Japanese fire lights up Fitzrovia

Very old publishers look at Bertorelli's, sigh, and wish it was still like the old days when fierce waitresses dressed in black bombazine remembered your order without having to write it down. Those who still associate the street with Greek/Cypriot food find that they have to make do with Andrea's.

The occasional discreet Hollywood star checks in to The Charlotte Street Hotel, but they aren't the sort who would probably ever dream of going to Zuma in Knightsbridge, Roka's older sibling by a couple of years.

My visit to Roka last week was the final evening of a soft opening period. The customers looked fairly docile. It was difficult to gauge whether this microcosm of ultra-modern Japanese fooding - as the French call the combination of eating and lifestyle - will give the area a different buzz, magnifying the quiet hum already emanating from the Spanish Fino.

Rainer Becker, co-owner and executive chef, has expressed the intention that Roka should be more casual than Zuma. It is certainly cheaper and, with the bar relegated to the basement, potentially less raucous.

The restaurant's name apparently derives from two Japanese words, conveying socialising and fire, the latter made obvious by the charcoal grills in the open kitchen surrounded by a low counter and chairs at the heart of the dining room.

The young, mostly Japanese chefs and bowls of beautiful raw fruit, vegetables and herbs are the focal point of the space, which, like Zuma, has been designed in a wood, paper, stone and scissors sort of way by the Tokyo-based company Super Potato.

With three companions looking to me to do the ordering, I scanned the long menu, divided into 10 sections, turned to the waiter and asked him to devise a meal of what he thought were the interesting dishes. Gary, for that was his name, rose to the challenge magnificently. All the staff were unusually civil and competent.

Highlights of our long meal shared between four were the pork and golden scallop dumplings with a texture encompassing both soft and crisp from the Snacks and Warm Bites chapter; tuna tataki (i.e. seared) in a salad with apple-mustard dressing from Salads; hand-rolled cone with eel teriyaki, avocado, shiso and sansho pepper from Sashimi and Maki rolls; miso daikon (grilled white radish with barley miso dressing) from Robata Yasai; scallop skewers in butter and ponzu from Robata Sakana; lamb cutlets with Korean spices from Robata Niku.

But best, we all agreed, was one of the Roka dishes, an iron pot containing rice with king crab and wasabi tobiko. The creamy texture of the rice, somewhere on the way to a congee, imbued with the sweetness of the crab was fantastic. There were other hotpots and also many tempting dishes left untried. I shall be hurrying back.

As Becker has pointed out, this is not fusion food but authentic contemporary urban Japanese, as opposed to the traditional which brings with it formality and ritual.

Deep down I am not really a bar person, but I loved The Shochu Lounge, Roka's basement bar. The effect of the copper equivalent of a Midas touch, turning everything a deep burnished brown, but for the gleaming big-bellied glass jars of fruit in syrup, creates a magic kingdom. That notion is enhanced by the news that shochu - similar to vodka - in its fruity varieties is distinctly beneficial. Plum is tonic for digestion, grape is high in antioxidants, strawberry improves the complexion, grapefruit clears the head, cinnamon aids digestion. Trebles all round.

Roka
Charlotte Street, London, W1T 1RR