5-7 Voltaire Road, Clapham, SW4 6DQ
Reservations: 020 7978 1610
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.
We chose Railway Lamb curry, which had lamb that was really well cooked and layers of flavour in the sauce. Ghuggni chickpeas (black chickpeas braised in onion and mango powder), which was not as spiced or flavoursome as we hoped, compared to the khatte baigan-aubergine (baby aubergines spiced with tamarind and cumin), which was a definite hit. Both these small plates were vegan dishes. Then we ordered the chicken biryani (braised basmati rice cooked with chicken morsels in aromatic spices and rose water). This was a disappointment – the chicken was dry and the rose flavour a bit overpowering. To finish off the main dishes we had a chapatti which lived up to its description of wholemeal unleavened bread by being pretty heavy.
EATINBRIXTON 