Atari-Ya (2), James St - second visit

Jan-19th cheap sushi for a great quality

That was my second time I took photos at Atari-Ya. I cannot count precisely how many times I have been to this place, but certainly more than 20 times.
I wont praise more Atari-Ya, you got it form first review by now. That is a GREAT EXCELLENT FANTASTIC place for good fresh sushi at an unbeatable price. This comes at a price, the atmosphere is crap and service is slow (pass your way if you see there is too much queue).

This very quick post is to show you what you can get for 25p in that place. Not insisting enough that the nigris ordered were just VERY nice and fresh. A tip : from time to time they have white tuna, you cannot miss it. They even serve it with natto... yum :)

I got all this for 25p - and EXCELLENT quality

On top: dragon roll (big roll)

On top right: salmon cheese roll (with philadelphia cheese) 

In the middle: salmon avocado - generous

On the right you can see horse mackerel and conger eel nigris (lovely special's) 

On the left: more eels (come with the dragon roll) 

This being said, I'd avoid the dragon roll and go for their rainbow roll instead...

Tomoe, Marylebone Lane - Don't miss the grilled razor clams!!!

Dec-16th £35pp for dinner. Minimum charge is £15.00 for dinner.

Tomoe is a very interesting Japanese place. It offers a few original dishes, that one should definitely try.
First, let us start with the things we did not like too much...
I been in Tomoe a few times now. I cannot ever recall a good service. It is very slow. The place is busy so it's difficult for them to serve quickly. It's noisy as well. A quick tip: if you eat at the sushi bar downstairs you can always ask the shokunin directly what you want, he will serve you a bit quicker. There is also a minimum cover of £15 for dinner. Oh something else: the green tea is served by the glass, so no free refill here, as opposed to Cocoro. One last thing, atmosphere is not great and I would not have tried this place if no one had recommended it to me. You get the picture, Tomoe is not a fancy place, with a nice atmosphere. When you go there often, they recognize you and service improves a tiny little bit...

Don't worry! The quality of the food does much more than offset those negative points. In other words, if you're happy to try the Tomoe adventure, your palate will be rewarded. Every sushi is good here. And we got a great tip for sushi fans... Best time to get sushis/sashimi is Wednesday evening, the day they receive their sashimi grade fish... I cannot believe they told me this... :)

The menu is organised around a few specialties which are very creative. Among them don't miss the grilled razor clams, home made tofu and dynamite roll (finish with this one).

The masterpiece of Tomoe is the grilled razor clams. It comes with tomatoes, and in a little sauce. It is very fresh, creative, beautiful to the eyes and to the mouth. Don't forget to order one. Even, go there to have one. That should be one of the purpose of you visiting the restaurant. It's their specialty, and you will like it.

Grilled razor clams. Specialty of the house. 

Great to the eyes and the palate.

Home made tofu  is difficult to find in London: you can always find cold tofu, but hot tofu freshly made is extremely rare. This dish is educative because you get to see how it is done. Then it tastes nice. Tofu is sweet, soft and melting.

Home made tofu. I'm not a tofu fan

BUT it's good, and very very fresh... it can't be fresher actually.

Home made tofu comes with spring onions, dried fish (on the right as well)

and sesame sauce on the left.

Like every other roll, dragon roll is superbly realized for 13.50. It's relatively cheap considering the time it takes to be done. It's beautiful and fresh.

Dragon roll, beautiful piece, but a bit expensive, pass your way.

A dish I discovered and I cannot recommend enough is called 'braised pork with soft boiled egg'. The name says it all.... you dip the pork in the cold egg...The yellow of the egg gives consistency to pork and mixes well with the spring onions. I never tried this anywhere before. I'lll definitely have it again.

Braised pork with cold egg - yum

How it looks when you break the yolk.

