Fusing traditional sushi with Nordic-influenced grilled yakitori sticks, Sticks’n’Sushi have opened their latest restaurant on Soho’s Beak Street.
It’s a combination that maybe shouldn’t work but the tried and tested format still reigns supreme, with locations across London, Cambridge and Oxford. As they describe it – it’s a sushi restaurant, even for those that don’t like fish.
The new space is a looker, taking over the ground and first floor of a newly constructed building with striking glazed brick façade featuring 100 different iridescent shades. As if to prove it, British artist Damien Hirst has chosen this location for his flagship studio and art complex. Drawing on Sticks’n’Sushi’s Danish-Japanese heritage guests are still greeted with a warm and welcoming greeting from the chefs in the open plan kitchen as you’re seated.
The menu or ‘photo album’ as it’s referred to, features Sticks’n’Sushi’s signature dishes such as the Hell’s Kitchen maki with bubbly tempura shrimp and Japanese barbeque sauce and yakitori skewers including the Buta Yaki with organic, free-range pork from Denmark. You can mix and match from the a la carte section or go for one of the helpfully put together set menus depending on the size of your group and budget.
We kicked off with a bowl of hot and salty edamame and crispy Jerusalem artichoke dipped into moreish miso aioli. A must-order for us is their beef tataki – fat strips of slightly seared, very pink beef, which they top with a little blob of smoked cheese, a few swirls of spring onion, crunchy artichoke chips, all served in a special soy sauce. There’s obviously a strong selection of sushi but if you’re not sure where to start, some of our favourite maki rolls include the crispy ebi with tempura shrimp, avocado, spicy sauce & tsume soy and the ‘pink alaska’ with salmon, avocado, cream cheese & lumpfish roe. Of course you can’t go wrong with straight up maguro (yellowfin tuna) or ‘shake’ (salmon) either, the quality of the fish shines through.
Sticks are served individually, but again, there’s a large selection, so it’s worth ordering a few different ones and sharing. Prices start at just £2.60 for the Imo yaki (sweet potato, coriander cress & teriyaki) through to the ultra-luxe wagyu yaki which will set you back £15. Bitesize desserts include the chocolate Gateau Marcel topped with pretty chocolate pearls.
Drinks-wise, to celebrate the opening of the Soho restaurant, Sticks’n’Sushi have released Rice Revived – a sustainable and British-brewed sake, made from surplus rice by Kanpai, a micro sake brewery based in London run by Lucy and Tom Wilson. The bright and fruity craft sake, not only reduces food waste, it has been bottled and labelled using recycled materials.
Well done Sticks’n’Sushi, the latest restaurant in your mini-empire doesn’t disappoint!
