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Description: This large and would-be "stylish" Japanese operation has been a "welcome addition" to Westminster's (lacklustre) restaurant scene; its cuisine is "interesting", if perhaps rather "overpriced".
Food: 
Service:
Ambience:
Phone: 020 7222 2218
Website: http://www.atami-restaurant.com
Open: Monday - Friday 12.00 - 14.30 Monday - Saturday 17.30 - 22.30
Dress code: None
Good for: Business, Good food, Ambience.
Payment options: All major cards accepted
Macau-born chef Anthony Sousa Tan has helped to develop some of London's finest Japanese restaurants
A few months ago my sister and I went to the last night of Carlos Acosta dancing in his autobiographical ballet Tocororo at The London Coliseum. I had booked a table at The Ivy for afterwards. "Maybe he'll be going there too," I said excitedly to Beth as we scurried along St Martin's Lane. We are, of course, both of us deeply in love with him.
When we walked into The Ivy all heads looked up. Then, like a cloud across the sun, expressions of deep disappointment swept across the room and everyone went back to staring at their plates. Not only did we not see Carlos that evening, we saw no-one we recognised, not even off the telly.
As well as the leaden batter on the squid starter, this definitely constituted a grave disappointment. Being allegedly fashionable or having fabled celebrity magnetism can be a double-edged sword for a restaurant.
The food at the recently opened Japanese restaurant Atami is, in my view, quite as good if not slightly better than that at Nobu and Zuma and the fact is probably related to Macauborn chef Anthony Sousa Tan having worked in and helped develop both of those establishments - as well as Hakkasan and Tsunami in Clapham.
Anyway, that is what the publicity for Atami claims and, having eaten Tan's food, I am quite willing to believe it. But will the size zeros and their six-pack swains make their way to a faceless modern block in Westminster bang opposite the Home Office which seems to attract a customer base of android men in suits with mobiles welded to their ears?
Fortunately, four of us, including an architect friend who agreed with me that several of the interior surfaces looked to have been crafted from melamine or maybe that sticky-back paper with the crafty wood-grain pattern, were able to make our own fun and we didn't study our fellow customers too assiduously, desperately seeking to spot a member of the shadow cabinet.
There was so much on the menu to try that wasn't sushi or sashimi that I bossily ruled those out of our ordering equation. We took up the invitation printed on the menu to share dishes and welcome them straight from the kitchen whenever they happened to be ready.
First to arrive was a hot appetizer of marble beef in which slender slices of beef interwoven with tenderising fat had been bathed in hot oil, chives and ponzu (citrus-based sauce). In a blur of chopsticks it was gone.
Next came crisp soft-shell crab with avocado and tangy mizuna leaves rolled in a long ribbon of cucumber, sliced and served with passion fruit vinaigrette. That, too, was despatched with astonishing alacrity.
Fortunately, later on in the meal another portion was delivered which I think was a mistake from which we benefited. Squid salad had an inky dressing spiked with shards of ginger which rendered its translucent innocence kind of sinful. An array of chopped spring onions, fresh wasabi, and dashi were provided to mix with chilled green tea noodles.
Grated daikon danced like little petals in the warmth coming off fried silky tofu. The tempura we chose - asparagus, carrot, shitake mushroom and white fish - were immaculately fried. A disappointment was the discovery that to include foie gras in chawan mushi (a savoury baked custard) is not in fact a brilliant idea.
From the Atami Special Dishes, which seem to equate with main courses, I recommend unreservedly Chilean sea bass with shishito pepper and yuzu truffle sauce (an extraordinary, potent sauce) and king crab served in its shell with its roe, a frilly red seaweed and lime.
Creativity does not let up in the dessert course. Here chawan mushi was enhanced with Calpico ( a yoghurty drink much loved by the Japanese) and peaches and a sort of panna cotta made with yuzu yoghurt which was surrounded with kumquat compote and slices of lemon where the lemon flesh had been replaced by jelly - just like the version with oranges I used to make for my children's birthday parties when they were small. Only much neater.
Staff are elegant and charming at Atami and floor-to-ceiling plate glass constituting two of the walls makes a dramatic impact of which the architect friend very much approved. Just don't hold your breath waiting for Claudia Schiffer.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Atami is a restaurant for people who love excellent Japanese food. Although it does not strive for authenticity it more than makes up for it for the quality of the cooking and ingredients.
The sushi/ sashimi is very good, however I would recommend this restaurant more for its cooked food which is extraordinary. Clear nicely balanced flavours are accompanied by cooking which is accurate to the nearest second. Dishes such as chilean sea bass and miso black cod are cooked to perfection.
The only downside of this place is the location, being in the middle of nowhere in particular makes it a haunt for foodies only. Also one of your party will need to drive and remain teetotal.
I urge you to go the food really is that good.
- James, London
