Sushi Tetsu, London – Restaurant Review

I could save you some time and just say that if you're after the best sushi experience in London then go to Sushi Tetsu and be done with it. But where would be the fun in that? This tiny restaurant in an obscure Clerkenwell alleyway is serving up some of the most authentic sushi I've had outside of Japan.

Sushi Tetsu quietly opened in June 2012 and is the creation of Toru Takahashi and his wife Harumi. In just a couple of short months the restaurant has received near reverent praise from many quarters. Such is the minuscule size of Sushi Tetsu (just seven stools surround its blonde wooden counter) that many dare not even speak its name for fear that the restaurant will be fully booked in perpetuity. But it would be a shame to keep such a wonderful place a closely guarded secret. If you love the precision, theatre and ritual of authentic Japanese sushi then a pilgrimage to Sushi Tetsu is a must.

Hanami, Oslo – Restaurant Review

When you think of food in Norway today, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Pristine fillets of smoked salmon? Reindeer stew? Brown cheese? Not me. You see for me, it's sushi. Yup, Norway has enthusiastically embraced this global trend and is eating the Japanese delicacy with vigorous zeal. I'm even beginning to think that sushi has become this country's new unofficial national dish (surpassing frozen pizza and hot dogs in the process). It's particularly evident in Oslo, where it seems everywhere you look another sushi restaurant is popping up.

Yashin Sushi, London – Restaurant Review

I'm back! Firstly, a somewhat belated Happy New Year. The holiday season always seems to be so hectic, leaving me in desperate need of another holiday to recover, and this year was no exception. Christmas was spent in Mrs. Nibbler's hometown of Lillehammer. For the New Year festivities we rented a little house on the beach in Whitstable with friends, followed by two weeks in my beloved London. While we were away, Oslo seems to have been blanketed with more than a liberal dose of snow. I would say it's quite charming (and it is really) but I'm a touch concerned that our impending house-move next week might be affected, mainly due to the movers' insistence that they use a crane to remove our belongings from the apartment, rather than carry them down two flights of stairs. Oh well, we shall see. In the meantime, though, a serious backlog of blog posts has been building up. So without further ado I thought I'd start the New Year with a look at Yashin Sushi, which at the moment is probably serving some of London's best sushi.

Yashin Sushi is London's latest high-end sushi restaurant. It is the brainchild of two experienced itamae: Yasuhiro Mineno (ex-head chef of the now defunct Ubon restaurant) and Shinya Ikeda (ex-chef at Yumi). Although it opened at the end of October 2010, Yashin has already been causing quite a stir among London's sushi lovers. So, when I was in London recently, Mrs. Nibbler and I decided to go there for dinner with a couple of friends who used to live in Tokyo.

On entering the smallish restaurant, the first thing you're aware of is the long sushi bar and the rather fetching glazed Victorian-style tiles. Behind the sushi counter, in bold blue neon, was a sign saying "Without Soy Sauce", swiftly followed with the subscript, "but if you want to". On seeing this I instantly fell in love with the place, as it reminded me of some of the more memorable sushi experiences I had in Tokyo, where the itamae would lovingly brush the sushi with the optimal amount of soy sauce. To then go and dip the thing in a great big lake of wasabi-laden soy sauce, as we uncouth gaijin are apt to do, would have been a terrible insult to the chef.

As we were a group of four, we were seated in the downstairs section to give us more space (sitting four abreast at the sushi counter would have been a bit odd). Unfortunately, this meant we missed out on watching our sushi being expertly crafted – a big part of the sushi experience for me. However, the downstairs space was lovely and intimate, which was only slightly let down by the cheesy 'Euro chill-out' soundtrack playing over the speakers.

The menu at Yashin is fairly straightforward; there is a selection of smaller dishes, such as salads and carpaccios, while the main courses consist of three omakase menus of 8, 11, or 15 pieces of sushi (£30, £45, and £60 respectively).

To begin with we were offered a plate of amuse bouches, from which we were to select one piece each. I chose a wonderful piece of fatty and sweet unagi (eel). I think the other choices were octopus and scallop but I can't quite remember.

While we looked at the menus we ordered some edamame (£3.80) that was served warm with yuzu salt and grated yuzu rind – we dipped the pods in the salt and sucked out the beans inside. Edamame has to be one of my all-time favourite snacks, and these were delicious.

I decided to go for the 15-piece omakase menu, but we started off with a few smaller dishes for us to share. First up was Goma Ae (£5.80) – vegetables in a sesame sauce. Carrots, green beans, courgettes, asparagus, figs and other goodies were smothered in a thick sesame paste sauce. The vegetables were fresh and crisp, and the accompanying sweet and nutty sauce went really well with them.

Next was wagyu beef carpaccio with wasabi sauce (£13.50). Thin slivers of wagyu beef were spread on a plate and dressed with a zingy wasabi sauce and garlic chips. A great dish, although the wagyu beef was not quite as tender as I've had in the past.