Dynamite roll mixes salmon, tuna, sea bass and chili peppers. It is VERY hot. Maybe ask them to make it not as hot. Mine was strongly hot hot. Now, it is very creative and was nice to taste something new, sushi wise. Make sure to finish with this roll, not start with it, reason being the hotness will diminish the taste of a delicate sashimi should you get it after.

Finish with the spicy dynamite roll. 

That WILL wake you up! 

Soft shell crab roll - same comment than usual on soft shell crab: 

it's good BUT reheated...

 Scallops nigri were soooo soft, melting and tasty.

Salmon avocado was perfect to me

generous and of good quality

Black sesame ice cream is a good way to finish the dinner if you still have some space. A curious dessert, that you can't find so easily in London.

Back sesame seed ice cream

A very clear signal from Tomoe is that no dish is bad... EVERYTHING I tasted was good. You'll come accross a few very good surprises as well if you're adventurous enough. Don't miss the grilled razor clams, the hot home made tofu, the braised pork and egg and the dynamite roll.

Cocoro, Marylebone Lane - A well established Japanese

Dec-15th count around £35pp for a miso soup, green tea with free refill, two expensive rolls and two more common rolls. The dragon roll (their most expensive roll) is £15.00. More common rolls are about £5.00.

Cocoro is a Japanese hidden in Marylebone. In front of Tomoe, it offers a simple and lighty atmosphere. Clients probably appreciate the hidden location. Many Japanese go there as well too. Good efficient service.

Tea refill comes in time, don't be afraid to ask for more green tea when you finished your glass.

Concerning the sushis, the rice has been cooked with too much vinegar in my opinion. Some people might like it that way... I personally believe it masks the taste of the fish. For this reason, I'd recommend to go for the fattiest pieces (such as salmon or eel or anything with avocado). Also, as a general rule, I find the rolls not too generous in fish, with too much rice compared to fish (in particular the tuna avocado roll or the cucumber and eel roll). That's why I would not consider Cocoro, the best place for sushi in London. Now, it's a good hidden place to have them. It's an interesting place to go, for a date for example ?

Now, there are a few surprising specialties at Cocoro, which are worth talking about... and maybe try them. 
A very interesting roll, called the "Cocoro special" or "7 fish roll" has been created by the cook. It includes salmon, tuna, mackerel, shrimps, scallop, yellowtail and sea bass! All those in a single roll with radish around. This roll is generous in fish, as opposed to the other rolls. The result is unique. I personally don't think it works very well, but it is certainly worth tasting, for its creativity.

Cocoro special roll - generous in fish 

Also the dragon roll is a beautiful piece. I would recommend it because fish and avocado tastes match well the strong vinegar rice flavour. Yellowtail, salmon and avocado do go on well together. But style and substance come at a price: £15.00 for this roll.

 Dragon roll - beautiful for the eyes and the stomach

Two starters I enjoyed were the ikanato (ika is squid and nato is the fermented soybeans) and the tako wasa (tako is octopus, so tako wasa is octopus in wasabi sauce). Ika nato was of good quality. If you never tried nato give it a try. The taste of it goes certainly well with the squid. Better even was the tako wasa, a simple starter for a small price. Tako is chewy as expected. Make sure you like wasabi before ordering because it is strong.

 Ika nato - small portion

the tastes of the squid and the nato beans go well together

Tako wasa - it tastes better than it looks

Nato roll - well done, a nice vegetarian sushi

Cucumber eel roll - not enough eel to my taste

Tuna avocado roll - same comment

too much rice, not enough tuna in comparison...

A less better experience is the soft sheel karaabe in ponzu sauce. Now, let me get this right. First impression is good. Soft shell taste is strong. It was nice BUT soft shell crab has been reheated (and not just cooked before ordering). That is always the case in every place in London I ordered this dish so far... so let's not conclude too quickly Cocoro is not an appropriate sushi place. I liked it but it seems it's difficult to find a place for fresh soft shell crab. Ponzu sauce was a good realisation.

