Saki

Saki
4 West Smithfield
EC1A 9JX

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, June 6th, 2009

The Victims: Stacey, Feathers

The Damage: £50ish each

The Background: Stacey and Canadia Boy had a baby last month (yey!) and tonight is Stacey's first night out alone. She feels like sushi–I didn't ask, but I'm guessing it's because she didn't each much raw fish during her pregnancy–and we want to stay in the general neighborhood, so Saki it is.

The Entrance: The ground floor of Saki houses a little shop. That's their sake and beer collection there. I liked this. The restaurant is downstairs, and I didn't like it so much: it's a bit worn around the edges. Maybe that's just because I was eating in a basement. I'm not a big fan of basements. I need to go back and re-review and look more closely.

The Starters: We order the three-course chef's menu. The menu's not online so I can't tell you all the choices, but I went with the pork katsu to start. It was nice, but we couldn't figure out what the pork was rolled around. Our server told us it was celery, but it seemed a lot more gelatinous than that. Maybe they did something weird to it? Not sure. I thought this dish was nice.

The Tempura: This was good tempura. But maybe I just don't know tempura dipping sauces enough because again, I thought it was pretty bland. I expected a bit more saltiness. The batter was good though. Crisp.

 

The Sushi: It looks lovely, doesn't it? It was lovely. But still not as good as what I had at Chisou. Must go back to Chisou and see if I was imagining things.

Dessert: Green tea tiramisu. I thought this tasted pre-prepared and it was overly cold. It didn't do much for me.

The Loos: The Xcelerator! (The other Dyson Airblade.)

The Verdict: I thought this was good. Not great. Just good.