The Woodstock Kushiyaki Bar

not even 1 star this place blows. Supposedly an Asian something food place, looks like a pub from the outside. Pretty pricey for what you get. I had a full course meal and considered it to be a snack. Food is nothing special, service is «weird»; atmosphere even more weird. Do Not Go!

Here is the intro that can be found from The Woodstock Kushiyaki Bar website:
‘The Woodstock Kushiyaki Bar brings the feel of Japanese Izakaya to the capital. Located adjacent to Oxford Street, the bar serves an extensive Japanese led drinks menu and freshly made Kushiyaki and Kushiyage skewers, in a relaxed environment. The concept is based on the pubs and bars found in Japan, acting as a ‘pit-​stop’ for a ‘pint and skewer’ before heading home after work.’
— I have a few qualms with this description as The Woodstock Kushiyaki Bar may give a ‘feel of Japanese Izakaya’; but I’m sure native Japanese would be dumbfounded at how underwhelming the quality of food, service and setting is.
On entering this bar I feel like it is not clear what the setup is, seating is scarce, not particularly comfortable and is oddly spaced out. The wall looks unfinished and service is also noticeably lacking. There certainly is an extensive Japanese led drinks menu which takes up most of the menu meanwhile the menu appears so blasé as if little effort has been put into making it — it looks like the baby books you hang on a buggy but in a boring musky colour with black text, also they don’t seem to recognise the fact that mushroom is a type of vegetable (as if the menu has not been proofread).
The crispy calamari with Japanese mayo and yuzu salt tasted a little bland and lacking in calamari — they should cut thicker slices and put the sauce and salt in dips; the ‘ginger pork belly’; was probably the only skewer I found satisfying but even this did not deliver the ginger element that it proposed; the small dish of peppers was totally tasteless; the soft shell crab was far too battered and ended up oozing more oil and providing more shell than crab; the chicken thighs skewers were sufficiently meaty but again lacked any originality; similarly, the prawn skewers were simply prawn with a dashing of chilli pepper and parsley (so simple I could make this at home; not that I would want to since it’s so bland); even the quail eggs skewer was surprisingly unimpressionable; the enoki mushroom and bacon just seemed like a joke (like what happens when a child plays with food); finally the mackerel skewers were seasoned just fine but I feel they would have been better served on a dish and laced with mayo instead of crudely pierced with a stick (nevermind, it was still probably the second best skewer although there wasn’t much competition).
All in all the portions of food are small and unoriginal in flavour despite sounding promising. It is important to note that my experience and hence my review has been based mainly on the options of food and not on the drinks which I suspect may be much better quality. In fact probably the only memorable offering out of all I tried was the Jackson’s Piccadilly sencha green tea (despite how the cup clashes with the teapot). The annoying thing is why do they serve food and attempt to represent Japanese Izakaya if they are not even making the food worthwhile? So basically in my eyes they’ve turned a nice idea into something uninspiring and frankly disappointing.