When the first Inamo opened in 2008, much was made of its ‘interactive’ ordering system, where a responsive menu is projected on to the table surface. It was – cynic alert! – fun for about five minutes. Here, the ordering process has graduated to iPads, though you can still do various mildly diverting things with your tabletop, such as change the design and play games. Less jaded (happier?) people will undoubtedly enjoy it: the tables adjacent to ours were all smiles at the novelty; the children enthralled. And us? Well, we were happy to focus on the food.
Sweet and tender beef tataki was the highlight on our visit, followed by a good green chicken curry loaded with meat, various veg, basil and mint. Light and flavoursome seafood gyoza were decent too, as was a zippy Asian coleslaw. The only blip was a bland dish of ‘BBQ vegetable noodles’ – we’d wager they forgot to add the soy ginger reduction mentioned in the menu description.
So, the food here really isn’t bad. And the gimmicks? Well it’s just machine replacing man. We should probably get used to it.