Paul Loman's Blog

The owner of the restaurant greeted us as long-lost friends when we pitched up tonight. Her English is very good and she spent the evening patiently explaining every dish as it appeared. She even went to the trouble to show us her encyclopaedia of food so that the precise fish could be indentified.

The meal starts with a tiny bowl with the most intensely flavoured fish (Samwa) together with chrysanthemum.

The second dish had a piece of octopus in a very sweet sticky coat, xxx beans, and a whelk in its shell

Next came snapping turtle soup an exquisitely flavoured consommé. In the centre of the dish was a white disc of silky tofu with meaty (turtle?) bits embedded. Our hostess pointed out that this was a reference to the full moon.

Now for our sushi plate – four very different experiences of fish. Mackerel which had been lightly cured in a little salt and sugar needed no further embellishment, we were told. The olive of flatfish should be dipped in soy. A sea urchin could stand alone. And the wasabi was reserved for the magnificent tuna.

Next there was a fish dish – a Japanese barracuda we were reliably informed by reference to its picture in the encyclopaedia. It had been smoked in cedar and was joined by a few mushrooms.


Now for tempura. Three different items fried in the lightest tempura batter. Minced prawn in a wrap, a rather mild green pepper and a mushroom.


Now for a palette cleanser that tasted much better than it looked. Kuckuck (a type of seaweed) in an intense broth with some very thin noodles. The whole thing had a rather slimy texture but had a taste high on the umami scale.


I thought this was a dessert. It was a fig steamed in miso flavoured with yuzu (a Japanese lime). Interesting – but not very figgy. We did not need to be shown the picture of a fig in the big book!

No idea why it the last one had its place in the sequence because now we had another palette cleanser in the form of a rather tasteless broth in which there were pieces of fish (flounder), sesame and kondu. I can only assume the the lack of flavour is deliberate at this stage in the meal. Nevertheless, we both failed to eat more than a couple of spoons full.
And lastly some Japanese tea and a grape sorbet.

I’d somehow expected this meal to be a bit formal and serious. In the event, the mood in the restaurant was very jolly – a reflection of the personality of our larger than life chef, Sadaharu Nakajima. He insisted on a picture in front of a sign (which had some spiritual meaning) and he drew in his wife who he described as “the owner”, then sent us on our way with goodbyes in as many languages as he could muster. Restaurant is at http://shinjuku-nakajima.com