Garlic Confit's review of Soseki

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.