Soseki

I have now visited Soseki on several occassions over the last few weeks so feel qualified to review the offering.

For the City it is welcoming to find a restaurant that can feed you in relative quiet and with a light and deftness of touch, the fact that service is attentive without being intrusive helps. Starting with the space itself, Soseki nestles hidden behind the Gherkin and despite being in plain sight is a hidden gem as no one I have spoken to recently knows about it! The entrance is a bit confusing with a large heavy sliding door and the fact that you enter straight onto the staircase but we will forgive the logistics as the dining room itself is an oasis of beautiful oriental calm.

Soseki has a good varied wine list and an interesting menu that upon detailed review explains what everything is and how the menu works, staff are on hand to help you through this. The food is exceptionally good, the one small criticism is that the starter custard based dishes are an acquired taste and the dessert could use a little more thinking through as a chocolate brownie with green tea ice cream is not very exciting. Highlights are the Sushi, Sashimi and the beautiful a la carte meat dishes such as the pork belly. Warning, its not cheap here but there is a lot of love gone into this food and it is time consuming to prepare so bear that in mind when you are wincing…

Tass Patsalides

It is hard to know what to do when you find your new favourite restaurant.

Do you tell everyone you know all about it? With the hope that the service and the quality of the food will not falter with the massive influx of new diners.

Do you keep going back every chance you get? With the hope that the experience does not diminish with each visit and the initial happiness that you felt when dining there lingers till your last breath.

Do you just Savour the memory? With the knowledge that all new dining experiences have a tall order to try and live up to your new benchmark and also with a small glimmer of hope that one may topple the incumbent.

I am not quite sure what I have done since going to Soseki, I have told many people about how much I like it, I have been back weekly since my first visit and I have thought about the surroundings and the tastes whilst sleeping, walking and driving.

Initially I was impressed with the atmosphere. The team have taken a glass and concrete box in the city and magically transformed the interior space to resemble, well, Mr Miyagi's House in Karate Kid II. Classical Japanese rusticity next to a big metal Cornichon. It invites you to be calm and it gently places you on an alternate plane.

The booth seating is warm and intimate and some seats give you a birds eye view of St Mary's Axe, the sushi bar is spacious and lets you spy on the skilled chefs at work. There is a private room/ hut which can hold a few more diners for a small party.

Opened by Caroline Bennet – who was the sushi conveyor belt pioneer in the UK (Moshi-Moshi)
‘The idea behind Soseki is the Japanese concept of kaiseki-kappo, a style of cooking which originated in high-class restaurants for the wealthy merchants living in Osaka in the nineteenth century. The meal is composed of several dishes made by different and specific culinary methods, each artistically presented in its own beautiful container. The appearance of these dishes is as important as the taste, and is heavily influenced by the seasons.’

They also ‘practice’ ‘omakase’ which basically means that you trust the chef to choose what is good. The sushi sets and most of the set menus rely upon this principle. Their fish is sourced from sustainable waters and occasionally veers off the common ground. The bream sashimi on my last visit was fresh and clean, firm to the bite with a full and somewhat smoky flavour. The tuna was some of the best I have had in a while, as was the yellowtail.

The other dishes are like no other you have seen on a ‘Japanese’ menu in London, Inventive use of seasonal ingredients, prepared with a sympathetic nod to both east and west. The rare wagyu beef salad, wood sorrel, pickled celeriac and samphire Tosazu (soy sauce, bonito and vinegar dipping sauce) Jelly, was one of the best things to have passed my lips in recent months. The Daikon salad was crisp, fresh and made tangy with the ponzu dressing.

The Steamed cornish fish I had the first time i went was pefectly cooked and accompanied by tobiko and brasied daikon – it was also supporting Slow Food London's Terre Madre day. The rest of the mains are yet to be tried, but will be devoured on the next visit.

The only questionable dish was one of the deserts, a macha cheesecake, sour cherries and some crunch and ice cream. All was good aside from the overdose of macha sprinkled on the top, it overpowered everything and left an astringent taste in the mouth.

The pricing is not steep but it is not out of this world. I believe that it reflects the style, quality and atmosphere of the establishment – it does have special occasion written all over it however.

As I said before this is my new favourite restaurant.

A stunningly beautiful place in a grotty modern office building overlooking a modern sky-scraper; you could easily be in Osaka.

I have sat at the sushi bar and in the booths, and both are excellent. The sushi is inventive, the fish fresh the service attentive, and not so formal as many Japanese restaurants can be. Unless you are Japanese, or spend too much time hanging out in Japanese restaurants, the menu offers little expectation of what you will find on your plate. Instead, you put your palate in the hands of a small troop of chefs, who prepare beautifully proportioned and presented dishes, one after the other.

It is not cheap, but this is both: (a) Japanese; and (b) in the City, so what do you expect?

Unfortunately they didn't have the much advertised William Curley chocolates were not in evidence last time I went, but all that means is an excuse to go to his tiny shop in Richmond (enroll on the afternoon chocolate making session).

Very good Japanese restaurant.
Recommend the sashimis and sushis
Service was good.
Nice restaurant overall.
When booking ask for one of their “Hut”, if you want more privacy.
Place to go and recommend

Great decor and lovely crockery. I recommend the private booths. The restaurant is blissfully quiet with subtle background music allowing conversation to be the focus of the evening. The sushi is good rather than excellent. On the evening we went there were a few mistakes in the order but the service was very courteous and professional otherwise. The wooden chopsticks provided would benefit from an upgrade to something more in keeping with the overall experience.

Firstly upon entering Soseki I was very surprised that a restuarant in a modern buidling slap facing the gherkin could look so beautiful and full of character. There are a sweep of seats around the sushi kitchen, window seats overlooking St Mary Axe square and some very cool raised private tables at the end of the restaurant. I won't go into details about particular dishes here as it changes daily but I loved the element of surprise, the variety and quality of dishes presented. In my experience the tippy-toes service was impeccable and I would definitelty revist. That said, it isn't cheap so go on a deal, on expenses or an a punching-above-your-weight first date.

A very poor experience given the hype.

Service was desperately slow – in fact we gave up before the end of the meal.

Some of the soups were very pleasing – sushi/sashimi was good – but left feeling that 50% of the staff had been laid off in order to allow 50% off the food prices.

At full price this would have been terrible – okay at 50% off.

We got the two for one offer and decided to give it a try. The place is spacious and the interior is really nice (traditional japanese). The service is good and the staffs are well trained.
The food is OK. We tried the Haiku and Tanka set menus. The sushimi is fresh. The sushi is average (Vineger not enough for sushi rice, unbalanced). My main course is beef teriyaki and ox tongue. It is really good. The beef is tender and tasteful. The ox tongue is impressive. I haven’t had such a nice ox tongue for a long time. Mouthwatering! The next course is Shokuji rice which in my opinion is disaster. The rice is way too plain and tasteless and there is no side dish for the rice. I spoke to the manager after the dinner about it and he said they are changing the menu from time to time so hopefully next time I won’t see this on the menu (if there is next time). The fish soup smells really nice and taste good as well. The dessert is green tea ice cream which all four of us are pretty sure it is Hagan Daz. Not impressive.
In general the food is OK (except the ox tongue which I think is very good). It is a two for one deal so the price is alright. I would not mind to go again but only if there is a two for one deal.