This is styled as a Apericena Bar – a cross between an aperitif and dinner. It is a close relation of the restaurant Maremma round the corner in Brixton Water Lane. We’ve been there a number of times, with the most recent review here. They both serve regional specialties from the Maremma in southern Tuscany and the offer is similar. Maremanno is aimed more at what’s known as casual dining. You can sit inside or in a small courtyard at the back. It is a squeeze, so you definitely need to book, especially if the weather is fine.
They have Stuzzicini (bread, nuts, parmesan biscuits etc), Crostini (chicken liver and truffle, green anchovy, or peppers and courgette), Taglieri (a meat or cheese board) and Pizzette (small or very small pizza with tuna etc or mushrooms). Of course this all comes with cocktails, wine or beer.
We were three people so indulged ourselves at least one dish from each category. So we had Nduja arancini, green anchovy arancini, the cheese board, a vegetable bagna cauda, and a four cheese pizzette.
We finished with a gelato scoop
We washed it down with a Spritz classic, a glass of frizzante wine and crodino spritz, and then had further wine and beer.
The bill came to £100.30 without service. We were full but we might have lingered and chosen a little better.
Surprisingly this our first review visit to Tsunami in Clapham North. We had a home delivery during lockdown (see here) although we have visited several times. It might be a “short bus ride” entry, but, for us at least, buses don’t go that way.
This is a restaurant that has survived and grown in size. Not only does it have a covered area outside but is now twice as big as when it started so they must be doing something right. As with most restaurants, alcohol looms large with pages of cocktails to choose but we are in a sober period so only ordered tea. What was a surprise is that they only have it in tea bags and only three kinds given that it is a Japanese restaurant.
They have an extensive menu with appetizers like edamame beans to nibble with your cocktails, appetizers, salad, nigiri and sashimi, sushi, tempura, and mains including teriyaki. Then they have side orders and desserts.
We decided on sushi and a couple of mains to leave room for dessert. We ordered Dragon rolls – which are a sort of inside out sort of sushi with shrimp tempura and scallion with eel and avocado outside served with an Eel sauce. Not really traditional but definitely not a problem, and we also ordered Japanese pickles to cut the sweetness of the sauce in the Dragon rolls. This was definitely a good choice. The Dragon rolls have the nori sheet wrapped around the inside ingredients and the sushi rice is still on the outside, but then spotted with sauce. They were a little sweet but warmed up with wasabi, and the ginger in-between cleared the palate. If you want them much warmer they have Volcano Dragon Rolls. We love pickles so these maki were delightful.
We also ordered boa buns with chicken Katsu and coleslaw and spicy morillo mayo – a sort of global recipe not usually in Japanese restaurants but we were enthusiastic. You can pick it up and as long as you can keep the sauce inside you only need to lick your fingers. Finally we chose something from the appetiser section – scallops in a sauce (sorry we didnt take notes) that arrived flaming to the table – with whisky. This did give it a smoky flavour and the scallops although a little lost were still noticeable although more are needed so the sauce doesn’t wash away the flavours.
Then we have dessert. A yuzu panna cotta and mochi (vanilla and mango). Unfortunately the panna cotta didn’t have enough yuzu and it was large so I didn’t finish it. I was glad I ordered the green tea ice cream to go with it as it cut through the richness of the panna cotta (set cream). The mochi were cut in half and although were good they were very soft. Both the desserts were very pretty and came with delightfully shaved fruit so a great end to the meal.
We were glad to eventually visit this restaurant that filled up pretty quickly as we hit 7.30. It wasn’t cheap even without the cocktails (tea was £5.00 for a small pot). The total came to about £70 odd as we lost the bill. We will visit again as it has a long menu to discover.
EATINBRIXTON 