The Cherry Blossom Menu at Sake no Hana

Name: Sake no Hana

Where: 23 St James Street, London, SW1A 1HA, http://sakenohana.com/london/

Cost: The sakura menu costs £34 per person inclusive of a cocktail, miso soup, two bento boxes including sushi and sashimi and a hot  main course. Dessert is available for an additional £8.50.

About: Part of the fabulous Hakkasan Group, Sake no Hana's restaurant on swanky St James Street, in celebration of the Japanese cherry blossom season (sakura), is offering a special menu created by Head Chef Hideki Hiwatachi.

The sakura menu will be served until 18th June, and for the duration of the menu, the entire restaurant and bar are decked out in pretty cherry blossom, making for quite an atmospheric spot.

The menu is available at lunchtimes in the restaurant, while at dinner time it is served in the ground floor bar, and this was where we had our meal.

What We Ate: The menu kicked off with a steaming white miso soup with edamame bean tofu, spring onion and wakame seaweed. I enjoyed this soup – the dashi broth was well made and delicate while the addition of white miso gave it a delectable savour. I particularly enjoyed the nutty, jade-green edamame tofu cut in the shape of a lotus flower.

For our main courses, we ordered two different dishes to share. The chicken sumiyaki with spicy shichimi sauce was served in a perspex bento box with an accompanying green salad dressed with a citrus yuzu-pon dressing.

The grilled chicken was well flavoured and succulent, served alongside the spicy shichimi sauce made of sesame oil, soy sauce, Japanese 7-spices, garlic, ginger and a hint of wasabe.

The other main, also served bento style, was the seasonal vegetable tempura which included slices of pumpkin, onion, asparagus, aubergine and lotus root. Delectable though it was, unusually Sake no Hana's version uses breadcrumbs rather than the more traditional tempura (wheat) flour, so this was not tempura in the traditional sense.

Now onto the raw fish bento – a selection of sushi and sashimi – super-fresh slices of yellowtail, red tuna and salmon, were served chilled over ice and beautifully presented in a bamboo sake cup.

A delicious trio of nigiri sushi included fatty tuna, salmon with chopped wasabi and sweet shrimp. The vegetable shiso maki had crunchy okra with dried sweet plum, while a forth seabass nigiri was nattily dressed in an aromatic bamboo leaf.

Dessert is not included in the fixed price, but we could not resist the cherry chocolate sake mousse (£8.50). This had cherry chocolate and cherry sake mousses, chocolate crumble and sake jelly, glamorously served on a plate decorated with a green chocolate 'tree', with fresh cherries.

Vanilla macarons came filled with chocolate and green tea ganache (£1.80 each), and had a perfect crisp coating with an indulgently gooey centre.

What We Drank:  The cocktail on offer for the sakura menu is a Kaori Arpège, a heady and gorgeously presented mix of Beefeater 24 gin, yuzu sake, cherry liqueur, peach bitters, grapefruit juice and agave. It was served with a selection of 3 spray perfumes - cherry and cinnamon, jasmine and elderflower, and violet. Diners are invited to spray the perfume around the cocktail, one fragrance at a time, and savour the different flavours and aromas.

With our meal, we shared a small carafe of Kozaemon Sakura Junmai Ginjo sake (£18.80). A limited edition sake available only during sakura season, just a few hundred bottles are produced each year. Opalescent, off-dry with barley, savoury and meaty characteristics and a rich complex finish, this was rather like a top quality, long-aged amontillado sherry.

Likes: The cocktail, sushi and sashimi and desserts were delicious and gorgeously presented, and great to experience in the beautiful cherry blossom setting. 

Dislikes: During dinner service, the bar lacks a little atmosphere. 

Verdict: If you haven’t visited the fabulous Sake no Hana yet, the sakura menu at £34 is a great reason for doing so, and it will not break the bank. But rush because the menu ends on 18th June 2016. Recommended.

