Yoshino

Yoshino has been here around a year, having moved here from its earlier location in Piccadilly. The restaurant was running in its original location since 1996, run by Mr Yoshino, the chef and owner. The menu offers sushi and sashimi but also a range of other styles of Japanese food, with grilled dishes and tempura for example. The dining room is quite simply decorated and had jazz quietly playing. The main room seats around forty or so diners, with a few further seats tucked away adjoining the main room.

There was an omakase tasting menu at £100, or a luxury version at £200, but we went a la carte. At lunch there is a £38 three course menu or a £50 five course menu. There was sake and a selection of whiskeys on offer, as well as Sapporo beer served in a chilled glass. There were a few wines also starting at £42. These included as Chateau Rocher-Calon 2022at £42 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £19, Domaine Jean-Max Roger Sancerre les Caillottes 2024 at £68 compared to its retail price of £30, and Domaine Pascal Prunier-Bonheur Auxey-Duresses Rouge 2019 at £84 for a bottle whose current market value is £41. At the posher end of things, St-Emilion Chateau Destieux 2011 was £150 for a wine costing £58 in a shop, and Dom Perignon 2015 at an optimistic £630 compared to its shop price of £209.

Miso soup with crab tempura (£12) was very nicely made miso, having subtle flavour and quite good tempura. Every Japanese chef has their own miso recipe and they vary greatly in Japan; this was a good version, with plenty of flavour (14/20). Unagi sushi (£20) featured grilled river eel (sea eel or anago was also available elsewhere on the menu) with a touch of kabayaki sauce. The eel was carefully cooked and had good flavour, the sushi rice being at a correct temperature and not too heavily vinegared, but enough to work well with the natural flavour of the eel (14/20). Spicy tuna rolls (£18) had crispy onion and good quality tuna (14/20).

Grilled mackerel (£18) was wrapped in paper and cooked on the bone. It had nice flavour but was quite plain, but worked well with a side dish of lightly pickled cucumber (13/20). I enjoyed chicken kabiyaki (£20). Kabayaki is similar to teriyaki, made from a mix of mirin, soy and sugar, but is less sweet than teriyaki sauce. Again, the cooking was accurate and the sauce was well balanced (14/20). Prawn tempura (£21) was nicely presented and had particularly good prawns. The tempura itself was not as feather light as in a top Tokyo tempura bar, but was better than most that you are likely to encounter in London (14/20).

There was just one dessert, a home-made dark chocolate sorbet (£12). This was simple but enjoyable (13/20). Service, led by manageress Lisa, was charming, and the bill came to £101 each with beer and cocktails to drink. We thoroughly enjoyed our evening at Yoshino, where the food and the welcome were authentically Japanese.