NIJŪ serves “Katei Ryori” style cooking. This literally means “home-cooked food” and if this is what most Japanese people eat at home, well, lucky them. I think, though, that most households, even in Japan, do not possess a third-generation sushi master. Niju’s culinary director, Endo Kazutoshi alongside Executive Chef Chris Golding and Head Sushi Chef David Bury has created a menu that combines traditional Japanese cuisine with seasonal produce, culinary experimentation and extraordinary flair and presentation.
In the heart of Mayfair, NIJŪ has a series of quiet, elegant spaces with subdued lighting. There’s a bespoke sushi bar, grill, main restaurant and a private dining room and bar, Nipperkin. The menu is a series of delicacies and you work your way through different styles of plates, creating your own tasting menu as you go along.
You are not completely alone in this. The staff at NIJŪ guide, recommend and advise on combinations of dishes. Because the portions are Japanese-sized – ie small – with the exception of theHalf Cobb Farm chicken ‘katsu’, you can have a whole array of different tastes without ever feeling overburdened by the quantity. And, let’s face it, that’s the problem with many a tasting menu.
Those recommendations are helpful. I found at NIJŪ, as I did on a recent trip to Japan, that while I delighted in the ingredients and flavours that were put before me, at the same time I struggled to identify what some of them could possibly be. Japanese food is a whole other language and, here, it’s little short of poetry.
We started off with cocktails – a Ginger and Honey Penicillin for Christian (extra ingredients included dry honey, fermented honey, miso and honey triple sec and ginger vinegar) while I had a Satsuma and Blossom Margarita (with orange blossom, fermented elderflower and satsuma mandarin) that we sipped with bread that looked like a small cottage loaf, Shokupan. I don’t normally eat bread but intrigued by the yuzu butter (flavoured with sake), I did try a toothsome morsel.
This was swiftly followed by two small plates. Tuna Tataki is one of my favourite dishes and this was no disappointment, served with wasabi and a fringe of Parmesan. It was accompanied by Tomato Tartare, with an ice cold tomato sorbet, full of flavour and the epitome of Japanese clean eating – unadulterated natural tastes that speak for themselves.
By the time we moved on to the nigiri and sashimi, the sommelier had recommended a glass each of Sauvignon Blanc and our waiter, Lucas, had suggested we combine the chef’s selection of sashimi with three nigiri. The super-fresh fish included lean red tuna, medium fatty tuna, chalk stream trout and scallop.
The first of our Katei Ryori main dishes was also based on scallops but now they were pre-cooked in karasumi butter and brought to the table cooking on a cherry wood fire and served with golden enoki mushrooms. Now I love scallops and have had them in many incarnations but this was surely the best. Christian almost swooned.
The second main course was – it had to be, didn’t it? – English Wagyu sirloin served with fresh wasabi that Lucas grated at the table (far milder and creamier than usual), onion ponzu and yuzu salsa verde. It was cooked to perfection, medium rare and we lingered over this for quite a while along with another sommelier-recommended glass of Argentinian Malbec.
I was sure I would resist dessert but we ended up with two (as with everything else on the menu, even the desserts are designed to be shared): Toasted white chocolate Namelaka with strawberries and matcha ice cream and Pistachio and olive oil cake with praline, Morello cherries, yuzu and yoghurt ice cream. All served with a perfect glass of Sauternes.
NIJŪ hasn’t been open for long but it’s a splendid addition to Mayfair’s restaurants and word has clearly got round already – it was busy even on a wet Monday evening. I for one will return to explore further such secrets of Katei Ryori cooking as grilled aubergine with white sesame dressing, roasted turbot with furikake, tomato and miso butter or momo and raspberry pavlova with peach and elderflower ice cream. They even seem to have converted me to desserts now…
NIJŪ London, 20 Berkeley Street, London, W1J 8EE. For more information, and for bookings, please visit www.nijulondon.com.
