Blizzardboy | A Kiwi in Japan

They are the back bone of cricket in Japan, and if you are vegetarian they offer choice and variety rarely found in other ethnic food on these pacific isles. Where would we be without our friends from the sub-continent?

Mantra is a restaurant proudly boasting the best the sub-continent has to offer. Located near Omiya Station , (close to Tokyo on the Keihin-Tohoku, Shonan-Shinjuku as well as numerous other lines) this restaurant brings a taste of the Himalayas to both visitors to Tokyo and locals alike – at very reasonable prices.

We were lucky just after returning from our overseas jaunt to visit Mantra while we were on our way back to Akita (the friends we stayed with, and who kindly took us to the restaurant have just finished designing Mantra’s new website). We had had Pakistani food in Kashgar quite some months before, so we were really hanging out to get our chompers around some tasty curry and naan. And they didn’t let us down.

My pick of their menu would have to be the Palak Paneer, a mouth-watering spinach based curry just waiting to be scooped up with their delicious garlic naan (I recently had a similar dish here in Tsukuba, but unfortunately it wasnt quite up to the same standards). For the more knowledgeable patrons out there, they are also quite chuffed when you ask them to prepare something a little more esoteric.

The atmosphere is pretty laid back with some cool Buddhist statues on display. The owner is from Nepal, and the chef’s hail from India.

So if you are looking for a change of pace, and are in the Omiya area (some cool parks around there too, if you want to escape the concrete jungle) then head on down to Mantra for some great Indian and Nepali fusion and enjoy. I heartily recommend it!