Kouzu - The New Japanese Restaurant Destination in Belgravia

Name: Kouzu

Where: 21 Grosvenor Gardens, Belgravia, London, SW1 0JW, http://kouzu.co.uk/

Cost: Starters range from £4.50 to £13, sashimi from £11 to £17.50, and sushi is offered individually, and ‘omakaze’ or chef selection platters ranging from £23 to £60. Cocktails are priced from £8.50 to £12. Entry level wines start from £25 for a Picpoul de Pinet or £22 for a Chilean Merlot. There is a good selection of fine wines with even finer prices.    

About: Just a stone's throw from both Buckingham Palace and Victoria station, this restaurant opened in November 2014, with Chef Kyoichi Kai (formerly of Zuma and the Arts Club) heading the kitchen.

The restaurant claims to have all-Japanese kitchen staff, but walking past the basement kitchen I could not help but notice a lot of westerners working alongside the Japanese. Not that I mind, but it seems an odd claim to make if it isn't correct.

Housed in a grand historical grade-II listed building dating from the 1850s, the restaurant has an impressive entrance with a massive chandelier, and a glamorous cocktail bar.

It has a Japanese-style simplicity to the design, with dark slate floors, top quality but unstained and unvarnished tables, and restrained cream and grey fabrics for the blinds, benches and chairs, with a few prominent displays of orchids.
  

What We Ate: From the ‘New Stream Sashimi’ section, we ordered the lime-cured seabass with a green pepper salsa (£13.00) - this was a stunningly presented dish decorated with micro herbs, chervil and pink peppercorns and served with semi-dried cherry tomatoes which worked surprisingly well with the fish. Although I could not taste much lime-curing in the seabass, the dish was very well balanced and one I would definitely order again.

Also from the 'New Stream Sashimi' section, we had the beef fillet tataki (£17.50) - this was a seared fillet cut into fine slices and served with a sauce of soy sauce, mirin and sake, and a generous serving of julienne salad. In fact the serving of salad was so generous that visually it rather obscured the beef. I enjoyed this dish though - the flavours were fresh and the meat was tender and of good quality.

For mains, we had two items from the charcoal grill selection – the lamb chops with spicy miso and the beef fillet. 

The lamb chops with spicy miso (£12.00), was probably the best dish of the evening and at that price, incredibly good value too. There were two perfectly cooked lamb chops, pink and succulent, served alongside a gorgeous selection of char-grilled vegetables including courgettes, tomatoes, peppers and onion. The spicy miso was a great accompanying sauce with a lot of umami flavour and just the right amount of heat, complimenting the meat and the vegetables without overpowering them.

We also had a 200g beef fillet (£31) that came with a choice two of sauces – an European red wine sauce or a citrus Japanese ponzu dressing served with yuzu kosho (a condiment made from yuzu peel, chillies and salt) - we opted for the latter. Like the tataki starter, the beef was of excellent quality, well cooked, and delicious. My only criticism with it was that rather than being served with yuzu kosho as an accompaniment, I was given a spicy oroshi (a mixture of grated daikon radish and chillies).

To accompany our mains, from the small dish and salad menu, we chose the assorted mushroom salad (£11). This was truly impressive and included a selection of four different mushrooms - eringi, shimeji, shiitake and oyster mushrooms - as well as pine nuts, walnuts, radicchio and green salad leaves dressed with ponzu sauce.

We also ordered a selection of tempura, including prawn (£7.50 for 2), along with aubergine, eringi mushroom and asparagus, but sadly it never arrived. 

As is customary in Japanese restaurants, a ‘shime’ (normally rice and miso soup) is served to end a meal. To that effect, we were served a chef’s platter of sushi including a maki roll and some nigiri.

The spicy California roll (£8), made from crab, avocado, cucumber, flying fish roe, and spicy mayonnaise was superbly made with a very fine layer of sushi rice rolled in shichimi pepper for the spicy heat.