I adore soft shell crab, and at Yashin they serve it deep-fried in a salad with mizuna leaves and tosazu vinegar dressing (£8.40). Tosazu is a rice-wine vinegar flavoured with soy sauce, konbu, bonito flakes, and a touch of sugar to balance the flavours. This was a truly delicious dish, but I would have liked to have seen a bit more crab at this price point.

A simple green salad (£6.40) was next. There's not a huge amount to say about a green salad really. It was a salad, it was green, and it was fine. I particularly liked the zesty (ponzu?) dressing that came with it.

Kaizuka Sumiso (£6.60) – mixed shellfish salad with potatoes and miso vinegar dressing was next, and very decent it was too.

The next dish to arrive was a bowl of Yose tofu (£6.20) – handmade Japanese tofu. We all had a spoonful and were stunned into silence. I can honestly say this was perhaps the finest tofu I have ever tasted. Served still warm, and barely set, it came with grated wasabi and diced tosazu jelly, whose tart acidity was a perfect complement to the clean and fresh flavour of the tofu. Within seconds, we had scraped the bowl clean, and promptly called the waiter over to order another one. Heavenly!

Miso soup (£2.50) was then served in dainty tea cups and was packed with tiny flavoursome mushrooms.

As Mrs. Nibbler isn't too much of a fan of nigiri (I know, I know) she opted for a sashimi platter (£25) that arrived literally looking like a beautiful sculpture. Expertly cut pieces of o-toro, wagyu beef, and scallop, among others, were presented resting on crushed ice in a lacquered bowl. I wasn't allowed to try any and, judging by Mrs. Nibbler's smiles, she enjoyed it immensely.

The sushi omakase menu is served in two parts. First to arrive was a beautiful arrangement of eight nigiri sushi. These were (from top left in the photo):

• Madai (sea bream), slicked with soy sauce and sprinkled with tiny balls of rice cracker
• In a nod to Nobu's famous yellowtail sashimi there was hamachi (yellowtail) served with a thin sliver of jalapeño
• Chu-toro (medium-fatty tuna) lightly grilled and sprinkled with sea salt
• Maguro (tuna) with kisame (fresh) wasabi
• Hirame (turbot) with chopped spring onion
• Ebi (prawn), lightly grilled and served with salt and a touch of foie gras
• Sake (salmon), lightly grilled and topped with ponzu jelly
• Suzuki (sea bass)

The nigiri were just incredible and so intelligently put together. The fish was exquisitely fresh, and each piece was a well-crafted and well-thought out masterpiece. The various toppings (with the exception of the spring onion on the hirame that was way too overpowering) all added a fascinating extra dimension, in taste as well as texture. The light grilling (by blow-torch) of some of the nigiri gave a lovely hint of fire and smoke and transformed the character of the fish, turning the well-known, like salmon and tuna, into something novel and exciting. The rice was perfect too. One of the real revelations of eating sushi in Japan was the sheer quality of the rice, and at Yashin their rice was spot on – perfectly seasoned with vinegar and served with a touch of residual warmth. I also loved the gari (pickled ginger), instead of the usual thin slices, here at Yashin they pickle their own and serve it in great big chunks, which leaves much of the spicy ginger flavour intact.

The second plate of nigiri arrived looking (and tasting) every bit as spectacular as the first. This time we had:

• Saba (mackerel) topped with kisame wasabi
• Matsuba kani (snow crab)
• Uni (sea urchin) served in great big blobs in a nori wrapper topped with wasabi
• Wagyu beef, lightly seared and sprinkled with salt and pepper
• Mate Gai (razor clam), also lightly seared and sprinkled with salt and pepper
• More of the Madai (sea bream) with rice cracker
• Hirame (turbot), this time served with microgreens

Desserts are typically not a lavish affair in Japanese cuisine, and at Yashin we finished our meal simply with a selection of the four different ice creams on offer, which are served with a small bowl of fruit salad. My mix of sencha (green tea) and goma (black sesame) ice creams was delicious - creamy, but not overly heavy, and packed full of their respective flavours. I managed to sneak a taste of the shiso and yuzu sorbets and can report that they were excellent too, being lighter and zestier than the ice creams.

Yashin's nigiri might not be for sushi purists, but not only are they beautiful, they are also full of exciting flavour combinations. The ingredients used here are impeccably fresh and the sushi is so visually stunning. The other smaller dishes were also of a very high standard. I must admit though, I tend to prefer my sushi to be a bit more traditional (like that I had at Tokyo's sublime Sushi Dai), but there is just so much to love about Yashin that I may have to change my mind about that.

In summary, don't come to Yashin expecting a traditional sushi experience, instead come and be wowed by their flawlessly crafted modern nigiri served in an equally modern dining room. At the moment, Yashin is serving probably some of the best sushi in London, and a trip here should not be missed. I can't wait to return.

