Hi Sushi

628 Finchley Road, Golders Green, London NW11

We first arrived in High Sushi, Golders Green, just after 6pm on a Friday night and we were surprised to note that we were the first guests to arrive for dinner. Because it was just the two of us, they said that we were only allowed to have the sushi buffet, £15 per person, rather than order from a la carte. To be honest, it would have been nice to have a choice of the a la carte menu! There were a few things I would have liked to try that wasn't on the buffet.. but none the less we didn't decline.. (not that you can't order from the menu.. just that its not worth the value to pay for the buffet and not eat entirely from the buffet).

For the buffet menu and (unlimited) green tea, would cost just under £20 per person (including 10% service charge), which isn't too bad, particularly if you can eat a lot of food in 1.5 hours time.

The restaurant decor itself is not bad. Its bright and I like that you essentially sit on the floor without having to cross your legs! But this can be inconvenient if you're with someone thats more elderly.

Inside: Hi Sushi

For the sushi buffet, there were two mini menus, one of which you can only order once (max 7 items and includes dishes such as: miso soup, tempura, teriyaki, spring rolls, rice, tofu steak, curry, salad) and the other menu is one which you can order as much as you like (up to the time limit, and is the sushi menu which includes salmon sashami, clam sashami, salmon/avocado roll, california roll, spicy tuna roll and a few others).

We ordered the clam (x4) and salmon (x4) sashami , the one off soft-shell crab roll (x4), salmon/avocardo roll (x6) and salmon skin roll (x6). Everything was nice, just what I expected from most sushi places. The salmon was creamy, the clam was fresh, the salmon skin was crispy, the soft shell crab was yummy (too bad you can only order once!), and the salmon/avocardo the usual - nice.

From left: clam sashami, salmon sashami, soft-shell crab roll, salmon skin roll and salmon and avocardo roll.

From the limited menu, we ordered miso soup. To be honest, I have tried better miso soup. It tasted slightly* on the diluted side, otherwise ok.

Miso soup containing seaweed and tofu

We mainly ordered tempura from the limited hot food menu: prawn (x4), tofu (x4), shitake mushroom (x4 whole mushrooms), fish (x6, a white fish, possibly seabass??). I loved the sauce on the fried tofu - slight sweet and was v.yummy. I've never had shitake tempura before, it was quite nice and its nice to have something different to the usual. The fish tempura, was not bad. The prawn tempura, was well, OK - I have tried better - I prefer when the prawns are fresh enough so you can eat them very slightly raw on the inside. I think the let down was the tempura dipping sauce - I don't know it didn't particularly have that much taste or enough of a kick to bring the tempura itself to life. The sauce didn't even have grated radish inside it which is also something I quite like.

Tempura (anticlockwise): tofu tempura, prawn tempura, fish tempura and shitake tempura

Overall, the service was quite good (although, it wasn't too busy at the time). They topped our teas up without asking and the food arrived promptly. I like that the tea is unlimited. The food itself was not bad, but nothing 'stood out'. I would say that this is a nice place, the atmopshere is friendly in general. Most of the tables, it seemed, were mainly suited for groups of 2-4, with possibly one table for maybe 8? but then again I didn't particularly observe.

Food = 6.5/10
Atmosphere = 6.5/10
Service = 7/10
Recommend? yep for a nice informal evening with friends

Kumo

11 Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge, London SW3 1NQ

Overall I would say that Kumo is a trendy cocktail bar that serves sushi. When you first walk down the stairs into the restaurant (its in the basement) the first thing that strikes you is red. Red everywhere. I can bearly see where I'm going in the dimly lit red and black room. At the waiting area, you see a nice looking cocktail bar.

Kumo: inside. The picture is actually decieving - it's actually
 much darker in real life.

We had a deal from groupon, £20 for a sushi platter and dessert for two. We thought wow, what a great deal. But  note that there is a 15% service charge and alcoholic cocktails cost ~£11 each and virgins £6.50. With the deal, we ordered two virgin cocktails. Together the service charge and the drinks- cost £20 on its own! So on average, the minimum price per person is £20 and thats if you have a small appetite!

We were sat in a nice little corner, so the both of us (me and the boyfriend) could both sit on the relatively comfy black sofa. In front of us was a very small black metal table. You pretty much had to bend down to eat your food - not ideal ergonomics.

