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.

Sushinoen - unpretentious and affordable Japanese home-style cooking and sushi

Name: Sushinoen

Where: 2 White Church Lane, London E1 7QR, http://www.sushinoen.com/

Cost: Average cost per person is in the region of £30 excluding drinks. Sushinoen offers a range of lunch options including bento box sets from £12.90 to £19.90, sushi bar set menus ranging from £10.90 to £19.90, and several hot dish set meals with rice, a side dish and miso soup partnering hot main courses such as pork katsu curry, or bulgogi for a very reasonable £9.00 to £11.90. It is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner.

About: In London's East End, just off Whitechapel High Street and a stone's throw from Aldgate East station, this cosy, unpretentious Japanese eatery offers authentic Japanese home-cooking style dishes and freshly made sushi.

Two things struck me quite favourably about Sushinoen which reminded me of similar eateries in Japan – it has a very laid back, even a tad shabby, feel about it like an old-fashioned Japanese izakaya (Japanese pub/cafe) somewhere in Asakusa or in some other less salubrious areas of Tokyo. I love those places.

The other was their pricing – it is surprisingly reasonable. It is refreshing to see Sushinoen in London, and I just wished they existed 25 years ago when I arrived here as a student and totally broke, what a contrast from the madly expensive Japanese restaurants in Piccadilly of the time.

What We Ate: We ordered a selection of bread-and-butter Japanese home-cooked dishes as well as some of Sushinoen’s more modern sushi/sahimi offerings. This included the shiro maguro carpaccio, a dish of seared white tuna slices (also known as butterfish or Escolar) with a yuzu dressing (£12.90). This was beautifully presented with little slivers of cherry tomato, the fish was topped with yuzu kosho (a deliciously spicy condiment from Kyushu Island made from chillies, salt and the rind of the yuzu citrus fruit) and fresh wasabi. With a fine and buttery texture and flavour and a lovely kick of heat, this made for a very good start to our meal.

The Aldgate Platter (£27.90) consists of 6 pieces each of assorted sashimi and maki and 5 pieces of nigiri sushi, although I asked for mine to be slightly tweaked to substitute more sushi for the sashimi. The sushi rice was well made and seasoned (the most important aspect of sushi), topped with an assortment of fresh fish and seafood including scallop, sea bream, sea bass, tuna, fatty tuna, salmon and octopus, as well as maki rolls of tuna and California rolls. The platter was well presented and a real pleasure to eat.

We also ordered the Bravo Duo (8 pieces - £16.90) – a Dragon style California roll topped with blow-torched tuna slices, garlic oil, ‘tenkasu’ (the crunchy bits of tempura batter), and tobiko eggs (flying fish roe). This was delicious – crunchy, well seasoned, and lovely.

To follow we had a platter of mixed tempura of fried prawns and vegetables (£9.90) including aubergine, carrot and courgette. I serve tempura often in my Japanese and Nikkei supper club, and hardly ever order it in a restaurant – but I was glad I did at Sushinoen - the tempura batter was light and crisp, the vegetables and prawns fried until just right (retaining still some their bite), whoever is frying that tempura, knows what they are doing.

With the tempura we enjoyed a portion of Katsu Don – breaded pork cutlet served on a bed of rice topped with Japanese sweet omelet (£9.90). I loved this – so simple yet so comforting, home-style Japanese cooking that I grew up with but hardly come by in London.

For dessert, we shared a portion of Sushinoen’s tempura ice cream (£5.50) - a kind of Japanese baked Alaska topped with Anko (sweetened Japanese red bean paste). For me, this dessert didn’t quite work – the ice cream was not of great quality and if it was, the flavour was masked by the tempura batter that encased it.

What We Drank: Green tea (£2.20) and Sapporo beer (£4.35). 

Likes: the sushi was well made, the tempura was also crispy and expertly fried, and a scrumptious dish of butterfish carpaccio. Friendly, informal setting. 

Dislikes: the tempura ice cream was uninspiring.

Verdict: For unpretentious Japanese home-style cooking dishes and well made sushi that will not break the bank, Sushinoen is the real deal. Recommended.

Shackfuyu - Creative Japanese Inspired Cooking in Soho

Name: Shackfuyu

Where: 14a Old Compton Street, London, W1D 4TJ, http://www.bonedaddies.com/shackfuyu/

Cost: The small dishes cost around £4 to £8, the larger options vary from £13.50 to £15, while dessert is priced at £6. The average food cost is around £30 to £35 per person.