Food:         8 / 10

Service:      7 / 10

Ambiance:  7 / 10

Yashin Sushi

1a Argyll Road

London W8 7DB

United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)20 79381 5362

2010: My Ten Dishes of the Year

I sit writing this from a bitterly cold Oslo. Sunshine and warmth seem like a long-distant memory. Walking outside is a somewhat surreal experience as shadowy figures dressed in thick duvet-like jackets shuffle along the half-lit icy pavements. But it's not that bleak really. The winter solstice has just passed, and with it we can slowly expect the daylight hours to get longer and our depleted vitamin D supplies to be replenished. Christmas is just around the corner, and of course we have a fresh new year with all its challenges and delights to look forward to.

Now, what good would an end-of-year article be without some sort of look back at the year gone by? Yes folks, it's time for a clichéd top-ten list! Without further ado, I bring you my ten best restaurant dishes of 2010. Drum roll please.

In reverse order, these are:

10. Caviar with Crab and Shellfish Jelly – Joël Robuchon, Monte-Carlo

What a way to start a meal! A little trompe l'oeil that looks like a whole tin of sevruga caviar is, instead, caviar atop layers of shellfish jelly and sweet crab meat. A perfect blend of flavours – rich, luxurious and a blast to eat, making you feel like a billionaire oligarch. Mwah-ha-haa!

9. Yose Tofu – Yashin, London

This was perhaps the finest tofu I have ever tasted. Served still warm, and barely set, it came with freshly grated wasabi and diced tosazu jelly, whose tart acidity was a perfect complement to the clean and fresh flavour of the tofu. Within seconds, we had scraped the bowl clean, and promptly called the waiter over to order another one. Heavenly!

8. Tartaleta de Chocolate con Cajeta – Topolobampo, Chicago

Second best dessert of the year is from newly Michelin-starred chef Rick Bayless. This titan of Mexican cuisine is a favourite of President Obama and I can see why. This tart consisted of luxurious, silky-smooth, dark Mexican chocolate sat atop a thin layer of soft, gooey cajeta (goats' milk caramel). This ensemble was lightly sprinkled with flakes of salt and encased in crumbly pastry. Accompanying this was a scoop of goats' cheese ice cream, toasted marshmallows, and graham cracker 'gravel'. Who knew chocolate and goats' cheese would go so well together!

7. Mascarpone Cream, Sponge Pudding, Almond Foam, White Truffle from Alba – Hélène Darroze, London

The undisputed best dessert of the year was this innocent looking number from Hélène Darroze at the Connaught. The cool, sweetened mascarpone was offset by a warm, eggy, vanilla sponge pudding. The residual warmth of the rich sponge was just enough to bring out the flavour of the abundant Alba truffle shavings, so that those wonderful aromas enveloped everything. The almonds and oh-so-light almond foam added a touch of perfumed nuttiness and a variation in texture. When combined, the flavours were nothing short of breathtaking – think of it as 'trifle of the gods.'

6. O-toro nigiri – Sushi Dai, Tokyo

I thought I knew sushi until I ate sushi in Japan, and then I realised everything I knew about it was wrong. The main culprit was this simple piece of o-toro nigiri served to me at Sushi Dai in Tokyo's Tsukiji Fish Market. Pristine tuna (bought a few hours before) had a beautiful spider's web of rich marbling. Eating it was such a sensual experience; the cool flesh of the tuna juxtaposed by the perfectly al dente and lukewarm rice. I hardly needed to chew, the buttery tuna just melted on my tongue. Epic.

5. White Truffle Risotto – Launceston Place, London

Without doubt, the finest risotto I have ever had – rich and creamy with an oh-so-perfect consistency, full of that intoxicating white truffle aroma – I shall be having warm fuzzy dreams about this dish for a long time to come.

4. Guinea Fowl – Oscarsgate, Oslo

At this tiny Oslo restaurant, Swedish chef Björn Svensson is performing little miracles with food. Meltingly tender guinea fowl was served with apple purée, beetroot, and potato. Scandinavia on a plate.

3. Flame Grilled Mackerel with Cucumber, Celtic Mustard and Shiso – The Ledbury, London

A classic by The Ledbury's Brett Graham. This is the dish most people rave about. Mackerel can be a tricky fish to tame – its oily fishiness is always in danger of overwhelming the taste buds. Here the fish was cooked to perfection; the core of it was soft, almost sashimi like, while the skin magically retained a smokey crispness. Accompanying this was a little parcel of smoked eel wrapped in a translucent film of cucumber jelly. A lightly pickled cucumber and delicate leaves of shiso and coriander cress added the needed acidity. I was lost for words at how good this dish was – one of the real highlights of the meal. Magnificent!

