It was a girl’s night out, to be filled with good food, alcohol and laughter. As most of us are foodies at heart, it didn't take long to decide on Yashin.
I was really looking forward to it after a tough week and it was a great way to start the weekend. Funnily enough my friend and I were late and it didn't help that we both went to the wrong Kensington station. So the poor girls who were already waiting had to wait a little longer for us to arrive. Sorry ladies!
We finally arrived and placed our orders. Some of us went for The Yashin at £60 and the rest went for Omakase 11 at £45.
We were served some amuse bouche next.
There was bite sized octopus and pork skin jelly with the third being omelette topped with shrimp.
Kaki Su £5.60
We also ordered some oysters to start.
Fresh oysters and the vinegar dressing was definitely refreshing and added a zing!
Yose Tofu £6.20
This was quite fun. The soy milk came in an earthen bowl and we were required to scoop the fish stock jelly which is dashi stock into the soy milk. This made me remembered a scene in Heston's 70s feast which I watched on telly last night where he did a similar version. The heat emanating from the soy milk melted the dashi jelly which trickled into the milk. Taste wise, it was a tad bland and nothing exciting. I was expecting an umami hit!
Next to arrive were the main stars.
Omakase Eleven £45 for 11 piece ensemble plus a roll of the day
‘The Yashin’ £60 for 15 pieces of exquisite sushi
It was a mix of some amazing ones and forgettable ones. The outstanding ones were the salmon with dashi stock, prawn sushi and yellow fin tuna. Sadly while the wagyu beef was good, there are better ones out there.
There is no doubt on the quality and taste. Yashin makes fantastic sushi and easily one of the best to be had in London
The girls who had the Yashin felt that they could have stuck to the Omakase 11 as it included the fantastic ones as well. To have to pay an additional £15 for an extra four pieces of while good but forgettable sushi was perhaps not of good value.
When you've had sushi as good as or even better than this at a fraction of the price in Japan , I am happy to save and head on a Japan
Will I recommend: Yes but it comes with the £££
Will I come back: Yes but it won't be high on my list to come back
Have I had better: Yes
Yashin Sushi, 1A Argyll Road, High Street Kensington, London, W8 7DB
http://www.yashinsushi.com/
Rather spookily, I've just come back from Yashin Sushi having had their set Hajimeteno Omakase lunch. It ain't cheap at £20 but it was excellent quality. What did grate a little bit was the rather unsubtle way in which my server kept trying to upsell.
ReplyDeleteOooh, I do really want to try the tofu - I adore homemade tofu. It's probably better value at lunch as the omakases come with salad and miso soup to start.
ReplyDeleteLooks good!
ReplyDeleteGood to know the Omakase 11 has all the 'interesting' nigiri -- no need to upgrade to the £60 one then.
ReplyDeleteI went again recently for lunch -- really reasonable (compared to dinner), as there's the 5 nigiri + roll omakase for £20, and like Su-Lin said, you get miso soup and salad too. Almost everyone seemed to be ordering that, or the salmon or tuna sets (also only available at lunch).
I quite enjoyed the tofu - maybe our dashi jelly had a bigger umami-hit that day...
Mr Noodles, Su-Lin & Jen - Seems that the lunch menu might be the way to go rather than dinner. I can probably afford the lunch menu more regularly.
ReplyDeletemycookinghut: It is good but dinner can be expensive. =)
Everyone has only said nice things about Yashin, I think I should go even though I heard you can spend about £90pp easily there!
ReplyDeletecatty - Yes, easily so for dinner. Lunch seems to be the more reasonable option.
ReplyDelete