Sushi Tetsu - Sushi at it's best!

Opened only 3 weeks ago, Sushi Tetsu has already been receiving rave reviews from bloggers. Some have even returned for another meal  as they couldn't get enough of it's awesome offerings.

I got to know of this amazing but tiny restaurant run by Chef Toru Takahashi, who used to work at Nobu and his wife, through twitter and after reading The Skinny Bib's very exciting review, I knew that I would have to make a reservation soon as everyone who's been there all feel that it's going to be very difficult to make reservations soon. Oh yes! It is that good and I totally agree after having a dinner experience there!
It only sits 7 people at the counter and 2 tables of 2 in the restaurant. I was told that Chef Toru only serves sushi at the counter so the tables are there for people who are waiting to enjoy a beer or two.

There's only sushi and sashimi on the menu so for those who don't eat raw fish, this is not a place for you. Fish sourced by Chef Toru supplier are indeed of the best quality. Fish that are fresh, springy and full of flavour definitely hold the prime spot here. Chef Toru is a master at combining flavours and textures whether it's spring onions, shiso leaves, sancho pepper, cucumber, plum sauce or blowtorching which compliments and accentuates the star of the show! Just look at the concentration on his face during preparation!

As we were here to eat to our heart's content, we each went for the omakase flower set menu which contained the most amount of items... 9 items(chosen by Chef Toru) + a roll. However, towards the end of this taste adventure, we decided to order more as we couldn't get enough and asked Chef Toru  recommend 3 more items so yes, we ate quite a lot but somehow with sushi, one will never get too bloated, a very good thing in my books and just for the record, i'm usually a pretty small eater and i managed to eat everything. :) 

After we placed our order, a bamboo leaf that has already been soaked in water was placed in front of each of us and wiped cleaned. All sushi will then be served on this bamboo leaf. It'll be replaced when it gets too dry. 

The journey then begins. One thing to note is the Chef Toru brushes most of the sushi with soy sauce so though there's additional soy sauce available for you to use on the side. It's usually not necessary. 

Seabream Sushi

Turbot Sushi with plum sauce and spring onions

Salmon Sushi

Ebi/sweet prawn Sushi

Yellow Tail with plum sauce

Tuna Sushi - the colour is amazing!

Mackerel, Sancho pepper amd seaweed algae sushi

Light seared Scallop Sushi

Cucumber, Razor clam skirting and shiso roll

Chef Toru blowtorching the Otoro (Tuna Belly)

The awesome smokey oily seared Otoro (Tuna belly)

Razor clam, lime juice and seasalt sushi

Sea urchin wrapped in cucumber

Tamago(Japanese Omelette) - prawns and fish was used to flavour this and it added a nice sweetness. Started over a stove and ended in the oven.

We thoroughly enjoyed sitting at the counter and watching Chef Toru work with precision and lightness. We'll definitely make another trip back soon!


The bill came up to £65/person. We had green tea but Sushi Tetsu also carries a selection of sake and Japanese beer. 

Sushi Tetsu
Jerusalem Passage
London
EC1V 4JP
Tel. 020 3217 0090

Burger and Lobster

I should first mention that one must be prepared to wait when visiting Burger and Lobster. No reservations are taken so we were there at 5.45pm on a Sat thinking that it was pretty early but boy were we wrong as we were only seated at 7.30pm!! So a wait of 1hr 45 mins!!!??? Was it all worth it? Yes I gotta say that it was. ;) Of course, it helped that I was meeting friends that I haven't met in ages so we had a great time catching up while waiting. 

The menu is simple. There are no starters, 3 options for mains and usually 2 options for dessert. Mains which costs £20 each consist of a burger, grilled or steamed lobster and for those who don't want to get their hands too dirty tacking lobster in its shell, there's the lobster roll which all the meat has been removed, mixed with a dressing, and placed in a brioche bun.  Simple isn't it? No, not really, even with only 3 choices, I had great difficulty deciding! hahaha The contest was actually between the burger and grilled lobster only. As my friend says, there's no fun eating lobster without the shell! Alright, I'll have to agree with her this time since it was my first time there.
I finally decided on the lobster. We quickly placed our orders after we were seated, put on our all important bibs and lo and behold! The mains came within 10 mins of ordering, quite surprising for such a busy restaurant but I ain't complaining after the initial wait!!!

The cute bib

The lobster, served with an appetising lemon herb sauces, was fresh tasting, succulent and grilled to perfection!

The beef patty in the burger was so soft and juicy, almost melt in the mouth texture. Both dishes were served with fries and salad so it was quite a substantial meal and I left very well fed.

Desserts cost £4 each and on this night, the options were cheesecake and a mousse. We had one of each to share and it made more a nice finish to the excellent meal. I forgot to take photos of the dessert but they were served in takeway like containers and not very pretty anyway. :P

Will i be back? YES!! Will I want to wait that long again? Hopefully not so I'll probably arrive at 5pm the next time round and hope(fingers crossed) to be seated almost immediately. :)

Burger and Lobster
29 Clarges Street
Mayfair, London
W1J 7EF

Bincho Yakitori, London

Where the magic happens!

