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Theatre
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Cock
Restaurants
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London,
Evening Standard rating
Reader rating
Phone: 020 7489 7033
Open: Open Monday-Friday, noon-2.30pm and 6-10.30pm.
Saki: inventive Japanese food
Some of the chefs were off, ill apparently. Certain dishes were unavailable. An American sitting on our left let it be loudly known that he had come a long way especially for the monkfish liver (foie gras de la mer) with ponzu citrus dressing and now, dammit, he couldn't have it.
Saki Restaurant Bar and Food Emporium, recently opened in Smithfield, was having some teething problems - but the smiles on the faces of the waiting staff never wavered.
In Japanese, saki means happiness. In my language sake also means happiness, especially when it is served chilled, and there are some fine examples available both in the bar and on the restaurant drinks list. Our waiter recommended Wakatake Onikoroshi Junmai from Shizuoka at £4.50 a 90ml glass and I think he had a good point.
The ground floor offers a food shop, takeaway section and a display of artefacts, quite the most interesting being a machine that turns flour and water into cooked noodles in one complex Japanesey motion.
At least I thought it was the most interesting until I tried the Washlet - a Japanese paperless lavatory. This deals with your various motions with jets of warm water and blasts of warm air. Good fun. 'You've spent a long time in there,' said Reg.
The downstairs restaurant features a sushi counter, communal seating around a strange garden of stalagmites that resemble what Lot's wife must have looked like after she turned into a pillar of salt, and regular tables around the periphery.
The menu is divided into Kobachi - small plates which operate on the same principle as tapas - and then, as if to help you with your diet, be it South Beach, Atkins or whatever, Carbo for rice and noodles, and protein-dominated Okazu.
Kobachi features the most inventive preparations - when they are available. Even grilled aubergine with red miso was denied us. But snow crab and spicy umeboshi purée wrapped in rice paper provided consolation.
The rolls were crunchy and healthy and the sauces of plum, mayonnaise and black sesame, when dragged together by the mopping-up process, produced a Philip Guston painting on the plate.
Agedashi tofu was served in dashi stock enhanced by tempura vegetables, including a batter-coated shiso leaf. Sashimi salad had a Western appearance but Eastern impact. Mini forest of grilled vegetables with truffle purée and ponzu sauce was an odd collection of veg, including too many peppers and also avocado - which doesn't take kindly to grilling.
From Okazu, marinated grilled black cod nestled into a bamboo leaf was everything sweet and succulent that we have come to expect from black cod. From Carbo, tempura udon was crisply made, although some of the delicate crunch inevitably gets sogged in the broth.
I mean to go back to the charming Saki to try the sushi. At my first lunchtime visit the sushi chef was ill.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
