Image above: Exquisite fresh sashimi – especially the scallop which was just melted in the mouth. [Wednesday 11 November] / [View all photos]
With Julia coming into London and craving Japanese, we tried out Soseki which Leanne recommended to me earlier in the week.
On entering I immediately liked that it was boutique-sized in keeping with the Japanese tradition of focusing on quality by limiting the number of guests. That usually means that for the popular restaurants you have to queue for quite awhile but the quality of the food makes it entirely worthwhile.
The interior of the restaurants was a contemporary Japanese design conveying a sense of understated elegance. We got seated at our own booth with one side next to the open plan kitchen and the other side with a view of the curvaceous lines of the Gherkin building across the courtyard. On our table, under glass, they used a beautifully woven kimono fabric to decorate the top which matched well with dark wood fittings.
As for the food, we went there on a TopTable deal which gave us 50% off the Haiku set menu. The full menu actually only had a limited range of dishes – all centred on sushi and sashimi variations and not the whole gamut of Japanese cuisine. Again, in keeping with the idea of maintaing food excellence by staying focused and mastering a specific style of food. So, as you can imagine, each course we had was well-presented and tasted absolutely wonderful. My favourite parts of the meal had to be the scallop sashimi which just melted away in your mouth as well as the tube of soft dark chocolate for dessert. So delicious!
By the end of the meal, we were both completely satisfied on the witty banter and on the amazing food we had. I would’ve happily paid the full price (£45 each) for the the meal so the half-price offer was an added bonus. A definite recommendation to try this when you celebrate your next special occasion.
Soseki | 1st Floor, 30 St Mary Axe, London,EC3A 5AA | Map | Nearest station: Bank
