Last Updated on January 28, 2025
Omakase dinner brings Japan to Soho
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
On Brewer Street in the heart of Soho, diners find a road bursting with eateries from all over the globe. One of my favourite options when overloaded with options is Japanese cuisine. I love the clean flavours, the top-quality fresh fish, the reverence for the food and attention to detail. Sushi Kyu offers all of this and its tiny proportions – 10 seats around a counter – plus an Omakase dinner, transported me to Tokyo.
Sushi Kyu is the recently opened sister restaurant of Cubé in Mayfair which has two sushi bars providing Omakase sushi meals. Omakase translates as ‘I leave it to you’ and the idea is that the chef chooses what to serve, depending on what is freshly available and seasonal. It allows the artistry of the chef to guide the diner who entrusts the chef to do so. When eating an omakase selection of sushi, the chef, like a conductor of an orchestra, builds up the flavour profile of each mouthful with the more intense flavours coming towards the end, rather like eating the cheese board in the right order and not starting with the gorgonzola.
Sushi Kyu has the perfect Japanese aesthetic which is very simple – a wooden countertop with bar stools from which all diners have the best seats in the house and can watch the awe-inspiring knife skills of the chef as he cuts the fish and prepares the sushi. In Japan, one truly eats first with one’s eyes, and it is a privilege to watch the chef preparing the food I am about to eat.
Once seated we were presented with a glass of sparkling wine – Black Chalk ‘Wild Rose’, Hampshire – and, as I don’t drink alcohol, a pot of green tea. As the name suggests, the sparkling wine had a delicate pink hue and was fruity on the nose, with strawberries coming to the fore. We were to review the dinner omakase menu which includes an appetiser, eight pieces of omakase nigiri, one Tamaki roll and a dessert. The appetiser was seared salmon with ponzu sauce presented on a small, ceramic platter. Japanese cuisine always pays great attention to the variation of colour of the overall dish and here there was a cream platter on which the pink salmon and the green seaweed salad and shiso leaf perched. This was deliciously fresh with the added crunch of the seaweed salad and the tart note of the ponzu sauce.
While we ate we watched the chef grating fresh wasabi which is a very different taste profile to the sachets of sinus-clearing wasabi one gets in Japanese takeaways. Freshly grated wasabi is gentler and far more aromatic.
During the dinner at Sushi Kyu, the chef crafted each piece of nigiri and placed them on a traditional bamboo sushi serving board on which he had first put a pile of freshly shaved ginger. As I learned when travelling in Japan, ginger is for palate cleansing purposes and is not to be eaten with the nigiri. Furthermore, no wasabi and soy sauce are provided as the chef seasons the sushi rice himself and then adds a dab of wasabi between the rice and the fish. While this results in a far more subtle taste than diners raised on the sushi-conveyor-belt type fare might be accustomed to, it is the way nigiri should be eaten. You are trusting the chef to present you with his version of the dish and while it looks simple, this is deceptive. Years and years of training have gone into the slicing of the fish, the knife work is an art form, and making and seasoning the rice is yet another practice that takes a long time to perfect.
While I continued to drink green tea, at this point my husband received a glass of Kariho ‘Rokushu’ sake which is brewed in the north of Japan.
The nigiri were all beautifully crafted, subtle in flavour, fresh fish allowed to shine. We began with yellowtail belly which was followed by chutoro or medium fatty tuna. Madai – a red sea bream came next. The fish had been seared and was delicately topped with fresh ginger and spring onion. Throughout the evening at Sushi Kyu the chef seared slices of fish or meat with a blowtorch which was intriguing to observe. This method of searing results in a lovely grilled flavour.
We moved on to one of my favourites – scallop nigiri. The scallops are from Cornwall and here were garnished with yuzu, yuzu zest and sea salt. The zest was scattered like gold dust over the scored scallop and looked most appetising. It imparted a gentle citrus flavour which was accentuated by the perfume of the fruit which excited the nose on the way to the mouth. It was both aromatic and gentle.
Next was Alaskan snow crab. This was an ikura gunkan also known as gunkanmaki. A gunkan is a battleship and the way this is served is that the nori (seaweed) strip around the sushi rice is not circular but is shaped to look like a battleship, with a little ‘tail’ at the end. Ikura is salmon roe which topped the crab and the tiny strips of cucumber. This looked gorgeous in hues of pink, green and orange all wrapped in nori. It had good textural contrasts with the soft crab, the crunch of cucumber and the popping of the roe.
Then came red mullet with daikon and spicy sauce. By this point the flavours were intensifying slightly – Japanese cuisine of this kind is very subtle in taste – as the red mullet is a stronger-flavoured fish.
One of the sushi treat moments arrived with the fatty tuna, served here with Imperial Caviar, another gunkan. The tuna stood proud of the wrapper and the caviar rested upon the fish. It was a very rich mouthful as is to be expected with this exceptional cut of tuna. Some people find the fatty tuna too rich and I certainly could not eat too much of it. However, in a single mouthful, it is to be savoured.
The final nigiri changed direction from fish to meat and here was another delightful treat from Sushi Kyu – wagyu A5 Jyoshu. A5 indicates that this is the highest grade of wagyu beef and Jyoshu is the region in Japan from which it hails. The meat had been lightly seared and was utterly excellent. I would have happily eaten several more of these. The mouthfeel was marvellous thanks to the marbling of this grade of wagyu. It was perfectly seasoned and had the additional crunch of thinly sliced spring onion which added an extra flavour note.
The Tamaki roll was another of my favourite Japanese foods. Before travelling around Japan, I had eaten eel a few times – usually smoked. In Japan, eel is a delicacy and is often grilled and served with a sauce. At Sushi Kyu, the chef first gave the nori wrap a going over with the blowtorch. Then he filled it with grilled eel in its sweet sauce and tiny pieces of cucumber. It was a lovely strong note on which to conclude.
For dessert at Sushi Kyu, we had a ball of matcha ice cream and another of black sesame. The alternative desserts were apple or raspberry sorbet. The ice cream looked inviting on small black plates and was served with a couple of berries. I love matcha and the ice cream had a subtle flavour that lingered on the palate. These ice cream flavours are made for the restaurant by Cremaloso Gelato, a London-based gelateria.
Our meal took around 80 minutes which felt well-paced and the vibe was relaxed and quiet. The service was attentive and welcoming. It is well worth putting Sushi Kyu on the list of eateries you can pop into for a relaxed lunch and it is very well located if you are in town and looking for a pre-theatre meal. If the spirit takes you, you may wish to finish off the evening with a spot of karaoke – there is a karaoke bar in the basement.
The chefs at Sushi Kyu are trained by the head Chef Mogi at Cubé. The lunch Omakase (£51.80) includes salad, seven pieces of omakase nigiri and dessert. The dinner Omakase (£74.80) includes an appetiser, eight pieces of omakase nigiri, one Tamaki roll and a dessert. There is also an à la carte menu with a range of dishes from miso soup and edamame beans to nigiri, sashimi and sushi rolls. I will be returning to try the Chirashi Don, a delicious dish I ate regularly in Japan consisting of a bowl of seasoned sushi rice topped by fresh sashimi. A sake pairing menu is available as well as a range of Japanese spirits and beers and Japanese teas.
Sushi Kyu 30 Brewer Street, London W1F 0SS. 020 45495888
Open Mon – Sat 12.00 – 15.00 and 17.30 – 22.30, Sun 12.00 – 15.00 and 17.30 – 22.00
