Tag: Japanese

Return of The Shiori. (CLOSED)

It gives me great pleasure to write about my favourite Japanese restaurant in London, recently relaunched and relocated to Bayswater and renamed …The Shiori! Owned & operated by Chef Takagi-san and his wife Hitomi-san, this entire labour of love has finally shaken off previous trappings…

Roan Kikunoi, Kyoto.

You might have heard the name Yoshihiro Murata lately as he and Alan Yau have just opened Chrysan in London, to largely mixed reviews. Murata owns 3 restaurants in Japan, all of which specialise in Kyoto style Kaiseiki. Two are located in Kyoto and the…

Nizuni: Where forbidden colours are beautiful.

Nizuni’s official web portal has the title track to the film Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (Senjō no Merī Kurisumasu), running in its background. it is Ryuchi Sakamoto’s best sheet of music. Beautiful, epic, elegant and heartbreaking. Ryuchi went on to write more cinemagic backing music…

Sushi Cafelicious: Great balls of fire!

How many sushi bars do you know, play bossa nova in the background? Out of that lot, how many deliver to your doorstep? And just how many sushi bars boasts an all-female run operation? Assuredly, sushi bars that satisfy all the above are rare,

Yashin Sushi: Raw Jewels.

I write this shuffling in my seat, on a flight bound for Norwegian airspace, and it isn’t often that I dream about London and its murky skies, but here I am, fantasizing about the startlingly magnificent lunch I experienced last weekend at Yashin, the latest…

Tosa : Yakitori caught on film

I’ve always thought about upgrading (or downgrading depending on where you stand) the photography on this blog to film-based rather than digital, but after visiting 300 or so restaurants with the Nikon D700, it’s hard to it put. Digital is just so,

Sushi of Shiori: Three times the charmer.

I swear, this is the last time I’m posting photos from a meal at Shiori…. so good…. So I believe I’ve tried everything on the Shiori menu now (not the tonkatsu or kaarage) , this set of photos are from my 3rd visit, and I’ve…

Newsletter No.5: Catch The London Sushi Train

Sushi bingeing. The final frontier. The unquestionably orgasmic delight of popping dollop after dollop of a food of an unrelentingly elegant design; low in fat, high in umami, arguably, an invention born of perfection. Some say the combination of raw fish

Asakusa: Into the den of sushi.

A firm, yet genteel voice answered the phone. The line was horribly muffled as I struggled to pick out the vowels through the low, low bass. Fum.Fum.Sa.Sa. I think she said, in a deceptively Japanese accent. An awkward silence befell.

Twenty pounds of sushi at Mitsui, Taiwan.

Twenty quid doesn’t go too far in London, maybe two courses. Three if it’s a michelin-on-a-budget. On the otherhand, the Taiwanese have perfected the art of amazingly affordable fine dining on half a shoe string. Back in February, I was over in Taipei for

Bincho: White Heat

All hail the gods of charcoal, keeper of the exalted flames, oh revered and magnanimous Ganko Ojisan, for I require six allotments of your juiciest chicken oysters. I imagine this place would be a hit on weekends what with its convenient location in Soho and

Sushi of Shiori Revisited: Birthday Omakase

You might remember my first visit to this excellent sushi bar run by a husband and wife team in Warren street which I wrote about exactly two weeks ago. I loved it, praising the artistry, attention to detail and the sheer brilliance of the cold…