2. Langoustine with Oyster, Parsley and Seawater Emulsion, and Rye Crumbs – Noma, Copenhagen

In July, I ate at Noma, and the "world's best restaurant" lived up to the hype and more. This dish brought the house down for me. The most perfect langoustine, barely cooked, was placed on a warm basalt stone that was dotted with small pearls of oyster, parsley and seawater emulsion. A purple powder of seaweed was sprinkled over the stone. This was a dish you eat with your hands and we were encouraged to "make art" as we dipped the langoustine in the emulsion. I closed my eyes and felt transported to a beach on a hot summer's day. Simply amazing.

And the winner of the Nordic Nibbler best restaurant dish of 2010 award is ... *opens envelope* ....

1. Black Truffle Explosion, Romaine, Parmesan – Alinea, Chicago

Alinea totally and utterly took my breath away. The level that head chef Grant Achatz is cooking at now is just astounding. Alinea is on another planet altogether. The Michelin gods saw fit to deign this restaurant with three stars in their inaugural guide to Chicago. Every dish of the meal I had there was stunning, but the standout dish for me was a one-bite symphony of flavour called 'Black Truffle Explosion.' A wafer thin ravioli was filled with the most intense warm black truffle broth. It was eaten in one bite, releasing a cascade of unworldly truffle flavours.


This exercise was actually a lot harder than I imagined. The highlight of the year for me was undoubtedly my meal at Alinea, and at least half of the list could easily have been dishes from the newly crowned three-Michelin star Chicago restaurant. But there were lots of other incredible highlights, and looking back I feel very lucky to have been able to sample such wonderful food. I'll be honest, part of me can't wait to see the back of 2010, it's been that sort of year, but looking back at some of the happy memories, maybe it hasn't been so bad after all?

So, what have been the standout dishes of the year for you? What is your top-ten food list of 2010?

Finally, here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Bincho Yakitori, London – Restaurant Review

Following on from a surprisingly decent lunch of udon noodles at Koya, I thought I'd continue with the Japanese theme and popped into nearby Bincho Yakitori for a couple of cheeky skewers of grilled goodness.

Bincho Yakitori is modelled on a Japanese izakaya: a kind of bar that serves small plates of food to go along with your booze. In Tokyo these range from uber-seedy places in Shomben Yokocho ("Piss Alley"), where you drink rotgut sake, to slick Michelin-starred joints such as Rokkaku.

Bincho is a yakitori-ya and, although the word yakitori translates as 'grilled bird' (typically chicken), the restaurant serves a variety of food, with most being prepared on the long charcoal grill that dominates the room. The first time I tried authentic yakitori was at Bird Land, one of Tokyo's finest yakitori restaurants (see my review here), where I was totally blown away by the quality and freshness of the chicken, and wondered if I could repeat that experience outside of Japan.

I decided to stick with traditional chicken yakitori and took advantage of the specials board that displays things such as chicken hearts, skin, necks, and chicken oysters: those little lumps of flesh found near the back of the bird. I ordered nankotsu (chicken cartilage) from the specials menu, and sunazuri (chicken gizzard – a muscular part of the chicken's digestive tract) and tsukune (minced chicken balls) from the à la carte. The menu lists the price per skewer and there is a minimum order of two skewers of each item.

Yakitori is not fast food; the idea is not to char everything into a smoky oblivion, but instead to gradually cook everything to the perfect level of doneness. I was seated at the counter in front of the grill, which gave me a perfect vantage point from which to watch the chef cook over the warm glow of the charcoal. The charcoal used at Bincho is imported from Japan, presumably a similar bincho-tan charcoal to that I saw used at Bird Land. I watched intently as the chef carefully prepared each skewer; a little dab of tare (a Japanese basting sauce of sake, mirin, and soy sauce) here, a little pinch of salt there, all the while constantly rearranging the skewers on the grill so as they received the optimal level of heat. I struck up a friendly conversation with the chef, and it turns out he is from the same region that the heavenly and fragrant Oku-kuji shamo chickens I had at Bird Land come from. I felt a little guilty as he said our discussion had made him hungry.

Tsukune (chicken meat balls) and nankotsu (chicken cartilage)

I'm by no means an expert on Japanese food and, while it's always going to be unfair to compare Bincho Yakitori to Japan's finest, I was simply amazed at the quality of the yakitori made here. The nankotsu (chicken cartilage, £3.00) was sensational – both chewy and crunchy, and perfectly seasoned with an intensely savoury chicken taste to them. A few drops of lemon lifted that roast chicken flavour further.

Sunazuri (chicken gizzards, £2.80) were satisfyingly chewy with a lovely flavour of dark chicken meat. However, it was the tsukune (minced chicken balls, £3.60) that really stole the show. Wonderfully soft and light meatballs were perfectly cooked and very juicy. They had been slicked with the perfect amount of tare sauce, which gave them a slight hint of sweetness. Dare I say it, they were almost better than those at Bird Land.

