Roka restaurant, buzzword dining room

Roka Restaurant is one of London’s busiest dining rooms I've seen lately.

This is a "younger" sister of now famous Zuma (see the other post here) and obviously, it has a plenty of customer.

This is one of not so many Japanese restaurants (in Europa) that has a robata grill. Robata is a rustic form of grilling; translated as “around the fireplace”, it is actually the ancient Japanese home cooking custom.


The Shochu Lounge in the basement; this is genie distillery equipment for Shochu, ancient Japanese spirit (or Japanese vodka).


Up in the restaurant; wonderful big windows and the big wooden benches around large Robata Grill.

What we had:


Sashimi with fresh wasabi; presentation was great, but tuna was substandard...


pickled celery...


rock oysters rice vinegar and ponzu...


Wagyu maki with spring onion... ultra-tender and very interesting flavors...


juicy lobster and black cod dumplings...


fried eggplant with sesame miso...


boring stuff...


asparagus with sweet soy and sesame...


In my opinion, this is stand-out dish; black cod, grilled to perfection...


and the desserts are to die for.

It has a very comprehensive sake and wine list with several quite nice options by the glass.

At about 100€ per person for a tasting menu, including drinks will not break the bank; however, we expected a great food, which is not exactly how we feel at the end...

Anyway, this will become one of my favorite London restaurant and lounge.

Recommended.

Rating: 7.5 (out of 10.0)

Roka,
37 Charlotte Street
London W1T 1RR

Sushi Bar Atari-Ya

I found this sushi bar by chance and I'm amazed. It is a tiny place with fresh and high quality fish at amazingly low prices.


The Atari-Ya...


Scallop, snow crab leg meet, chutoro and soft shell crab maki...


Food simply melts in your mouth and while wait, you'll become fascinated by X-Mas spirit all around...

Highly recommended.

Rating: -

Atari-Ya
20 James Street
London GW1U 1EH

Restaurant Lykavittos Hill, a guest blog post

I decided to ask some of my friends to contribute to my blog especially about restaurants, wines, performances and such from the places I'm not going to visit in foreseeable future.

This time around it is about Athens, Greece a neighboring country to my home country, Macedonia.

Unfortunately, my friend Emi has only provided me with a pictures and notes... so, I don't have much info about the restaurant, precise dish names nor location. So, this is only inspirational post.


Potato potage...


lobster soup with vegetables and fruits: dense taste of Bouillon from lobster...


grilled bull with sliced Greek local cheese and herbs...


monk fish with creamy sauce and grilled tomatoes...


lemon & lime sorbet: refreshing a mouth...


dessert: millefeuille with vanilla ice cream....


hot chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream... also there was a Greek specialty, Moussaka... but the picture is too blurry.

Everything was washed down with:


white wine: produced northern Greece close to Macedonia, it has rich flavor...


red wine: Greek local production, between full body and medium body, wild and nicely earthy taste.

If you like what you see, she told me that she remembers how one can exactly get there, so just let me know then I can try to give navigation!

My picks for November...

This is my wine picks for November.


2007 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe, Châteauneuf du Pape
It is all about red fruit, wax, some smoke... a beauty on the palate. Very strong tannins and needs probably some 15 - 20 year and I'm looking forward to it (91 pts.)


2006 Bandol Domaine de la Bastide Blanche
Kind of blockbuster wine but very special. With dark espresso nose, quite and... well enigmatic. Long finish ending very dry. Changeling vine and quite different from what I've tasted so far. Superb value and I'm definitely going to explore Bandol reds (88 pts.)


2001 Château La Fleur Tressac
Pleasant and friendly, but lacking real complexity. (84 pts.)