About: A temporary restaurant, with a planned life span of twelve months, this latest outpost of Bone Daddies is at the Charing Cross Road end of Old Compton Street opened in February 2015, and due to close in February 2016.

With bare wood floors, walls of distressed brick or lime green, and a soundtrack of American hard rock, the restaurant serves up a range of Japanese cuisine inspired small eats, together with Japanese beers, sakes and a smattering of wines.  The aim is to change the menu every 6 weeks or so. There is a lively basement bar. The restaurant does not take reservations, but on the Saturday night we had dinner, there was fortunately no queue.

What We Ate:  We started with the yellowtail sashimi tostada with avocado shiso (£2.50 each) was made up of a crispy tortilla with crushed avocado and shiso herb (a Japanese herb which tastes like a cross between mint and basil and is also known as perilla), topped with a slice of yellowtail, a dot of Siriracha and a slice of jalapeño chilli. We found this underwhelming – the flavours did not quite come together and we both thought it was a tad expensive for what was being offered.

The other starter was the mackerel nanban-style (£7.80) is a dish I often serve at my Japanese and Nikkei Supper Club and while I enjoyed the tangy flavours of the nanban dressing, I would have liked a bit more chilli heat. And again we felt that at this price level we expected a bit more mackerel.

For main we had the whole sole roasted with shiso chimichurri (£15) which was the special of the night. This was excellent – perfectly cooked in the wood oven (a great inheritance by the former pizza venue Shackfuyu has taken over the premises from), with zingy and refreshing flavours from the shiso chimichurri, it was probably the best dish of the evening.

The other main was also great - USDA beef picanha, with kimchee butter (£14.50). Served with raw pickled onions, the beef was tender, well cooked and served medium rare just as ordered. I love a good Picanha (Brazil’s national cut of beef, synonymous to Churrasco or BBQ in the country where it is served simply encrusted in rock salt and grilled) and Shackfuyu was very well flavoured.

To accompany our main dishes, we shared a Mentaiko mac 'n cheese with bacon and 'cock scratchings' made of crushed deep fried chicken skin (£6.90).  Mentaiko is Japanese Pollack or cod roe, which is marinated in chillies so it becomes spicy and pinkish in colour. It is one of the main ingredients of Kyushu Island in Japan where my family comes from. Mentaiko is one of my favourite Japanese ingredients and I love it simply over white Japanese rice or in Mentaiko Spaghetti, it tastes amazing!

So of course that Shackfuyu’s Mentaiko mac ‘n chesse had to be ordered - but I found it slightly odd – I could hardly taste any Mentaiko in it, and the cock scratchings had such an overpowering flavour I could not taste anything else. This is definitely a combination of flavours that should be revisited by the restaurant.

A much better accompaniment was the beef hot stone rice (£8.30), served Korean bibimbap-style - in a hot stone bowl, with a raw egg yolk on top, and mixed at the table by our waiter. With sweetcorn, shiitake mushrooms, julienne carrots and kizami nori (shredded nori seaweed), this had a good amount of chilli and great flavours.

For dessert, we shared a portion of Kinako French toast with soft matcha ice cream (£6). A thick slice of bread soaked in custard then pan fried, this had a crisp coating of caramelised sugar with a dusting of Kinako (toasted soya bean powder) and a lovely, slightly astringent green tea ice cream.

What We Drank: Shackfuyu offers a range of beers, cocktails and wines. We started with a can of Niigata unfiltered pale ale (£4.80), and a bottle of Asahi Black (£4). After that, we moved on to Asahi beer at £4.80 per pint on draft.

Wines are available by the glass, carafe and bottle, with an exclusively New World choice of just three red and three white wines, starting at £18.50 per bottle for a white South African  Chenin Blanc and a red South African Cab Sauv. 

Likes: the special of the day, roasted whole sole with a shiso dressing was delicious, as was the USDA picanha beef, the bibimbap rice and the Kinako French toast with green tea ice cream. The staff were very friendly and seemed to understand the food and ingredients they were serving.

Dislikes: the tostadas were tiny and overpriced as was the nanban-style mackerel. I really wanted to like the Mentaiko Mac ‘n Cheese but the combination of flavours did not work for me.

Verdict: I enjoyed Shackfuyu’s creative use of Japanese ingredients for some of its dishes. Their food offerings go beyond the ubiquitous Japanese sushi and sashimi to show a number of Japanese ingredients not much known in the UK. 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.