Sunazuri (chicken gizzard)

Bincho Yakitori is a fantastic restaurant offering tremendous value for money and, at least based on the chicken yakitori I had there, serves wonderfully authentic Japanese yakitori. I can't wait to go back and try more items from the menu (I had desperately wanted to try the grilled chicken skins, but they were sold out the day I went). So if you need a fix of some original Japanese grilling then head to Bincho, you won't be disappointed.

Food:        7 / 10

Service:     7 / 10

Ambiance: 7 / 10

Bincho Yakitori

16 Old Compton Street

London W1D 4TL

United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)20 7287 9111

Koya, London - Restaurant Review

If I were to be stranded on a desert island and had to pick only one kind of noodle to take with me, it would definitely be the mighty udon noodle. Those thick, toothsome strands are just so satisfying and versatile. So on a recent trip to London, I was delighted to get the chance to try out a restaurant called Koya which, like all decent Japanese restaurants, specialises in just one thing – in this case, udon noodles.

Koya hasn't even been open a year, but it has already attracted a legion of enthusiastic fans, and I can see why – the noodles served here are fantastic and on a par with those I've had in Tokyo. Koya make their own udon noodles daily in the restaurant's basement, and I gather they import their wheat flour from Japan and use the traditional method of kneading the dough by foot. Proper udon noodle dough is just too thick to knead by hand, so using your feet allows your body weight to do much of the work.

We arrived at Koya just after 12pm, having taking my eldest daughter, Little Miss Nibbler (aged 4 years 2 weeks), to the theatre. The restaurant was fairly empty when we arrived, but within ten minutes of sitting down there was already a queue forming at the door. The interior is quite spartan, with tiled floors and simple wooden furniture giving a sense of Zen-like calm. As you can imagine, the menu here focuses on udon noodles, where you can have hot or cold noodles in a hot broth, or cold noodles with a cold sauce. Of course, there are non-noodle dishes such as donburi (rice bowls with different toppings) and other smaller plates.

Little Miss Nibbler announced that she would have the 'fish & chips' (£7), which comprised of cod tempura with thin lotus root crisps, sliced spring onion, grated daikon(?) and a vinegary dipping sauce. I managed to sneak a bite, much to my daughter's annoyance (we're still working on the sharing thing) and it was fine, if a bit bland for my taste. Although judging by Little Miss Nibbler's happy smile, she really enjoyed it.

We also ordered some tsukemono (£2.50), or homemade pickles. Unlike the Japanese pickles I'm used to, these were thinly sliced turnips, which had a lovely fresh acidity to them.

Mrs. Nibbler went for a ten curry don (£12) which, apart from sounding like a character from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, was a rice bowl topped with Japanese curry sauce and a solitary, but huge, prawn tempura perched on top. This was also accompanied by miso soup.

I had a ten hiya-atsu (£12.50), which is cold udon noodles served with prawn and vegetable tempura and a bowl of hot dashi soup. Accompanying this was some tanuki (£0.50), which are crispy flakes of fried tempura batter. The 12 years I spent in Yorkshire as a boy frequenting fish & chip shops meant that I insisted on calling these 'tempura scraps'. Amusingly, tanuki gets its name from a mischievous mythical Japanese character with unfeasibly large gonads that can apparently stretch to the size of eight (eight!) tatami mats (ouch). The original 'golden balls' then. I digress...

The cold noodles were served on a bamboo mat topped with strands of nori (dried seaweed). These were precariously transferred by chopsticks into the dashi soup and topped with the tanuki, chopped spring onions, grated ginger, and sesame seeds. The dashi broth had a fantastically deep umami-rich taste, and caused the tanuki to gradually turn into gelatinous blobs of yumminess. But it was the noodles that really stole the show. Proper udon noodles are such a revelation, so different to their distant soup packet relatives. The ones at Koya were dense, but also light and springy, with a fantastic al dente bite to them. When lubricated by the soup they were joyfully (and noisily) slurped up. Just fantastic.

Sadly, the same couldn't be said of the tempura. Chunks of vegetable tempura that included broccoli, aubergine, and I think sweet potato, were heavy and oily, and I didn't really care to finish them. The prawn tempura was better, but it too was quite greasy. I'll probably steer clear of the tempura in future and go for something else.

As a comparison I thought I'd attach some photos I took on a recent trip to Tokyo. This was from an udon-ya somewhere near Shibuya station. It was a simple canteen style set-up but, as was to be a common theme in Tokyo, the food here was impeccable. As you can see from the photo it seems, at least at this place, that less is more in terms of how much dashi they place in the bowl. I think I prefer this way of serving udon as it allows the full flavour of the noodles to really shine. Also, in contrast to Koya, I found their tempura to be so light and almost greaseless. And like a proper Northern chippy, their tanuki 'scraps' were free.

