Bamboo Mat Canary Wharf is a Nikkei restaurant from Chef-Owners Denis Gobjila and Victor Rosca, serving Japanese technique and Peruvian flavour across two floors in E14. It’s the sister site to the original Bamboo Mat in Stratford, which opened in 2022 and won over Grace Dent, who summed up its cooking as ‘plates of Peruvian joy’.
The ground floor is built around a raw bar and cocktail lounge, with natural timber, textured concrete, hanging ropes and warm, low lighting. The bar is backlit with colourful Peruvian motifs, and the stools in front of it are carved with different facial expressions - the best seats for a solo plate of sushi and a cocktail. Upstairs, larger groups get more space and a view into the open kitchen. In total, the restaurant seats 92.
Start at the raw bar, where hamachi tiradito comes with yuzu truffle soy, daikon and aji amarillo, and the Seabass Ceviche gets a sweet-sharp lift from mango and passion fruit. The sushi and maki section mixes Japanese and Peruvian ideas, from unagi with foie gras to the signature Volcano Maki - salmon, seabass and asparagus, flame-torched at the table. Everything on the robata menu is cooked over charcoal, including chicken anticucho with salsa verde, slow-cooked ox cheek with yuzu gravy and ribeye with huacatay and chimichurri, with A4 wagyu steak for big spenders.
For a broad sweep of the menu, there are three tasting menus: The Nikkei Voyage, Essence of Nikkei and a vegetarian option, with wine pairings available for the first two.
Drinks look to both sides of the Pacific. Pisco Sours are the obvious opener, and the list also covers Japanese sake, Old and New World wines and signature cocktails made for the bar. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week.