The nigiri sushi were unagi eel (£4 each), and chu-toro (tuna belly), priced at £6.50 each. These were exquisite, but sadly quite steeply priced.

With our selection of sushi, we had three slices of yellowtail sashimi, served in a covered glass bowl (£11). Delicious though it was, again we felt this was not great value for money.

For dessert, we opted for the Tart au Mont Blanc with rum and raisin ice cream (£9.50).  It may come as a surprise to those who have not visited Japan, but Tart au Mont Blanc is a very popular dessert there. The version on offer at Kouzu reminded me very much of examples I ate in Tokyo, and was superb.

We also had the dark chocolate mousse and apricot brandy sauce with hazelnut ice cream (£10.50), which again showed real patisserie artistry at Kouzu.

What We Drank: We started with couple of cocktails - the Yuzutini (£9), was a delicious variation on a familiar theme with intense citrus notes from Yuzu-shu (yuzu-infused shochu), Russian vodka and lemon. The Smoky Negroni (£11.50) was strong and well made from 12-year old Bowmore whisky, along with Campari, ume-shu (plum liqueur) and orange peel. I liked this Negroni although I felt that the whisky was too overpowering a spirit and I would have preferred it with gin.

To accompany our dishes, we opted for a bottle of Masi Valpolicella Classico Ripasso (£30). This was a straightforward wine, with vibrant red cherry notes on the nose and palate. A light, fruit-driven wine, it had very little tannin or complexity, but was very drinkable.

Likes: A perfect meal at Kouzu would start with one of the ‘New Stream’ sashimi dishes like the sea bass, followed by the wonderful lamb chops in spicy miso, ending with the delicious Mont Blanc dessert.

Dislikes: There is a night-club style background music, which seems a little out of place in a restaurant of this quality. The food is very good, but while the waiting staff are polite and attentive, they seem to understand rather little about the food they serve, but these were early days for the restaurant. They also, annoyingly, forgot to bring our tempura. Not all the dishes were served as described on the menu (grated radish instead of yuzu-kosho condiment).

Verdict: Great Japanese-European cooking with some inventive ‘New Stream’ sushi and sashimi on offer and fine patisserie. Well-conceived, Kouzu is a new Japanese restaurant in Central London to be reckoned with. Recommended.

Yashin Ocean House - Japanese Head to Tail Dining and Some of the Best Sushi in the Capital!

Name: Yashin Ocean House

Where: 117-119 Old Brompton Road, South Kensington, London SW7 3RN, http://yashinocean.com

Cost: The dinner menu is small but well thought-out, with appetizers from £4 to £12, sashimi dishes from £8.50 to £32, hot mains from £11.80 to £29. The Omakase Sushi offerings (chef’s choice) are always worth exploring in Japanese restaurants, and at Yashin Ocean House, there are 3 selections of 4, 8 or 11 pieces of sushi (£13.50, £30 and £45 respectively) served with the roll of the day. The Express Lunch Menu is excellent value at £19.50 for 3 courses (appetizer, sushi and main courses) or £24.50 including dessert. An Express Dinner Menu is also available between 6 and 7pm for £24.50 for 4 courses.

About: Yashin Ocean House is situated in a beautifully restored Victorian stables in one of the plusher parts of South Ken. With a large central sushi station surrounded by a turquoise ceramic counter-top and a massive refrigerated cabinet with plate glass for displaying and drying out the fish for which they are known, the restaurant features a rather stunning and contemporary setting.

Opened as recently as 2013 as a sister restaurant to Yashin Sushi & Bar on High Street Kensington, Yashin Ocean House specializes on fish and seafood and the concept of “head to tail” dining which makes use of every aspect of the fish from roe and flesh, to skin and bones to create some of their signature dishes.

