Yatai Pop Up

Image above: Double portions of karaage (marinated chicken in breadcrumbs) kushiage and some dango (fishcake) kushiage on top. [Friday 05 August] | [View all photos]

Jumping at the chance of enjoying some kushiage from the same chefs at Yashin (which I’ve still yet to try!) at a pop-up running for just a week, I scored Friday dinner reservations and invited See Yun to join me.

But to get to the food we had to find it first. Dutifully arriving at the designated address – no restaurant. Poring over Google Maps we walked up Brick Lane, and back down again, and back up again – to no avail. Even the locals were unaware of it. Only at See Yun’s suggestion to check a side street did we find it hidden at the end with 2 minutes to spare before we lost our slot!

Set up in front of the blank concrete shell of a shop, was a reproduction of a yatai – a mobile food stall that you find in Japan. One of the best things about eating at a Yatai is that you’re virtually next to the chefs so you can see what they’re making and banter with them as well. And just like in Japan, this yatai specialised in one type of food -kushiage (deep fried delicacies on skewers).

With the pop-up sponsored by Kirin Ichiban there was plenty of beer to go with all the fried stuff and, as part of our reservation, See Yun got to enjoy two free bottles. Although unintentional it was amusing to see Kirin’s sponsorship extend to the Yashin chefs using a bottle to ground down the panko breadcrumbs.

From the various menu options we both for the £15 deal which gave us nine kushiage each with two scoops of ice cream to finish. Alas they didn’t have any ebi fry (prawns) left so we made do by ordering at least one of each the remaining eight types they did have.

With a neat production line going, our food came out pretty quickly. First plate was a double portion of karaage (marinated chicken in breadcrumbs) with some dango (fishcake) on top. This was followed by tofu oden and asparagus on our second plate. Last but not least came the tomato & courgette along with the kushikatsu (pork with leek) on our third plate.

Accompanying all these fried titbits were five sauces for us to try out. For See Yun it was a tie between the jalapeno and the yellow pepper whilst the latter was my clear favourite.

Considering that all we were eating was fried food the bitesize concept worked well. Enough to get a taste without feeling that you were overdosing on oil. When the food came out I thought it was way too little but, surprisingly, the nine that we had each was enough. Much to the relief of my arteries and my waistline!

Interestingly, one of the best parts of the meal were the red bean and black sesame gelato-style ice-cream. In other Japanese restaurants the flavouring is too much or non existent. But Yatai’s version was spot on and gave my favourite gelateria, Gelupo, a run for its money.

Alas with the pop-up only running a week it’s now over but from talking to the guys there they are working hardon finding a suitable place for a permanent presence next year. Can’t wait and I hope that they find a way to keep the yatai-feel of the pop-up. In the meantime, I really need to get that table reservation for Yashin sorted!