We ordered two virgin cocktails (pretty much because we thought the alcoholic cocktails were a rip off! and we were not willing to pay double the price of a regular cocktail).

The Coco Yoko was nice. I loved the coconut cream - but it was just a tad too sweet for my liking.

Coko Yoko: fresh blackberries, coconut cream, pineapple juice, vanilla syrup

Initally we wanted to order Special Green (pineapple juice, kiwi syrup, lemonade) but they didn't have all the ingredients to make it. So we ordered the Roxy Moon, which looked fab. But it tasted pretty much like standard juice. Nothing particularly special about it.

Roxy Moon: Strawberry puree, tangy orange, pineapple juice tempered
with cooling lemonade.

Next the sushi platter. The most dissappointing sushi platter ever. We both couldn't believe how basic this was. Everything tasted regular - nice but again nothing special. You can go to the sushi shop in China Town and get something similar for half the price or something more substantial! If we didn't get the groupon deal, this platter would have cost an equivalent of £40! I don't see how it could really have been valued to £40 to be honest!

Sushi platter: tempura prawn sushi (x6), california roll (x6), asparagus sushi (x6), edamame beans and chicken yakitori (thought we were meant to have 6.. but we only had 3, maybe misheard...)

Next thankgoodness there was dessert after, our tummies were still rumbling! When the dessert arrived, it was chocolate cake with a blackberry sauce. The cake was ok, nothing to shout home about. Infact without the icing on the top of the cake, the actual cake itself was dry. The blackberry sauce just did not compliment the cake - it would have been nicer itself, without the sauce.. maybe they themselves also thought the cake was dry! So needed a sauce with it... not good choice of sauce...

Dessert: chocolate cake with a blackberry sauce

 We were ALMOST finished with the dessert and the waitress came up to us and asked if we would like the bill and speedly gave us the reciept. We had bearly digested the cake.

Overall. I would say it was rather a disappointment. The sushi was standard, with hiked up prices for I suppose being located in Knightsbridge. The drinks were overpriced. The service, standard. I guess we were expecting this to be a nice place for good food. If you're earning a good wage and looking to have a chat in a cocktail bar, this is the place to go - if you also like sushi as a snack, but then again there are better posher cocktail bars in London with better service with classier decor.

Food = 4.5/10
Atmopshere = 5.5/10
Service = 6/10
Recommend? nope (well definitely not with the groupon deal)

Soseki

20 Bury Street, 1F, London EC3A 5AX.

Seasonal food is good food. One prime example of tasty seasonal food is strawberries; small and relatively little taste throughout the year but wonderful and sweet during the summer. Soseki is a Japanese restaurant that only serves quality seasonal food throughout the year. The way this restaurant functions is that they don't tell you what you're going to eat; they only tell you how the meal is to be made. So if you want to eat here, probably best to be open-minded about what there is to offer. We went in April.

Hanashi - kaiseki kappo course with sushi selection (£50-60 per person)

This is a hefty 11 course menu that encompasses an appetiser, soup, sashimi, a grilled dish, deep-fried dish, pickled dish, steamed dish, a main (rice or sushi), salad, a dessert, and chocolates. We probably spent 3.5-4 hours in the restaurant, as each dish was served one by one.

Sakizuke appetiser: overview

Sakizuke appetiser: Broccoli with tofu

Sakizuke appetiser: (left) diced octopus with pickels and
(right) dough ball with a sweet plum sauce

 

Sakizuke appetiser: slice of pork on a bed of spring
onions with wasabi/mustard on the side

 

Sakizuke appetiser: white turnip with salmon roe

Sakizuke appetiser: refreshing lemon drink with ice
and lemon rind

The appetiser was an amazing sight with lots of mini things to try (I love mini dishes/canapes!). However, other than the looks none of it taste particularly spectacular, it was nice but not WOW (then again, Japanese food is refined for its subtle tastes). The lemon drink at the end was meant to cleanse your palate before the next dish, the wanmono clear soup. The soup was very nice, the flavours were not very strong but perfectly seasoned. I couldn't really pin-point the flavours. However, the soup was slightly thicker than initially expected - kind of gooey - slightly. The soup came with a deep fried dough ball (I'm not entirely sure what it is, but there wasn't a filling - if you're expecting any!)

Wanmono clear soup

The next course was the sashimi. It consisted of salmon, squid and yellow tail. Everything tasted pretty standard for what you expect sashimi to be - nice and fresh.

