A couple of years ago acclaimed Japanese director, Takashi Miike, released Sukiyaki Western Django, a twisted spaghetti Western with a cast of Japanese actors who performed their roles in heavily accented English. The result was an occasionally interesting, but ultimately confusing and flawed film. Hard Times is the restaurant equivalent, a slightly dingy Western-style saloon bar with a heavy Japanese focus to its oriental cuisine. And it’s not just the fake wood beams, leather booths and assorted cowboy-inspired knickknacks that make us so confused. Judging by our last visit this venue is clearly aimed at male Japanese expats, so why the endless soundtrack of classic love songs? Indeed there’s a slightly maudlin feel about the whole place despite the best efforts of the pleasant and helpful staff. The confusion continues with the grill, rice and noodle dishes on the laminated menu. For starters, we’ve never seen a Caesar salad featuring sweet corn, broccoli and red pepper before—even if the slightly bitter dressing (definitely not Caesar) makes it surprisingly appetizing. The Nori cheese is another oddity; triangles of processed cheese served with sheets of seaweed sprinkled with pepper. It’s tasty, even if it blatantly came straight out of a packet. The same couldn’t be said for the octopus tempura. While the octopus itself is ok, the thick coating of mayonnaise and sweet barbecue sauce make the whole thing inedible. We’d also advise skipping the Spicy Crocodile: it’s not spicy at all, just incredibly chewy and bland. Hard Times does fare better with the beef dishes: the sukiyaki rice has lovely thin strips of pleasantly fatty beef with plenty of rich onions and creamy, almost sweet, rice. The Ninja beef steak, chunks of steak served on a bed of bean sprouts and with a hint of sake in the gravy, is equally flavorsome. All in all, it makes for a curious dining experience that tries to be different but unfortunately most of the time just ends up shooting itself in the foot. Corkage B300.