In Japan, nothing is wasted and the concept of “mottainai” (waste not!) is something that is deeply ingrained in the national psyche. It is socially unacceptable to be perceived as wasteful in Japanese society, “mottainai” is not only about physical waste, it also refers to thought patterns that give rise to wasteful behaviour.

Yashin Ocean House was founded by business partners Yasuhiro Mineno (ex-head chef at Ubon by Nobu) and Shinya Ikeda (former head chef at Yumi). The kitchen is headed by senior sous-chef Daniele Codini, a talented Italian chef who trained at some of the most prestigious kitchens around the world including L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Paris and The Fat Duck in the UK where he worked for the last 3 years before joining Yashin Ocean House.

Service was efficient and discreet - our waitress Paulina was impressively knowledgeable about every aspect of the menu, and gave some very good recommendations for drinks.

What We Ate: The amuse bouche on the evening we were there was sugi white fish with truffle infused soy sauce, sake and mirin, fig compote and pineapple mint, served with a glass of ginger infusion. For me, the myriad flavours in this amuse bouche did not quite come together as a whole – the fish tasted strongly of tinned tuna, and was unfortunately not a great start to our dinner.

Luckily, things picked up quickly from there with our choices of appetizers - Zuke Ikura (£11.80) was a stunningly presented little golden bowl of salmon caviar (ikura) seasoned with truffle soy, and delicately smoked, the caviar pearls were topped with a hefty serving of truffle. I had never tried the combination of ikura and truffle before but thoroughly enjoyed this rich appetizer. Perhaps some carbohydrate in the form of rice or some crunchy, julienned daikon might have further enhanced my appreciation of this dish.

The Miso Cappuccino (£3.50) was our 2nd appetizer. Charmingly served in an old English teacup and saucer, this was a delicate but well flavoured miso soup topped with deliciously thick soya milk foam. I loved this and must try and replicate it at home.

To follow, we had the dramatic Omakase Sashimi without Soy Sauce (£32 for 2 people). Beautifully presented on a glass bowl and a great deal of white smoke, this included a selection of 6 different fish, each with a respective accompanying sauce, jelly or other flavouring - yellowtail with homemade kizami wasabi, fatty tuna with truffled ponzu jelly, salmon with Tosazu jelly, wild sea bream with plum sauce and rice crackers, prawn with coriander sauce, and wild seabass with tomato salsa. These were some of the best sashimi I have had outside Japan, warranting a visit to Yashin Ocean House on its own right.

Next came the Cod Cheek with Chilli Amazu (£7.80). The cod had been sliced into bite sized pieces, lightly battered and deep fried, and served in a deliciously chillied sweet vinegar broth (amazu), with a scattering of crispy leeks. Similar to a nanban dressing, lightly sweet but with refreshing acidity and a hint of heat, the dressing cut through the meaty cod cheeks’ crispy batter, this was a delicious dish and one of my favourites of the evening.

The house special, Head to TAI-L (Tai translates as sea bream in Japanese - £26 for two people), featured a whole, dry aged and grilled sea bream, served complete with head and bones. The dish is designed to be eaten to the last morsel - head, bones and all.

The dry ageing made the flesh quite firm, and more intense in flavour, while the grilling of the skin, bones and head made every bit of the fish edible, although the bones were extremely crunchy.

The fish was served with a simple but magnificent dressing of Tosazu jelly and grated daikon radish (Tosazu translates as Tosa vinegar). Tosa is the ancient name for an area in Shikoku (one of Japan's main islands), a place where fishermen have long pulled in bonito (katsuo) - so the name suggests an infusion of primarily katsuobushi (dried shaved bonito) with other ingredients including konbu (seaweed used for making dashi stock), soy sauce, mirin and vinegar. The bonito adds a heady dose of smoke, flavour, and rich umami, which combined with the acidity of the rice vinegar, makes for a delicious and refreshing accompaniment to grilled fish. Yashin Ocean House’s Tosazu jelly brought a wonderful acidity, freshness and texture contrast to the grilled sea bream and we loved it.

