UMU
I'm just back from a week end in London, I tried Umu for the first time, I found it on the michelin guide who rates it 1 star.
Umu is not as known as Nobu or Zuma but it's open since 6 years, and have his star since 5 years.
the chef Ichiro Kubata is from Kyoto.
The restaurant is not really big, the design is nice and simple, I choose to seat at the sushi bar, I love to see japanese chefs working and so concentrate on what they do ;-)
There is a 4 kaisiki menus and à la carte menu, I went to Umu for my first meal in London I wanted to eat great Sushis as you know in Paris we don't have any good japanese restaurant. so I started with Chu toro salad, Japanese pickles, cashew nuts and sesame seeds. it was delicious the mix of flavour and texture is perfect.
I ordered also a sashimi :Usuzukuri: thinly sliced fillet of sea bass, ponzu sauce. the chef asks you to put the radish (the orange thing) and the onion on the soya sauce and to press the lime over the sea bass then to put each slice of sea bass on the sauce before tasting it. it was beautiful and excellent.
then I ordered a tiger prawn tempura, shishito pepper, lotus root it was good, not heavy, not oily.
and I finish by a sushi selection, I asked the chef to choose for me his signature sushis, I only choose the toro one.
does it deserve the 1 star? yes definitely
14-16 Bruton Place
London W1J 6LX, United Kingdom
020 7499 8881