Bincho Yakitori is a gem of a place right smacked into middle of Soho, London. Casual japanese dining at its finest, it's the perfect place to go for a supper after catching a performance in the West End or any other time when you feel like having well cooked charcoal grilled yakitori (japanese skewers). Every dish we had were fresh, tasty, juicy and succulent. Service was quick and friendly so we'll definitely be back soon!

Minced Chicken Balls and Duck breast

Beef Ribs and Unagi (Eel)

Chicken Oysters

King Oyster Mushrooms

Chicken and Mushroom Fried Rice

Japanese Aubergine with Sweet Miso

Soymilk Donuts - Quite a dense one

Bincho Yakitori
16 Old Compton Street
London 
W1D 4TL

Ali Baba Egyptian Restaurant

There are a few things that gives us a clue as to whether an Egyptian restaurant serves authentic food. One, are the serving staff local Egyptian? Two, are the diners Egyptians? Three, is the television turned on really loudly? (I've read about this and the husband who's been to Cairo confirmed that this is true)

On this occasion, it was a yes to point one and three but as it was Ramadan when we had lunch, it was very quiet. However, the husband had dinner here some time ago and he says that there were a lot of Egyptian businessmen dining here so it's a yes to point two as well!!
As I haven't yet visited Egypt yet and have no knowledge of what Egyptian food is all about, I let the husband take the reins in ordering. 

We started off with Stuffed vine leaves. This was stuffed with rice, pine nuts, raisins with a splash of lemon juice and it was served warm which i was pretty surprised about as the last time I had Stuffed vine leaves in a Greek restaurant, it was served at room temperature. I actually preferred it warm as it somehow brings out the various flavours in the rice. 

Another appetiser we had was the spinach falafel. I have always loved a good falafel and this was definitely one of those times. Nicely spiced, chickpeas had the right texture and including some spinach in it makes for an even healthier dish. The falafel had this fragrance about it and i think rosewater was added to it. What an interesting addition!

Ali Baba Special

For mains, we had the Ali baba Special (Roast lamb with minced meat rice). The star of the show was definitely the lamb as it was so  tender and succulent. Don't you agree?

Molokheya Soup

We also had Molokheya Lamb Soup but this needed some getting used to as it's really starchy. Molokheya, a kind of green spinach like leaf found in the Middle East, acts as a thickening agent when added to soups. Again the lamb that came with it was ultra tender. They sure know how to cook their meats!

Om Ali

Even though we were really stuffed by now, we still had to order the Om Ali(as the husband was raving about it), a dessert flavoured with nuts, milk, rosewater and coconut, that's somewhat like a rice pudding but puff pastry is used instead of rice. Definitely a great warming winter dessert!!


So if you want an authentic Egyptian restaurant experience, give Ali Baba a go!

Ali Baba

32 Ivor Place,London

NW1 6DA

Thai food in a London pub? The Churchill Arms.

I recently wrote about Sedap Restaurant in Old Street which used to be called Nyonya in Notting Hill.  Am sure the residents living nearby would have been quite sad to lose a nice little restaurant like this but no worries! There's actually another gem of a place in Notting Hill too!! One that was introduced to me by my ex boyfriend (now husband). :) This time, it's a thai restaurant that is unusually housed in a Pub, one that's called Churchill Arms. Yes! in a pub, and a very colourful one in fact! The exterior is so beautifully covered with loads of colourful flowers so no one would ever just walk past this place without noticing it. One would actually think that it's a flower shop instead of a pub!

Once you step inside, there's no surprises here as it looks like pub. 

However, as you walk through to the back dining area, you'll feel like you've walked into a greenhouse with all the foliage and framed butterflies everywhere.

Waiting staff are all Thai so that's always a good thing in my opinion. The tables gets filled up pretty fast and in fact, we were told that we had our table for only an hour so they made it seem like we had to rush through our meal. Not too nice a thought. However, food is also served in the main pub area so there's still opportunity to get a seat unless it's absolutely jammed packed.

We started with the piping hot, deliciously crunchy spring rolls followed by a Pad Thai(Stir-fried rice noodles) and Chicken Pad Nam Prik Pao (Chicken fried in a spicy chilly paste).

Spring Rolls

Pad Thai

Pad Nam Prik Pao

The Pad Nam Prik Pao was very nicely spiced with chilli, garlic, shallots, shrimp paste. Though quite fiery, we could still taste the sweetness of the palm sugar in the background with made it a good dish. Prices here are quite reasonable with a main dish prices at around £7.50.


We are thinking of checking out the Notting Hill carnival this weekend so we might just pop by again! 


Churchill Arms
119 Kensington Church St
Kensington, W8 7LN