The last time I did a photo essay was my welsh monkfish tales post. Shot in the Old Kings arms hotel restaurant, I am still yet to post about my 2 1/2 month trip to southern Wales. I’ll do so soon, lots of pretty food pictures, and lots of great food.
I’m sure you all know by now that I love sushi. I usually wake up pretty late on sundays and look for a relaxing place to eat around lunchtime. I tend to settle down at my local Pret-a-manger and have my ritualistic ham and cheese croissant with a cup of cappuccino. Last sunday, I thought I’d break from tradition and venture out to high street kensington as the sun was begging me to get out. I ended up the top floor foodhall at Wholefoods.
Lets start with tea
I ordered the jasmine flower tea which, upon settling (in hot water) is suppose to unravel itself and bloom into this beautiful flower in the tea.
In the picture, it’s only just starting to bloom. It’s a little gimmicky, but a nice gimmick to distract me long enough until my salad arrives.
It’s pretty standard stuff, very simple green & carrots, although the star is the lemony and tangy dressing. Very refreshing. This came with the meal I ordered: the unagi market combo.
Here we go…
Unagi heaven. The three elements: The dragon roll. The full length unagi nigiri. The unagi roll.
Six pieces of sumptious unagi, cushioned in between rich sushi rice and wrapped around with seaweed.
It took a while for them to prepare this work of art. Fifteen minutes to be exact. And it’s the first time I’ve ever had a full length unagi on a piece of dainty sushi rice.
The dragon roll is inside-out, stuffed with cucumber and avocado and topped with yet more unagi and garnished with spring onion giving it life and colour.
The teriyaki sauce is sweeter than I’m used to, but the unagi is expertly grilled and tastes as advertised: market fresh. Something that looks this good can only taste that good.
The Genji Express also has quite a good dim sum menu, here I wash down my unagi heaven with delicate steamed scallop shumais.
If sushi is not your fancy, there is a italian/spanish tapas/pasta corner, mediterranean corner, make-your-own-burritos, a full scale wood fire oven for sarnies (meatballs, roast beef & cheese, oohhh..) and excellent pizzas (they even have a ‘breakfast’ pizza).
Let’s not forget the crepes, the smoothie bar, the gelato bar and more scones, cakes and custards than you can shake a stick at.
Must be eaten. Wholefoods is on High Street Kensington, London.
*updated*
Forgot to add the important bits..
A tad pricy: The whole unagi combo set is £23.00 , shumai £3 and tea is £3.
Tags: Japanese, kensington, review, sushi, wholefoods
Holy cow, what glorious pictures! And I love sushi. Now I’m super hungry!
+Jessie
a.k.a. The Hungry Mouse
Again – I’m a cheapskate but please include the prices!
OMG, unagi is my all time favourite food (right, there’s a close tie with spicy tuna sushi) and this was the best post to wake up to!
Jessie –
Glad it made you hungry!
Meaghan – Sorry meant to post the prices, its’ alittle steep I must say, £23 for the whole unagi set…but well worth it because it’ll last you the whole day!
Meaghan – No way! Unagi is my favorite too!! I have dreams of unagi on rice with egg.. mmmmm ….
ok back to work
I LOVE unagi! Luckily, it is much cheaper here in Malaysia…
Foong, oh yeah tell me about it, I really wish I was back in asia again, food is soooocheaper over there, round here everything is 3x pricier!
Awesome pictures and I’m presuming the food tasted as good as it looks?
I had an awesome recent Sushi fix from the guys at Mika Events … gorgeous Tobiko Temaki-zushi … but Genji is definitely on the menu.
Have you tried the Japanese Centre at Piccadilly?
[...] of the major grape varietals. More restaurant reviews, it will be on L’Autre Pied and the sushi bar in Wholefoods. Finally, I’m hoping to get my first wine review out, fittingly it’ll be a bottle of [...]
[...] Ok I love sushi, I think everybody knows that by now. Last weekend I checked out Genji Express at Wholefoods in High Street Kensington and consequently did a photo essay on the unagi market combo. More unagi than you can shake a stick at. Came in at a hefty 23quid but boy, it lasted me the whole day. Lots of pics, check it out. [...]
Tom, lol, yeah it taste pretty good! Can’t really go wrong with teriyaki and unagi really! Oh tobiko sounds cool!
Yeah you def need to check out Genji, though my fav sushi spot is Sakura in oxford circus, check my review here http://londoneater.com/2008/09/14/review-sakura-oxford-circus/
And yes!! i did try Japan centre! its rebranded as Toku now, I’m actually still writing up a review on it, so I’ll let you know once its up! The dragon rolls there are quite good too and their sake list is good!
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