Mappen

Mappen, a new Japanese restaurant just behind Poporo/85 degrees on George St, is an eatery with a difference. It's self-serve fast food, Japanese style. For main, there are noodles (soba, ramen, udon) cooked in a few different ways, and a couple of rice dishes, that come in small and large. Customers can also help themselves to an array of tempura - fried vegies, prawns, tofu etc, and small containers of bamboo shoots, seaweed and so on, before paying for the meal at the end of the self-serve counter.

We choose our main and watch the lady cook our noodles to order;  I love the wall behind her - it's a picture of a kitchen, with a fridge and a pantry!  Then we picked our own our tempura.

cool old movie posters cover the walls and pillars and give the place a retro feel

Total damage for my small udon with egg and tempura - $10. Wasn't too bad - the udon was just right, and the egg runny; tempura wasn't too oily either.

I'm not a big fan of fried food, but it's cheap enough and interesting enough to warrant another visit :)


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I was going to keep this post as a restaurant review only, but I can't. I have to say that I was bored out of my wits so I agreed to watch The Last Airbender with undiscerning friends, despite all the bad reviews. So I guess I deserve all the pain I got. That movie hurt my soul so bad, i asked to be killed during the movie.

On the other hand - Boy (highest grossing NZ movie of all time, have not met one person who did not think it's beautifully poignant, smart, funny and all-round wonderful), and Made in Dagenham (from the director of Calendar Girls), are awesome films.  Chase them down and watch them, because they countered the ravages of Hollywood dross and saved my soul :)