Life

Life is a discret Japanese bar and restaurant on Old street. As the massive wooden front door is always closed it is easy to miss the place. Inside, there is a bar on the right, and a dining room on the left with a few scattered tables.

We had dinner there with M. and R., a Japanese-French couple who got married in Tokyo in August (congratulations guys!). As we went there before the wedding, the bride-to-be ordered a tofu salad, to be able to breathe in her wedding kimono. The rest of us ordered some teriyaki and sushi sets with no guilt.

Tofu salad

Prawn and vegetables tempura

Salmon and tuna sashimi

Chicken teriyaki

Salmon teriyaki

Sushi and rolls platter

Fresh fruits and matcha creme brulee

Fish was fresh, the tempura batter was crisp, and the teriyaki marinade was well balanced.The matcha creme brulée was a nice combination to be tried at home (now that I have my torch it should be easy).


Cost: Teriyaki or Tempura course: £25, Sushi course: £30 (dinner menu) including:
2 appetizers, miso soup, 1 main (Chicken or Salmon Teriyaki or assorted tempura or assorted sushi), and dessert

Sakura

As I had a craving for sashimi, I asked R. to take me to a Japanese restaurant for lunch. We went to Sakura on Conduit street and were welcomed by  four or five "Irasshaimase!". R. spotted a real tv guy at the table next to us. He looked showbizy indeed with his orange tan, but I did not know him and don't remember his name.

Green tea

We had a platter a sashimi to share, and there is not much to say except that the fish was very fresh.

Sashimi

As the weather was cold and rainy, as it often is during the British summer, I had a hot noodle soup. The broth tasted good, as well as the finely sliced pork belly but the ramen noodles were not firm enough to my taste.

Ramen noodles with pork soup

R. has a very healthy Japanese summer salad. It was a platter of shredded omelet, cucumber, radish, cooked ham, and fish stick with cold noodles. Very fresh and tasty.

Japanese salad

Cost: less than £10 for a noodle soup, £10-£20 for lunch set / sushi set

Glo Glo's, London, UK

Glo Glo's is the Japanese cocktail bar of the Great Eastern dining room and has a robata grill menu. The room is quite dark, but after all it is a bar and not a restaurant. We sat in a comfortable booth and ordered some of the appetizing robata grill menu items.

Aubergine, chili miso

Asparagus, sweet soy and sesame

Lamb cutlets

Chestnut mushrooms, soy butter

Blackened salmon

Beef fillet, bulgogi blaze

The food was nicely cooked and seasoned. These Japanese brochettes are perfect nibbles to eat with a fresh Asahi. However if you intend to have your dinner there, you will need to order quite a few items and end up with a heavy bill.

Cost: £4.25 to £8 for robata grill items, £1.30 to £6.20 for sushis & sashimis, £2 to £2.60 for nibbles

Itacho Sushi, Hong Kong, China

It takes quite an amount of food to be stuffed with sashimi and sushi, especially when you do not eat the sushi rice. However we managed to achieve this at Itacho Sushi. Even if not in the best location, a shopping mall in crowded Causeway Bay, Itacho Sushi is very good value for money. Fish is fresh and service quick. We particularly enjoyed the roasted sushi, and sides such as green tea soba or potato cakes were good as well.

Salmon eggs sushi

Roasted mackerel sushi

Salmon, grilled salmon and mackerel sushi

Tuna and sea bream sushi

Crab miso soup

Prawn tempura and potato cake

Green tea soba and california rolls

Fatty salmon, tuna, sea bream, scallop and squid sashimi

Cost: ~ HKD 100 per person

Chez Taéko, Paris, France

It was a Japanese week-end. After Kura on Saturday, we went to Taéko's in the Marché des Enfants Rouges. Taéko is more a food stall than a restaurant, as hardly twenty people can seat under the tiny tent. And you need to arrive early, as past 12h30, the queue quickly starts to stretch outside the tent. And the quality of Taéko's bento deserves well this popularity.

Bento with cuttlefish and prawn cakes

Cost: ~ EUR 10

Kura, Paris, France

I took a friend for lunch at Kura in the chic 16ieme arrondissement, and as we were starving we were looking forward to ordering the largest tasting menu. Unfortunately for us, there was no tasting menu at that time (in March, it seems that now there is a spring tasting menu) but only menus with 1 main (sushi OR sashimi OR grilled fish OR chicken OR beef). We asked to a surprisingly rude and not helpful waitress if it was possible to have one menu each and order a la carte sashimi, but she was inflexible. Since we had decided to have fish AND meat we asked another waitress, who got approval from the chef. Despite this rough start we had a lovely lunch with ultra fresh ingredients. The highlights were the grilled entrecôte perfumed with a delicious miso sauce, the scallop sashimi which was the freshest I have ever had, and the light mango dessert.

Raw tuna with Japanese mayonnaise

Miso soup with mussels

Vegetables in light broth

Grilled rib eye with Saikyou miso

Sashimi

Mango jelly and ginger ice cream

Cost: EUR 22-28 per menu

Yoshino, London, UK

Sometimes I get obsessed with an ingredient and I will eat it every day for weeks. After my spinach era, my tofu period, my cassoulet age and my watermelon time (which tends to come back persistently every summer) I am currently fixated on raw fish. That began 2 weeks ago when I had a delicious lunch at Yoshino for a very reasonable price.

I ordered a chirashi, and had premium fresh fish with a succulent sushi rice topped with shredded nori, omelette and helda bean.

Chirashi sushi

Yoshino offers also great bento menus, and one of my favourite is the Yoshino Zen "Tzuki":

Grilled mackerel, 

beans in sesame dressing and home-made pickles

Tuna carpaccio and tuna rolls

Sunomono / potato and tofu salad

King prawn tempura

Yoshino also offers terrific home-made desserts, and while matcha pudding may not suit everyone's taste, I am personnally crazy of green tea ice cream, mousse and cakes, and Yoshino's green tea tiramisu is a killer.

Bean curd ice cream, 
black sesama panna cotta, 
green tea tiramisu

Cost: £15.8 for the chirashi sushi (comes with a miso soup), £19.8 for the Tsuki set, £9.8 for the dessert platter