Next up, and the last of our savoury courses, was the Omakase Sushi Eleven (£45). This comprised eleven pieces of sushi served with the roll of the day - salmon, cucumber and pickled ginger, with a wasabi dressing.

The sushi was outstandingly good – one of the most important elements of sushi for me is the rice – Yashin’s was well cooked and seasoned, light and with perfect texture. The fish was obviously fresh (a given in any decent Japanese restaurant), and the tiny dabs of relishes, spice or sauce on top of each sushi brought a new dimension and interest - each one unique, like a Faberge egg.

Some of the stand-outs were the Wagyu beef on crispy rice (great flavours and textures), summer truffle and miso foie gras; yellowtail with sun-dried tomato and parmesan (thanks Daniele!); salmon with tosazu jelly; fatty tuna with truffle oil, salt and pepper; razor clams with seaweed butter (a revelation!); grouper with spicy cod roe; wild seabass with dried miso flake; mackerel with grated ginger; shrimp with coriander sauce and rice crackers; and tuna with kizami wasabi.

Desserts were chosen from a refrigerated cabinet surrounding the sushi bar displaying an array of tantalizing choices.

The chocolate and vanilla mousse with candied hazelnuts coated in chocolate, edible flowers and gold leaf, served with vanilla ice cream was a deliciously rich dessert, expertly made and beautifully presented, this is a must to any chocolate lovers.

Our second dessert was a gorgeous and refreshing Yuzu mousse with white chocolate and shochu jelly served with sorbets of watermelon and sochu. We were impressed by both desserts – they were magnificent. I enjoyed the combination of light pastry, crunchy candied nuts, ice cream and jelly, myriad flavours and textures on a single plate – well judged and executed, they showed real skill and a highly sophisticated palate by the in-house Japanese pastry chef Seiko-san.

What We Drank: The restaurant specialises in sake, and has a range of sake cocktails, as well as a comprehensive list of sakes including sparkling sakes, and a flight of three shochu made from sweet potato, barley and shiso for £11.

The house Champagne is a Dosnon & Lepage for £64. There is an extensive wine list, particularly featuring European wines, with whites starting at £28 for a Picpoul de Pinet. Red wines start with an organic Clos du Tue-Boeuf, Cheverny Rouge Rouillon 2010 for £37.

We started with a 300ml bottle of Mio sparkling sake (£23) from Shochikubai Shirakabegura. This is only 5% alcohol, and off dry with fine bubbles and a delicate on the palate.

To accompany the sashimi, sushi and main course, we had the Chavy-Chouet, a Puligny Montrachet 'Les Enseigneres" 2012 (£80) - we had a 375ml carafe for £40.  With a heady nose of apple, citrus and tropical fruit, the palate was richly complex, with layer upon layer of flavour, fresh acidity and a long satisfying finish.  This was about as far from the high street Chardonnay as it is possible to imagine, and utterly magnificent.

We finished with a cocktail - Kagurasaka (£9.50). Yashin's version of a Manhattan, this had single malt Japanese whisky, with Junmai sake, Cointreau and shiso leaves.

Likes: Both the sashimi and sushi Omakase selections were excellent and stunningly presented. Some nicely and quirky presentational touches. A small but well considered Japanese menu. Comprehensive wine & sake lists. Excellent value Express Lunch and Dinner Menus for £24.50 (4 courses).

Dislikes: Some of the stools around the sushi counter are less than optimal if you would like to see the chefs in action, and these were unfortunately where we were seated, so apologies for the poor quality of images in this post.

Verdict: An elegant Japanese restaurant, Yashin Ocean House serves some of the most creative sushi & sashimi I have tried outside Japan, as well as excellent cooked options. With highly skilled cuisine and pastry teams, and superb wine and sake lists, Yashin Ocean House ticks all the boxes for me, and I cannot wait to return. Very highly recommended.