Now we've got a Yoshinoya and...

A branch of the Japanese food chain Pepper Lunch opened on George St today and, like a good Nipponophile, I took my business there. I ordered the Curry Beef Pepper Rice combo (large size - $11.90). It’s meant to come with a cup of Coke, but they let me swap that for a bottle of water. Which was nice.

I occupied a seat and watched everyone else’s meals get delivered. After 20 minutes, a waitress came over to check my order. She was followed by an apologetic manager who assured me chow time was imminent (not his actual expression). He blamed the chef: "I told him twice to get your order!" Another 10 minutes and my nosh arrived. Now you know why I didn’t write "FAST-food chain".

The dishes at Pepper Lunch are served sizzling on a hotplate atop a wooden board, like you get in oodles of Asian restaurants. The only difference – and I think it’s a neat touch – is there’s a cardboard ring around the plate so you can’t burn yourself. In the case of the CBPR combo, the meat is raw. You need to fry both sides using the chopsticks or spoon provided. Then ya mix it with the rice and vegies. Or in my case, vegie. I got the corn kernels but not the chopped spring onions (chef’s revenge!). There’s sauce on the rice, too, and yellow stuff I initially thought was egg – it’s butter, to aid the cooking/binding.

So how was it received by the ol’ tastebuds? Pretty well, thanks for asking. Admittedly, the curry flavour was faint, but combine a bunch of fresh ingredients and you can’t go very wrong. Had I felt the need, there were extra condiments on offer, including two Japanese steak sauces.

Ultimately, the portion was generous enough to lure this glutton back at some future date – despite the 30 minutes of thumb twiddling and the missing scallions.