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The modernist Brunswick shopping mall and housing estate in Bloomsbury received a £22m spruce up in 2006 with Hare & Tortoise being one of the few persistent outlets to retain a premises.

While critics derided the renovation as merely an opportunity for chain retailers to turn the centre into another ubiquitous clone shopping mall, it is clear that it has brought the estate much needed aesthetic rejuvenation. Stripping a place of its individual charm and identity may seem like a high price to play for its regeneration but in the case of the Brunswick centre there was very little charm to sacrifice. At the behest of the council, the architect’s original plans for mixed housing went unfulfilled and the centre became a ‘council-housing-ghetto’ shortly after its completion in 1972. By the late 90s the majority of the retail space was unoccupied and in 2002 the residents association caved in to growing pressure for redevelopment.

The old Renoir cinema and Hare & Tortoise are now flush with the chain coffee houses and mobile phone shops. Hare & Tortoise has elevated itself from obscurity as a dingy chinese restaurant to a contemporary pan-asian noodle and sushi bar in a very impressive way.

The place is bustling with people for lunch and dinner 7 days a week. There’s always a queue stretching outside though you don’t actually end up waiting very long to be seated.

The waiting staff are invisible and extremely efficient. While you don’t wait long for anything, catching an eye to get the bill can be a bit tricky. Plates are unceremoniously plonked on tables and don’t expect to be able to dawdle or ask questions when ordering. Expediency is a two way street!

While the robotic customer service might be misconstrued as rude, it is clear from the value for money this place offers that your not really within your rights to take issue.

The soft shell crab (£4.80) is a real treat – tender and meaty with heaps of flavour in the shell. The salmon sashimi (£6.80) is great as well; traditionally thick and lots of it. The yakitori chicken (£3.00) is succulent and much better than wagamama’s very dry, marmitey offering! I’m informed by the venerable Mr. A Witt (@awitt09) that the pumpkin croquettes (£3.20, deep fried breadcrumbed pumpkin) are delicious and filling. Edamame at £2.60 is exceptional value.

Main course portions are grand and everything is very cheap. Roast duck with rice (£5.75) arrives in a huge bowl, the whole crown of duck is crispy (though too dry) and extremely flavoursome with what tastes like a fennel sauce coating the rice. Yaki udon noodles (£6.00) come in hugely generous portions with chicken, prawn, squid and fishcakes all thrown in there but are swathed in much too much oil – not recommended.

Hare & Tortoise seems like a godsend for students. Minutes away from several large halls, UCL, SOAS, Senate House and Birkbeck it is in an ideal location. There is such range in the pan-asian menu that you have the opportunity to try something new every time you visit at very little expense. I dare say the dishes aren’t nearly as healthy as those offered at wagamama, but the servings are vast, the price is right and the range is superb.

I’ve been to the Hare & Tortoise in West Kensington where its not nearly as busy. The staff are equally fast but are very polite with lots of bowing and the like. If you think the service is a bit too brusque at the Bloomsbury branch then you can be sure that it is not by choice, sacrifices in pleasantries are made only to facilitate the huge numbers of customers demanding cheap, good quality east Asian food – fast.

Place: 4/5 – robotic but quick service, modernism reformed in a kind of art-deco whitewash

Food: 4/5 – the choice is unparalleled and there are delicacies lurking

Value: 5/5 – it doesn’t come cheaper than this

Overall: 5/5*

Hare & Tortoise 11-13 The Brunswick, London WC1N 1AF – 020 7278 9799 – hareandtortoise.co.uk