3 /5 Jerry: Booked ahead as part of a 50% promotional discount, as the restaurant is newly opened.
The good: the pork belly was tender with melt in your mouth fat - this was our favourite of the night and we should’ve ordered more of these instead of some of the other dishes. The crispy chicken skin was crispy, savoury and reminded me of a lighter version of pork crackling. The crab and truffle korokke was crispy, with a pleasant creamy filling and a hint of truffle - very tasty, but soooo small. We also liked the meatball which was juicy and paired really well with the sauce.
The negima was just ok, it wasn’t as juicy or satisfying as I expected, though the flavour was fine - simply seasoned and nicely charred. The salmon was pleasant, although one stick was considerably drier than the other, which had more fat. Some quality control to ensure consistency would be helpful. The octopus and scallop are overpriced and not worth getting - small bites and nothing outstanding in flavour. You couldn’t really taste the scallop’s sweetness due to the charring, and the octopus mostly just tasted of the sauce it came with.
The bad: The sticky soy short rib rice bowl. The short rib itself was fine - a few big chunks of meat (as expected for a £28 dish!), though not fall apart tender as shredding it with a spoon and fork was difficult. The flavour and charred exterior were tasty, but the rice let the dish down. Its texture was risotto like, but many grains were undercooked and gritty. It was also far too salty - with the meat already seasoned well, this became too much. The dish would have been better with plainer rice and the same sauce used for the meatballs. We also wanted to try the mochi toast, but it was sold out that night - so it must be good!
Overall I don’t think it’s worth paying full price. Our total bill including a £9 glass of plum wine, came to around £86 after the discount. I can think of plenty of better places to spend that kind of money.