 Soft shell crab

We finished the dinner with hokkigai nigri. I found it a bit chewy and they had the idea to put a vinegar sauce on it... I don't know if Japanese people have it that way. I found it way too strong in vinegar.

Hokkigai.... too much vinegar for me....

Cocoro, is a place of interest for sushi if you tried the "must go" sushi bars in London before and are looking for a new place to change. Also, if you like vinegar rice, chose this place. I would certainly recommend the Cocoro special, the dragon roll, ikanato and tako wasa. Now, if I am honest, I think other sushis places are better that cocoro and so must be tried before.

Akasiro - The cheapest Japanese in town

Dec-12th £6pp (the lunnch menus chicken katsu curry includes a miso soup for less than £6pp!)

Eating Japanese food on sundays in London can be a tricky thing, reson being many Japanese restaurants close on sundays. Last Sunday, I tried my way to Tokyo Dinner. They refused to serve me, invoking they had trouble in the kitchen. I was disappointed... but the good thing is I tried a new restaurant just next to it, called Akasiro.

I was just lucky I went in. I might have found as well the cheapest Japanese restaurant in London.

The restaurant is modest and small (around 5 tables upstairs). Atmosphere is sobre, and simple.
The waitress was very kind.

The menu is not only Japanese, there are some Thai dishes in the menu (such a bulgogi).
I just quite don't get how they manage to make a profit from their prices... Ok, the place is mild, but still, £5.80 the chicken katsu ?!? (the lunch price - in the evening the prices jump). They have to pay the cook, the waitress, the ingredients and the monthly rent with this.
Chicken was relatively light. I wrote ''relatively'' because it is crumbreaded chicken, so if you want something very light, you should not go for this... What I mean is that it was not oily, and rightly crispy. It's a tasty meal and a good surprise at this price.

The chicken katsu curry was fine

I liked the little "mini salad" made it more digest

The sushi experience was not as good and heavy. Maybe, we should not have ordered the volcano roll. The orange sauce (which they call spicy) is way too heavy... The volcano roll is a regular salmon roll which is then deep fried... don't go for this, really.

 DO NOT GO FOR THE VOLCANO ROLL

WAY TOO HEAVY

All in all, Akasiro is an inexpensive substitute to Tokyo dinner. It is even less expensive than Tokyo dinner and the hot meal was very acceptable. What we call a good value for money. Have to go back and taste again the more common sushi rolls to see what they're worth.

Atari-Ya, James St - You said fresh fish?

Dec-15th £15pp for 3 expensive rolls to take away

Now this blog starts getting serious about London restaurants. We cannot talk about food in London without talking about Japanese food and more particularly about sushis. Reviewed today is Atari-Ya.

There is lot of mystery behind Atari-Ya. I live right off Marylebone High St and the very few times I tried the touristy restaurants on James St, it was almost always a catastrophe. It took me some time to try Atari-Ya. From the outside, the place looks dodgy and I would not even want to try the fish there judging by the vitrine. There are 5 VERY small tables. No decoration. Now, I noticed the place is often busy... after a few months, I gave it a try.

I'll be straight. The place serves excellent sushis.
For foreigners who do not speak good English or people doubting about what I said above, I'll repeat it. Sushis at Atari-Ya are excellent.

In fact, they are so good, I did a bit of research about the place. It's not often you find a gem in London. And there is a lot of mystery about the bar (it's a sushi bar, not a restaurant). I heard Atari-Ya supplies 80% Japanese restaurants in London for their sashimi grade fish. Honestly, I doubt they do, because 80% seems a huge number. However, I wouldn't be surprised if they did supply some Japanese restaurants. After all, you can buy sashimi grade fish if you ask (I did it). What it means is that you're one step before in the chain of food when going to Atari-Ya... hence the fresh fish. I also heard the chefs come and work here for a few years and master the art of sushi-making so quickly that they go in top sushi restaurants (including Nobu). Again, I don't think it's 100% true, but it might be somehow true. Some Nobu chefs might have worked here before. Don't get me wrong, I still think Nobu is overpriced, expensive, you don't get what you pay for... etc. However, everyone believes the best sushi chefs are there. Why they cannot deliver food in line with their high quality staff is another question. Finally, I heard Nobu staff (including chefs) from time to time, come to Atari-Ya after lunch and before the evening service to eat good sushi... We won't blame them? Why would you blame someone wanting the best sushi in town? Well you get the picture, I wont write a novel. Atari-Ya serves among the best sushis in town. Those sushis are recognized as being some of the best by the Japanese community living London. Oh, by the way, have a look at Atari-Ya website (google it), you'll see it targets Japanese living in London. It rightly does, a large number of customers are Japanese.