It is testament to the quality of Koya's udon noodles that you can even make a comparison with the stuff served in Tokyo. Koya really is a fantastic addition to the capital's Japanese dining scene, and Little Miss Nibbler and I will definitely be back from more!

Food:        6 / 10

Service:     7 / 10

Ambiance: 6 / 10

Koya

49 Frith Street

London W1D 4SG

United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)20 7434 4463

Tsunahachi, Tokyo - Restaurant Review

It's been three months since I was in Tokyo, yet I still find myself reminiscing about this glorious, utterly bonkers city. Japan has so much to delight a food-lover; it is a truly extraordinary place. Now that I'm back in Europe, it feels like the week I spent in Tokyo was just part of some wonderful dream. So when Dinner in Brooklyn made a comment about tempura on my blog, it got me thinking about my first ever meal in Tokyo.

As this was a work trip I was lucky enough to have flown in to Tokyo cosseted away in business class, enjoying the free-flowing claret like some gout-ridden Regency viscount. The downside of this was that I slept right through the in-flight meal (which was no bad thing) and arrived in Tokyo bleary-eyed and ready to eat my own weight in, well, anything remotely edible.

Fresh off the Narita Express train, I alighted at Shinjuku station - a man on a mission with a singular purpose: food, and plenty of it at that. A guidebook recommended a tempura restaurant that was not too far from the station. Tempura is good, I thought, tempura is safe - I know tempura. I wasn't quite ready to dive into the culinary unknown just yet, there would be plenty of time for that later, and the thought of deep fried stuff sounded like the perfect salve for my aching hunger.

The restaurant in question was Tsunahachi - a relatively inexpensive Tempura chain with eight restaurants in Japan. By the time I arrived, a queue had already started to form and I took my place in line with other hungry diners. Eventually, I was ushered in to a fairly spartan, but busy, dining room and was seated at a bar counter with a perfect view of the two neatly dressed itamae's, who were busy manning two deep-fat fryers.

The great thing about Japanese restaurants, at least from a foreigner's point of view, is that many of them have this bizarre display of plastic doppelgangers of their food offerings. The detailing of these is really something to behold and they are quite a work of art. They also have the very handy feature of allowing the hapless gaijin to just smile and point at what they'd like to eat.

After smiling and pointing, it transpired that I ordered the tendon (Japanese rice bowl) set menu. First, a delightfully fresh salad of shredded daikon and ginko nuts. Then, those moreish Japanese pickles. I love the way they are soft, at the same time as being, quite possibly, the crunchiest things on Earth. Then came the main event, which was a bowl of rice topped with freshly cooked tempura. Everything is cooked to order here and I watched as the itamae meticulously prepared each ingredient, gave them a quick dredge in the batter, dipped them into the hot oil with some long chopsticks, and fried them to perfection. Prawns in particular were deftly handled; their heads whipped off and their bodies worked between the chef's fingers to elongate them. I also had tempura of delicate fish fillets, sliced renkon (lotus root), and tiny shira-ebi (sweet baby prawns) that had been formed into a fat rounds of tempura. The tempura was sensational - totally greaseless and so ethereal and crisp. Accompanying them was a dipping sauce and different types of flavoured salt. To finish, some miso soup that contained tiny clams no bigger than a pea. And suddenly I understood that eating in Japan would be an experience unlike any I had ever encountered. The sheer simplicity and attention to detail is nothing short of miraculous.

This piece of culinary theatre cost me the princely sum of JPY 2,100 (€19/$23) - a shocking bargain. I gather that this sort of tempura restaurant is fairly standard in Japan, and I can only imagine what a place like 7-Chome Kyoboshi, a tempura restaurant with a brace of Michelin stars, must be like. For me though, it served as a wonderful introduction to the radical philosophy on food the Japanese have.

Food:            8 / 10
Service:         8 / 10
Ambiance:     7 / 10

Tsunahachi
Takashimaya Times Square, 13F
5-24-2 Sendagaya
Tokyo
Japan
Tel: +81 3-5361-1860

L2O, Chicago - Restaurant Review

Sadly, all good things must come to an end and, after three blissful weeks in the magnificent city of Chicago that included, among others, meals at Alinea, Moto, and Topolobampo, it was time to leave. For our final blowout dinner we headed to Lincoln Park to chef Laurent Gras's exciting restaurant, L2O.

Frenchman Gras opened L2O in 2008 and brought with him an impressive résumé, having worked with culinary legends such as Alain Ducasse, Guy Savoy, and Alain Senderens, who between them have accumulated an astonishing 27 Michelin stars. The restaurant's name is a twist on the chemical formula for water and, as this might suggest, the focus here is on seafood. In particular, chef Gras focuses on preparing seafood with strong influences from Japan, and this extends to adopting the Japanese trait of an almost obsessive attention to detail.

