One of our good friends was in town and we were debating where to take her. The decision was quite simple, why not introduce her to one of our most favourite restaurants in London, Yashin Ocean House. Innovative flavour pairings, stylish presentation and where sushi is so fresh it just melts in your mouth.
Yasuhiro Mineno and his partner Shinya Ikeda are at the helm of Yashin Ocean House and Yashin Sushi Bar in Kensington. Yasuhiro was formerly the ex-head chef of Ubon by Nobu and is known for having the best knife skills in Europe.
Yashin Ocean House focuses on head to tail dining and dry-ageing, where every part of the fish is edible and creatively used across various dishes on the menu. Hone Kawa Senbei (mackarel bones) is one of the signature dishes, where the bones are marinated in sea water, sake and kombu and then dry-aged before frying. This creates a lovely crispy texture on the palette.
Hone Kawa Senbei - Smoked umami mackarel bone and fish skin
Another signature dish is the Omakase sashimi which is presented in a cloud of smokey haze. Once you finally break out of this gastronomic haze, you will find yourself in front of a beautiful sashimi bed of the Chef's selection, from truffle infused ponzu jelly tuna to yellowtail with orange soy to cornish wild seabass with dried miso flake. Eat bite brings on a whole new realm of emotions.
Omakase sashimi with no soy sauce
The next of our favourites is the Zuke Ikura infused in truffle soy. A burst of perfectly married truffle and salmon flavour in with every crunch of a little egg, just sublime.
Zuke Ikura - smoked salmon caviar with truffle soy
Since we are in the midst of truffle season, we could not resist ordering another truffle filled dish. Lightly seared grouper was covered in large shavings of both winter and summer truffle. The scent of the dish was intoxicating!
Grouper with summer truffle and tosa yuzu dressing
We took a short break from truffles to try a cured mackarel dish, presented with dollops of tasty yuzu jelly and cucumber foam dotted across the plate.
Shime saba - Cured mackerel and cucumber
And then back to more truffle....tuna with truffle infuzed ponzu jelly. Although we had a small taste of this in the omakase sashimi appetiser, we could have eaten many more plates of this savoury goodness. The fish is so thinly sliced and seared to perfection with the truffle jelly gently wrapping itself around the soft flesh of the tuna. We all took a moment of silence to enjoy and take in all of the wonderful flavours.
Tuna with truffle infused ponzu jelly
And to end the savoury part of our meal, we finished off with the smoke grilled black cod with nasu miso foam. It was even more heavenly than what we've ever tried at Nobu...yes that good....
Saikyo Sugi with Nasu miso
The starters were paired with a bottle of Fukuju, Awasaki Sparkling Junmai sake and a bottle of Shirakawago, Sasanigori Junmai Ginjo Cloudy sake.
And lastly the desserts. The Mirroir chocolate was beautifully presented in a 70% dark chocolate dome with gold flakes topped with a hazelnut crisp. It was as delicious as it looked.
Mirroir chocolat with 70% dark chocolate with crunchy choconuts
The Yuzu and White chocolate was a white chocolate mousse with dehydrated yuzu and shochu centre with watermelon shochu sorbet.
Yuzu and White Chocolate, Shochu
What a stellar meal, not one dish we would not go back for. Yashin Ocean House is still by far one of our favourite restaurants in London and seems to only be getting better each time we visit.
LOCATION
117 - 119 Old Brompton Rd
London SW7 3RN
HOURS
Open Monday - Sunday
Lunch 12pm – 3pm last order 2pm
Dinner 6pm – 11pm last order 10pm
RESERVATION
Reservations in advance recommended.
To reserve a table, call +44 (0)20 7373 3990 or email info@yashinocean.com
WEBSITE
MOST RECENT VISIT
October 18, 2014