Japan

Tsunami

~ eatinbrixton ~ Leave a comment

5-7 Voltaire Road, Clapham, SW4 6DQ

Reservations: 020 7978 1610

https://tsunamiclapham.co.uk

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.

Nanban – delivered

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Address: 426 Coldharbour Lane, London SW9 8LF

Telephone: 020 7346 0098

Website: http://www.nanban.co.uk/

Another Saturday night and nowhere to go, so we decided to watch Father of the Bride 3(ish) and order from one of our Brixton favourites (see here and here). It’s open for Click and Collect or Delivery  after 6.00pm. Don’t be in too much of a hurry, as we had finished the film and were onto a nostalgia piece – Father of the Bride 1 before it arrived.nanban31

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Nanban – delivered

~ eatinbrixton ~ Leave a comment

Address: 426 Coldharbour Lane, London SW9 8LF

Telephone: 020 7346 0098

Website: http://www.nanban.co.uk/

Nanban is one of favourites in Brixton (see here and here), so we are pleased it is open for Click and Collect or Delivery but only after 6.00pm, which is when you can see the menus on Deliveroo. There is a cheap and cheerful menu from Little Nanban, but we ordered a feast to celebrate … well Friday. Continue reading →

Nanban

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Address: 426 Coldharbour Lane, London SW9 8LF

Telephone: 020 7346 0098

Website: http://www.nanban.co.uk/

Opening times:
Mon – Thurs 5pm-11pm, Fri 5pm-12am, Sat 12 noon-12 midnight, Sun 12 – 11pm

We visited Nanban a little time ago, but put off posting this review, in case it interfered with the recent voting for Brixton’s best restaurant. We have been before, of course, and the previous review is here, and we have been since. This is undoubtedly one of Brixton’s top places to eat, if not the best. We ate in the add-on part of the restaurant in a booth and it was quiet for a meal with friends we had not seen for many years.

There is now a longer menu with summer specials and an added glossary, so you can understand the naming of dishes. The four of us chose from different sections. One went for a selection of starters: edamame with black sesame salt, some crispy fried marinated jackfruit with a honey miso-mayo  and finally Nasu Dengaku, which was roasted aubergine topped with almonds and a sweet miso sauce. I chose the Lazy Goat Ramen, which had slow-cooked boneless goat leg, thick noodles in a rich Indo-Caribbean curry sauce, topped with seafood sawdust, fried shallots and a tea-pickled egg. I asked for no scotchbonnet pickled bamboo shoots as I know it is spicy-hot enough. The other two ordered  – the spicy sesame udon salad with crab (spicy sesame-lime dressing with cucumber, red cabbage, cherry
tomatoes, fresh mint and chilli oil – only 3 chilis) and the Yuzo-sesame salmon – both on what was then the summer specials menu.

The goat was, as usual, exactly as described -soft, full of layers of flavour and I really love the tea-pickled egg – cooling when sweat starts to break out. The photograph (below) shows a part eaten version.

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The crab and the salmon dishes were both well received, with the appropriate level of palette-tingling heat in the spicy noodles. At first glance the portions look on the small side but, in reality, there’s well enough to keep you satisfied.

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nanban24Warming edamame beans and jackfuit fritters were easy finger food. The aubergine though was a little harder to tackle with chopsticks. All were pronounced exactly right by the person in our midst who has an allergy to too much chili.nanban26

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The bill with service came to £94.61 and included fizzy water and four beers. We were full and contented but when we got home we had Brixton apple crumble for dessert.

Iz Sakeya Sushi

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address: Pop Brixton far aisle ground floor

website: in course of preparation

On a bleak Saturday we took the family to Pop Brixton to try some of their new offerings. Sakeya Sushi is definitely new, so with most of us being sushi fans, we settled on that. We do like Pop Brixton but most of the restaurants have only limited places to sit and on Saturday afternoon the place was heaving, with no space at either end in the general seating areas. Iz Sakeya has been creative and provided a ledge to balance the sushi on, but we had to stand, with the result that it was inevitably a quick meal.

The menu is short – Iz Sakeya specialises in two sakes (sparkling (£10) and premium (£45)) and mainly salmon and rice sushi.  In fact they say they have head-to-tail salmon cuisine but they do say they can also cater for vegetarians. We had sushi (2), sashimi (2) and what was called a Poke Don salad, with more salmon. The salmon and avocado rolls were lovely. The three pieces of sashimi (a Ngiri set, with salmon, sea bass and tuna) were great, with two being delicately seared via a blow torch. The Poke Don salad had avocado, edamame, salmon, rocket and rice. The rice in all the dishes was really good with the right consistency; far from the mush you get from some of the chains.img_0115img_0116img_0117

We did enjoy what turned out to be a snack, although when one of our party saw the size of the plates, he chose instead to visit the burger bar next door for a rather good looking burger plus a portion of chips, which we all were happy to share. Those of us who had the sushi (without the sake) were pleased with the meal, although don’t go there hungry – just think of it as a potential first course. The bill came to £31 for 4 people, without any drinks.

Afterwards we went off to Parissi in Atlantic Road for coffee and cakes.

Curry Ono

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Curry OnoAddress: 14BC Market Row, London SW9 8LD

Contact: curryono@yahoo.com

Web: www.curryono.com

I really, really like Curry Ono, which describes itself as a “Japanese Kitchen” and as providing “healthy, home-made Japanese food”. So it’s not really clear to me why there always seems to be so few people eating there, particularly compared with other places in the market. Partly, I guess, is that the Japanese food it serves isn’t trendy, i.e. no sushi and few noodle dishes. Instead, as the name suggests, it focuses on Japanese versions of curry, which it describes as being based on the curries that British sailors introduced to Japan in the nineteenth century. I guess that part of the problem is that this is a description that is unlikely to get people excited. The only solution is to go there and actually eat the stuff.

The place itself is a bit like a works canteen but not unwelcoming. As mentioned, there’s always plenty of room and you get personal service. There are non-curry starters, and we enjoyed edamame (green soya beans) and seaweed salad. Other starters include tebasaki (sweet soya sauce marinated fried chicken wings) and niku-jaga (slow cooked pork belly with potatoes in a sweet soya sauce).

But the mains are what it is really about, with nine different sorts of curry. All of them come with steamed rice, pickles and the same deeply flavoured but relatively mild curry sauce that we are told has been made from a mix of up to 20 different natural spices and has been simmered for more than 12 hours to provide “a truly authentic taste of Japan”. We’ve had the katsu (breaded pork escalope), the menchi katsu (breaded minced beef croquette) and the kara-age (Japanese fried chicken) and enjoyed them all. Other choices available include roast vegetable and prawn, with the latter being an exception in that it also comes with yuzo-koshu (Japanese chilli paste). The only real non-curry option is cold udon noodle, which is a favourite of mine, particularly when served with seaweed salad. Desserts are limited to a choice between green tea, red bean and vanilla ice creams.

The prices are reasonable compared with other places in the market. And unlike the places in Brixton Village it is fully licensed. I will keep going back and urge other people to go there, if only to ensure that it stays open.