Sashimi course: (from left) salmon, yellow tail and squid

The next dish was the grilled dish (yakimono). I thought this dish might be the usual chicken yakitori that you find in some Japanese restaurants. In fact it was beef that was grilled on the stone serving plate so it caramelised, and then it seems they added a stock to cook the veg. This was very very yummy! The long mushrooms were very nice and had a slightly chewy texture. The carrot was slightly hard for my liking. But overall very nice dish. Recommended!

Yakimono: grilled beef, with carrot, asparagus, shitake mushrooms,
 these long yummy mushrooms, and sprouting broccoli

Next was the agemono dish (aka deep-fried) and as predicted - tempura! I'm not a huge fan of tempura. But the prawns were cooked to perfection - if not just very slightly raw on the inside. But uber uber yummy!! The creamy wasabi sauce was very nice but I wasn't so keen on the sweet 'bbq' style sauce - too sweet for my liking. But it’s nice to have a choice - in case you get bored with either sauce. After this rich course I was not hungry at all. 4 courses down, just 7 more to go…!

Agemono dish (deep fried): tempura prawns, okara, sweet potato and peppers.
Two sauces, a creamy wasabi sauce (right) and a sweet peppery dark 'bbq' sauce (left).

Right, so on with the next course.. the vinegared course (sunomono). Ok it is rather small. But I'm not complaining! This dish came in a very cute box. This dish was a piece of octopus with okra and a bit of jelly on the side. The jelly was slightly sour (as you would expect) but not overly. Quite nice overall.

Sunomono course: the box

Sunomono course: box opened. Piece of octopus and
okara with a slight sour jelly on the slide

Next was the steamed dish. Steamed egg with what I believe is pork and spring onions. Very nice, better than most other places I have tried.

Mushimono (steamed) dish: steamed egg with pieces of
pork and spring onion

Finally the main course: a choice of either the sushi selection (maki and nigiri) or shokuji (rice dish). We decided to have one of each dish and share between us. The rice dish on that day was chicken rice – which was much nicer than I expected - though I was exceptionally full by this course so I probably didn't fully appreciate it (that is finish it). The sushi selection looked great – they even put edible gold leaf as a finishing touch on the plate! The taste however, was not bad but just sushi. I’m not a fan of cooked spicy tuna, so seeing that on the plate was a bit disappointing (particularly when you have to pay an additional £10 for the sushi selection). Each main comes with a salad (grated white turnip, sliced radish, salad leaves and sesame in a yummy dressing), with miso soup, and pickles on the side. The salad was seriously yummy.

Shokuji rice: chicken with grilled asparagus

Sushi selection: (from top) salmon/avacardo maki (x2), white tail nigiri,
 scalop nigiri, salmon nigiri with a spicey paste and chili, spicey cooked tuna sushi and salmon roe sushi.
Served with edible shredded gold leaf (left) and pickled ginger on the side (right).

Salad: white turnip, radish, salad leaves, red onion, sesame and dressing.

Last but not least, the dessert and chocolate. The dessert was green tea ice cream with mixed berries, with a mango sauce on the side, and mochi with red bean paste. The chocolate was a plain truffle and crystallised ginger. The green tea ice cream was good, better than most places, but it would have been nicer if it was slightly more bitter (I love bitter green tea ice cream, if it tastes predominantly like vanilla ice cream that looks green – thumbs down). Wasn't particularly keen on the red bean mochi, but overall it was ok.

Dessert and chocolate: green tea ice cream, mixed berries, mango sauce,
mochi with red bean paste. Plain choclate truffle, one with crystalised ginger inside.

Overview of the entire experience: we went during the evening on week day so it was pretty empty with probably about 3-4 other occupied tables. We were sitting opposite the kitchen with approximately 5 chefs. They seemed pretty bored and due to the lack of customers, a lot of attention focused on us - which was a bit awkward. Otherwise our waitress was attentive and attempted to explain what each dish was (even though she predominately spoke Japanese). The food was nice, more to the standard side (maybe I don’t have a refined Japanese palate). The toilets were nice and clean, with 'premium' soap, which is always a plus.

Overall atmosphere: 6.5/10

Food: 7/10

Service: 7.5/10
Recommended? Yes for the first visit and experience, but unlikely to go back