Search

Narisawa Tokyo

darrenjaffrey
Sep 30, 2015
2 min read

Brigade Blog Ratings :

Food : ★★★

Ambience : ★★★

Service : ★★★★

Price : £ £ £ £ £

Reviewed : September 2015

Brigade Blog Soundbite :

"Occassionally baffling, always adventurous but ultimately flawed."

I remain very skeptical about the concept of the San Pellegrino restaurant pop chart. Narukijo is a case in point. I very much doubt this would rank as the 8th best restaurant in Mayfair let alone the 8th in the world as our friends at SP would have you believe,

Still one mans trash is another mans treasure and without that premise this blog would not exist. Okay so lets get down to it. The brigade are busy at Narukijo. Cramped in a small open kitchen they balleticlaly gravitate around each other to produce challenging plates fo food. Sadly the room the plates arrive in is overly constructed and awkward in a regimened design kind of way. I am not actually sure there is a good table in that room but perhaps back left hand corner as you arrive would be the one.

Things start badly. And that is never a good place to start. The signarture dish is yeast that rises and is cooked over coals at your table to create the ultimate home made bread. Except it doesnlt rise and ends up looking like a 4th grade science experiment, Borderline embarrasing,

What follows is the obligatory tasting menu "joiurney". Regular readers of this Blog will know I like a tasting menu about as much as the British Press like Donald Trumo. I have a brain thank you very much and I can make choices. Give me choices and I will construct my perfect evening out (foodwise) better than you can Chef becasue you hvae never met me.. One day the restaurant industry iwll get back to the tried and trusted premise of we choose it, the Brigade will cook it and everyione goes home happy.

The journey was so long at Narisawa I had fiorgotten the first dishes by the time I the last arrived. Of course its impossible to foget anything made with sea snake essence so plate does get an honourable mention in dispatches.

By the time the Northerner and I are the last two to leave the room (a recurring theme in The Brigade blogs life) my wallet is llght but my heart was heavy.

8th best restaurant in the world ? No you aren't.