The restaurant is rather incongruously located in the dated and stuffy Belden-Stratford Hotel. A modern looking wooden door leads off the main lobby into the restaurant. Contrary to the rest of the hotel, the inside of the restaurant is an exercise in sleek and modern interior design, and is a truly stunning dining room. Quiet, soothing music is piped over the speakers. Such is Gras's attention to detail that he worked with Buddha Bar NYC resident DJ, Timka, to provide a soundtrack for L2O that reflects the changing seasons. He even commissioned Riedel to custom-make water glasses that are just the right shade of blue.

Mrs. Nibbler and I were warmly greeted and seated at a quiet corner table. We sat side-by-side, giving us a perfect vantage over the beautiful dining room. Before seeing the menus, the first amuse bouche arrived to ease us into the evening. This was a succulent lobe of lobster, I can't quite remember how it was prepared, but suffice it to say that it was delicious.

L2O offers three menus: a seasonal 12-course tasting menu; a 10-course tasting menu that incorporates luxury ingredients such as foie gras, lobster, and caviar; and a 4-course prix fixe menu (L2O also has Tatami rooms for private dining that offer Kaiseki-style menus). Given that we had spent the last three weeks eating our way round Chicago, Mrs. Nibbler and I were starting to feel a bit like foie gras geese. So, we opted for the smaller four-course à la carte menu, which is just as well as this turned out to be nine courses.

Amuse Bouche 1: Lobster

After we ordered, the second amuse bouche arrived. This was a lightly set olive oil custard with an espelette pepper emulsion. It was light and creamy, with a mild chilli twang to it. Both amuse bouches were a really fantastic way to start the meal.

Amuse Bouche 2: Olive Oil Custard with Espelette Emulsion

At this point I should also mention the bread. Bread is taken very seriously at L2O and is baked once before the dinner service and again halfway through. Mrs. Nibbler and I selected some excellent pain de campagne and a Yukon Gold potato and garlic bread (although sadly none of their famed rosemary croissants were available that night). Both were moist in the middle with wonderfully crispy crusts. These were served with salted butter made in-house from grass-fed cows' cream, which had a deliciously full, almost cheesy flavour.

Pain de Campagne, and Yukon Gold Potato and Garlic bread

For her first course, Mrs. Nibbler opted for the cryptically titled "Eighteen Flavours of Summer". As its name suggests this is a seasonal dish and it was an extraordinary presentation of different preparations of summer fruits and vegetable. It included an avocado and jalapeno sorbet, radishes, asparagus with asparagus sorbet, a tomato sorbet, beetroot, and watermelon. This was such a spectacular dish, vibrant in colour and bursting with fresh summer flavours.

Eighteen Flavours of Summer

For my first course I also had a visually spectacular dish of tuna with tomatoes, hibiscus, and foie gras 'snow'. Tuna sashimi had been cut into neat cubes, each topped with a slightly smaller cube of a tomato and hibiscus jelly. Accompanying this were some pearls of olive oil gel and flakes of frozen foie gras. When I saw this dish on the menu I knew I had to try it, as it was such an unusual combination of flavours. It worked fantastically well and I loved the way the foie gras snow just melted and dissolved on your tongue. Visually, this dish also had such a satisfying sense of geometry and order to it.

Tuna, Tomato, Hibiscus, Foie Gras Snow

For her second course, Mrs. Nibbler opted for a dish of octopus. Octopus is first peeled and frozen to tenderise it and then cooked slowly in olive oil. It is served with a coconut sauce and freeze-dried soy sauce powder. This was a delicious dish, the tender, but meaty, octopus combined well with the soft, silky coconut sauce. Although a somewhat unconventional combination of ingredients, it was really very good. In fact, it reminded me of a similar dish by Ferran Adrià that I had at La Alqueria in the El Bulli Hotel a few years ago; there, squid ravioli was filled with coconut milk and it too worked very well indeed.

Octopus, Coconut, Olive oil

For my second course I had grilled prawns served with pappardelle pasta in a rich and creamy tomato and saffron sauce. This was garnished with small discs of courgette and tempura-style courgette flowers. This was a fairly heavy dish but I enjoyed it immensely, the pasta in particular was stunning - paper thin and toothsome. The dish was, however, not without fault; the prawns had been over salted and the courgette flower tempura was a little oily - I remember the tempura I had in Japan being impossibly crisp and almost grease-less.

Prawn, Saffron, Pappardelle, Zucchini blossom, Tomato

For my main course I chose a very decadent version of surf and turf - wagyu beef and lobster served with potatoes, mushrooms and a truffle and foie gras emulsion. I had originally wanted to order the kampachi with yuzu and caviar (with a whopping $75 supplement) but this was already sold out, even though we were dining at 7:30pm. I should have trusted my instinct and gone for another fish dish as the wagyu, although perfectly cooked, was not as tender as I have had in the past, and a couple of the potatoes needed to have been cooked for longer. The lobster however was divine and it paired beautifully with the intoxicating and impossibly rich foie gras and truffle sauce.

