Restaurant Review: Kyashii, Covent Garden

Hi all, I'm still here. Culinary school has taken over my life, but there's still been time for a little recreational Japanese eating on the side. After some gentle nudging from The London Foodie (who has a new utterly delectable blog header by the way, do go see), reminding me that it's not really a blog if you don't, uh, blog, here's the first write-up from my latest set of restaurant visits. Enjoy!

 

I'd been wanting to try Kyashii for a while now. Any Japanese restaurant described as a 'surreal themed gangster experience', as it was by one slightly baffled commenter on a review site, is surely worth a visit.

So when a friend won 'free lunch' at this overly-stylish restaurant-cum-lounge, I jumped at the chance to accompany her. More about that later, but first I'd like to take this opportunity to unveil my new indispensable guide for restaurants entitled 'How To Offer A Free Lunch'.

1. Inform your wait staff that this 'free lunch' competition actually exists. (When in doubt, 'deny all knowledge' is not a good workplace mantra.)

2. When no mention of this 'free lunch' appears on your online booking system, though the customer swears they entered the information when booking, consider giving them the benefit of the doubt. (Unless you've been scammed repeatedly in such a heinous manner. In which case, consider issuing printable email vouchers instead of social media messages.)

3. Ask your wait staff to give the manager or whoever organised the competition a prompt call in these situations, instead of waiting for the customer to insist they do so.

4. Don't let your customer peruse the a la carte menu for twenty minutes, while waiting for the aforementioned phone call, before informing them they can only order their 'free lunch' from a limited page of lunch set menus mostly in the £10-15 range -- while your a la carte features such delights as Grilled Chilean Seabass with Fois Gras & Uni Butter (£26.50) and Yellowtail Ponzu with truffle oil (£12.50).

5. A 'free lunch' should probably include a free drink. Just saying.

6. Charging service on a 'free lunch', while an admirable nod of respect to your stellar wait staff, is possibly counterproductive*.

So anyway, let's talk about Kyashii. The food's not bad, actually.The sushi was passable, the sashimi of decent quality. Beautifully plated, if you like your food dressed to impress. Over-priced though, especially given the unsmiling lacklustre service. That said, if you work/live in the area and want a bit more dining glitz than nearby Chinatown provides, their reasonably priced set lunches are an option worth considering.

Decor? The ground floor is surprisingly pleasant and airy, though the white circular wall mouldings give a slight sense of being trapped in a giant ghetto blaster. Downstairs is where the surreal gangster experience starts. Searching for the loos, I almost tripped over due to the dark deep-pile carpet and lack of lighting. Alice-in-Wonderland-like, I wandered past an empty window-less room with white banquets surrounded by an in-built fish tank. Curiouser and curiouser.

All in all, Kyashii satisfies all expectations of a celebrity-seeking venue serving trendy Japanese-style fare in fashion-model portions, apart from the lack of suitably fawning service. If that's what floats your boat, by all means pay a visit. Just don't forget a flashlight when you go the loos, and a ball of string to lead you back to reality afterwards.

 

Kyashii
4a Upper St Martin's Lane
London WC2H 9NY
020 7836 5211

www.kyashii.co.uk

 

 

*We also ordered some extra dishes from the a la carte, kindly at a 50% discount to make up for the faff and also because of the 50%-off deal running at the same time anyhow. Thus we were obviously presented with a bill to pay. 10% service was charged on the un-discounted total, including the free set lunches. Whether we'd have been presented with a bill at all, if we hadn't ordered any extra dishes, is not known.

 

Comments

[catty]

Haha great tips on "How to offer a free lunch" :) I think charging service is also counterproductive. If the service was actually decent, a good customer would probably leave a tip anyway. I haven't even thought twice about Kyashii since Marina's review.. and don't plan on going near there!

[Su-Lin]

Ah...so the service has gone back to being surly, eh? I remember reading some other post about how they'd improved it a bit since Marina O'Loughlin's visit but things have obviously slipped back!

[Sarah]

Haha, I wish I had gone downstairs!

[May]

How they are still surviving just confirms the fact that Londoners are not that discerning when it comes to quality of food or service. Shan't bother with this one then.

[The London Foodie]

Glad to see you writing at Dashi Dashi again! Love your post, however my experience at Kyashii couldn't have been more different - Greedy Diva and I had a lovely dinner there despite the hideous decor. I heard that the service was bad, and your experience reinforces that. I haven't written about it yet.

Luiz @ The London Foodie

[The London Foodie]

Oh, and thank you for the mention! Pleased you like the new blog header!

Luiz @ The London Foodie

[JenJen]

Hi everyone, thanks for the comments!

Catty, Su-Lin, May -- Indeed, I do sometimes wonder if I should be less ready to pay up the 10/12.5% service often slapped onto the end of the bill when the service has been reluctant at best. Have been to a few lovely places recently where the service was fantastic, really makes you think....

Luiz -- Thanks for the encouragement! I saw Greedy Diva's post -- the food did look good, guess it does reinforce my 'taken with a pinch of salt' opinion of reviews where the blogger is invited and hosted specially by the restaurant, especially when it comes to service and value-for-money.

[Sarah, Maison Cupcake]

Ha ha, I like your line about needing a ball of string to find your way out of the loo!

Does sound like a customer promotion fail, it's so counter productive for places to run these deals to get new customers through the door and then treat them like poor relations when they get there!