The best surprised is that it is very cheap too. £1.80 the salmon or tuna roll?!? Are you joking me? Now the photos... There is no point uploading regular sushi photos as almost every sushi place have them almost the same way (salmon roll, tuna roll... etc). I want to talk about three rolls worth talking about...

The best sushi I tried at Atari-Ya is the rainbow roll, you cannot find it everywhere in London. The name is pretty straight forward. The roll is filled with salmon and Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie type) inside (you cannot see it on the photo). That's cheating to put mayonnaise, but it is just a lush roll.

Salmon roll is very well realized. But again, every sushi is good.

Spider rolls are good, very good even. Spider roll is how they call soft shell crab rolls. But, I can think of places where they are better than here (they re-heat the soft shell crab at Atari-Ya). Now, it is well above the average soft shell crab roll in London and even I would recommend trying it once.

Rainbow roll?... what about it on a rainy day? 

I could have it any day, if I am honest... like sex.

Left: Salmon avocado roll

Right: Spider roll

Sakura, Hannover Sq - Some like it hot

Dec-6th 2010  £15pp
Apologies for the qualities of the photos. I did not have my camera with me. Took them with my phone.

Eating at Sakura is rarely a disappointing experience.
Ok, service is not the best. However, Sakura is not lying to you and it serves best you what you expect : good Japanese hot food at an affordable price. Sushis are good at Sakura, BUT real Sakura house specialties are hot dishes. I avoid Sushis there on Sundays as it seems (like a lot of sushi bars) they get their fish on Mondays. Frankly, I generally avoid sushis at Sakura (and I am a sushi fan), here I go for the hot dishes.

Next time I come I'll try the Shabu Shabu and Sukiyaki Japaneses fondues. We could not have it this time as the table was two small. Get a table for four ppl if you want that (mention it at the entry).

Now, I tried every kind of Don Buri here (Oyako don, pork don, vegetable don and others...). Bear in mind that the chicken don does not come with an egg on top (too bad because that's yummy). It's not a delicate meal. It's an efficient Japanese meal, for a VERY affordable price. Good affordable Japanese food. I would recommend it without any hesitation.

Pork Donburi (I swear in real it does look more appealing. The white thingy is an egg on top of the crumbreaded pork cutlets which itself is on top of oignons which, in turn, is on top of rice).

Another specialty of Sakura is any soup. Below is an example (a soup with udon noodles and a tempura). I am not a fan of udon noodles frankly, and although I think tempura in a soup diminishes the interest of the soup and of the tempura... BUT this was again en example of Sakura at it's best. Good food, for a small price. Good realisation and they don't lie to you on the food. It's not surprising that many Japanese locals come and eat here. They know what to expect foodwise. Ok, that is true, we waited for the soup to come, but it was delivered with manner and panache :) Don't come here for service, dont come here for atmosphere (there is not even any music). Come to eat and go. And smile, cause your belly is full with proper Japanese food. Like this :) or even that :D

We tried the cold tofu as well. I would not recommend it. It seems where it comes to cold food Saurka is not at its best. Now, I am not a cold tofu fan.

Salmon Teryaki, was plain and simple and a success considering the rapidity the plate was cleaned. We cannot see very well on the photo, but the pinky color of the salmon was almost orgasmic.

more to come anytime soon.