Rangers Valley Wagyu Beef, Lobster, Foie Gras-Truffle Emulsion, Potato, Mushroom

Since our arrival in Chicago, Mrs. Nibbler had had a craving for lobster that she had not yet managed to itch. So naturally for her main course she chose lobster (tail and claw) that was poached in butter and served with a thermidor sauce, squares of a peach jelly and purslane. This was a stunning mix of flavours; the sweet lobster meat was offset by the slightly sour purslane and the acidity of the peach, while the creamy sauce provided a perfect bridge to bring everything together.

Lobster, Sauce Thermidor, Peach, Purslane

Before dessert, we were served a small palate cleanser of a meyer lemon frozen marshmallow. It had a cold, silky consistency and was very light and refreshing. Just perfect.

For dessert, Mrs. Nibbler had the "chocolate surprise", which was presented as a rectangular box of chocolate with perfect 90-degree angles. I wish I had taken a picture of the inside of the chocolate box as it was filled with a multitude of sweet goodness that included caramelised almonds rolled in cocoa butter, milk chocolate mousse, dark toffee, and caramelised almond mousse with a touch of Murray salt. The small blob of chocolate sauce was garnished with gold leaf, giving this dish a rich and opulent feel. It was delicious.

Chocolate Surprise: Guanaja, Praline, Almond

I had a similar dish for dessert, but here I was presented with a Valrhona Manjari chocolate egg that had a remarkable velvet texture to it. The egg was filled with an impossibly airy salted caramel mousse and was served with a malt 'snow' and a caramel foam with a just a hint of coffee. This was also a spectacular dessert, both in taste and presentation.

Caramel, Manjari, Malt Snow, Hint of Coffee

We rounded off dinner with some delicious Intelligentsia espresso coffee and some petit fours of apricot macaroons with saffron, and passion fruit and ginger marshmallows. I love macaroons and L2O's versions are as perfect as the ones I buy from Ladurée, although there was perhaps a bit too much saffron in this one for my liking, overwhelming the flavour of apricot and leaving a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Petit Fours: Apricot Macaroon with Saffron, Passion Fruit and Ginger Marshmallow

Although a relatively new addition to the high-end of the Chicago dining scene, L2O has already made its mark, and is more than a welcome addition to the already excellent list of restaurants in Chi-town. Chef Gras serves beautiful, light, and inventive food. He seems to have such knowledge and mastery of the raw ingredients that go into a dish, having an almost instinctive feel for how to combine flavours. The service at L2O was without fault and it hummed along like a well-oiled Michelin-starred machine. I enjoyed a monumentally good dinner here, but it wasn't without a couple of small, niggling faults. I feel there's much more to come from Gras, the sheer precision of his Japanese-influenced cooking combined with his impressive classical experience in some of the world's best restaurants should lead him to greater things indeed. Watch this space.

UPDATE 16.11.2010: Well if you did watch this space, you will have seen that L2O was awarded Michelin's highest complement of three stars in their inaugural guide to Chicago (the only other recipient of three stars in the city was the sublime Alinea – see my reviews here and here). In a bizarre twist though, it was announced that Laurent Gras left L2O suddenly at the beginning of November 2010, ostensibly for a temporary leave of absence. No motive was given, other than the generic "for personal reasons," and it is unclear whether Gras will return. I do hope we see him back in a kitchen in the not too distant future as his is a precocious talent for cooking. I'm not sure what this means for the three stars, as typically Michelin have a habit of removing stars when a chef leaves a restaurant. So again, we watch this space!

UPDATE 18.11.2010: As was my suspicion, Laurent Gras has indeed decided to part company with L2O, citing irreconcilable differences with owner Rich Melman. Gras plans to set up a new venture in NYC that will focus more on casual dining. L2O's Chef de Cuisine Francis Brennan, who worked with Gras for years and helped set up the restaurant, will take over the reigns. I wish him the best of luck, as never has the phrase "out of the frying pan, into the fire" been more appropriate.

UPDATE 10.11.2011: It was announced that Brennan would be leaving L2O to be replaced by Matthew Kirkley (28) who used to work under Brennan and Gras. Judging from this interview, it looks like Kirkley will be making some changes to the L2O menu.

UPDATE 15.11.2011: L2O was docked two stars in the 2012 edition of the Chicago Michelin guide following the departure of chef Laurent Gras just over a year ago. The restaurant now holds one star in the guide, leaving Alinea as the city's sole three-star restaurant.

UPDATE 13.11.2012: The restaurant was awarded its second Michelin star in the 2013 edition of the guide rouge.

Food:          9 / 10

Service:       9 / 10

Ambiance:   9 / 10

L2O

2300 N. Lincoln Park West

Chicago, IL 60614

Tel: +1 773-868-0002