingredients. Much of the fresh, tasty seafood comes from Loch Fyne: juicy prawns (as well as tender squid) deserve special mention. The teppanyaki prices may appear steep at first, but the meal does offer value for money, covering everything from a range of starters to sweets and coffee. Another bonus at Yen is the pleasant staff, who strike the right balance between attentiveness and friendly interest, displaying the rare quality of pride in their jobs.