How do you judge a restaurant? By the food, decor, or that elusive thing called ambiance? How about the length of the wine list or the state of the toilets? Then there's always: the bustiness of the waitress, the speed of the bill (too fast = insulting, too slow = infuriating), the curl of the waiter's upper lip when you order tap water...
What about before you even set foot inside? Well, you could ask the restaurant critics. Unfortunately, that's all very well if you're searching for one-star French restaurant in London, but venture off the Anglo-Euro-centric culinary map and coverage gets decidedly patchy. Take Chinese food. If it hasn't previously been owned by Alan Yau, or specialises in a region that the public can put a mental finger on (e.g. Sichuan = spicy), it doesn't figure.
So when it comes to far-off food, there's another useful barometer: the clientele. To cut to the chase: do they look like they hail from the same country as your dinner?
Okay, so there are a few flaws in this plan. You'd be hard-pressed to fill an Outer Mongolian restaurant with locals, even in London on a World-Cup-free night (do those even exist anymore?). And many natives of the world's greatest cuisines (take your pick) would rather eat at home than pay money for something their grandmas could rustle up with a saucepan, a chicken, and half an hour.
Thankfully for London's restaurant scene, there are just enough Japanese people (and wallets) in the city to ensure that they eat out, and they eat out well.
And they book ahead. 6.30pm on a rainy Monday evening at Chisou, and all the tables are reserved. We're left perched along the sushi bar -- always the dangerous option in my mind. [One day, I swear, I'm going to leap the counter and go on a sashimi-gorging rampage, 'til they lure me out the door with a trail of ice-cream mochi.]
The printed menu is far far longer, exciting, and more innovative than the website suggests. However, I'm a sucker for chirashi, and this one certainly didn't disappoint: butterfish (first time I've had it in the UK), crab leg meat, seabass, yellowtail, salmon roe, salmon, tuna (garden variety and medium-fatty), and tamago, all served on a wide bowl of great sushi rice.
In other news, the chawan mushi was more delicate than fairy panties, and the nasu dengaku (aubergine with miso topping) tasted of nutty perfection. Service: efficient, innocuous, and bearing hot towels.
I'll definitely be back to sample the more off-piste menu items -- monkfish liver, anyone? -- that is, if I can tear myself away from the sushi counter.
Is that an ice-cream mochi I see?
Around £30-50pp, excluding drinks and service. Possibly less, if you limit your choices. Set lunch menu available.
Chisou
4 Princes Street
London W1B 2LE
020 7629 3931
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