Sake No Hana

Press Reviews (10)

• Marino O'Loughlin (4th March 2009)
  4/5 stars
  
  London is “not known as a sushi city”, says the critic, so “ripples of excitement from addicts have [her] haring to the [newly-opened] basement sushi counter at Sake No Hana”. She “didn't much like this super chi-chi joint” above (and, though it was “heaving” on her visit, reports “vague mutterings that the restaurant might close for a rethink”.) Below, there are few people, and the experience is “slightly surreal”, but the “omakase [chef’s selection] they rustle up for us after some frantic consultation is as good as you’ll get in London”. “[I]f your sushi experience is limited to Yo! or (shudder) M&S, you should go and astonish yourself.”
• AA Gill (19th February 2008)
  3/5 stars
  
  After a short essay on the pitfalls of journalism, an analysis on contemporary swimming pools and (finally) a wee spell pondering Russian literature, the critic goes on to review Alan Yau’s new St James’s Japanese.
• Jay Rayner (5th February 2008)
  
  In his review, Jay Rayner – who had recently spent a week eating round Tokyo – frankly regognises that a demand for authenticity can be something of a critical trap, and then allows himself to be pretty comprehensively ensnared by it. The overall conclusion on this pricey St James’s newcomer? “This is ersatz kaiseki – good, but not a patch on the real thing.”
• Terry Durack (9th January 2008)
  15/20 points
  
  The Indie’s man is one of three reviewers this weekend to address Alan Yau’s “shimmering urban forest of blond wood and bamboo” (“a Shinto shrine for the secular”), where – as everyone notes – “the menu takes a bit of deciphering”. Said menu is, he helpfully reports – you may want to write this down – “a mix of Japanese classics: home-style braises, raw fish and noodles, grouped under cooking methods such as yakimono (grilled), agemono (deep-fried), mushimono (steamed), takiawase (simmered), sushi, and sashimi, here called tsukuri, a colloquial term used in Osaka and Kyoto”. The dishes he chooses generally, but not invariably, please.
• Mark Palmer (9th January 2008)
  7/10 points
  
  The lack of wine strikes the Telegraph’s man as “very Japanese”, but he also finds it “very annoying”. This (lack of) drinks selection is complemented by an eight-page menu whioch “need[s] a good deal of explanation from our waitress”: “at first, her nods and inscrutable smiles are enchanting, but then they start to grate, especially when [a dining companion] seems to know more about some dishes than she does”. Even though bill for a rather up-and-down meal comes in rather higher than expected, at £136 for two, Mr Palmer concludes that he may return – “but not until [Alan Yau] revokes the no-wine rule”.
• Giles Coren (9th January 2008)
  3/10 points
  
  Echoing a once-celebrated review which centred on the price of a melon (at Cecconi’s, under former management), Giles Goren kicks off with a sideways swipe at breakfast at Firmdale Hotels’ Charlotte Street Hotel, where eggs come priced at £4.50 each (“staggering, staggering, staggering”). This leads him effortlessly on to his coverage of Alan Yau’s new venture. “What the hell have we become?”, he rants, when “entry-level ’poo” – that would be the Krug, then – comes in at £30 a glass. It doesn’t get an better after that, and he concludes the place is just “an insult to the city”.
• Guy Dimond (12th December 2007)
  6/6 stars
  
  We covered the sole review published in this week’s (paper) Time Out last week. We do, however, now discover that he awarded it six stars – oh dear, all of a sudden this seems to be becoming a habit.
• Faye Maschler (5th December 2007)
  4/5 stars
  
  Ms M brings to an expectant city – this place was first announced for almost a year ago – first news of Alan Yau’s swanky St James’s Japanese, and its “enchanted forest“ interior. She likes the food too, and finds the menu prices surprisingly reasonable. “No wine is offered”, though, and “it is the cocktails, Champagnes, whiskies, sake and shochu where the bill mounts up”.
• Jan Moir (5th December 2007)
  
  The Telegraph’s ex-critic is rather more circumspect than the divine Ms M about this “cathedral where the mute worship of sake is encouraged”. On a practical note, she observes that the tables for two are much inferior to the tatami tables. She finds food tastes “muted”, and portion sizes tending to “haphazard”. She is also rankled by the sommelier selling her a second flask of sake at four times the price of the first – you have been warned!
• Guy Dimond (5th December 2007)
  6/6 stars
  
  [Time Out’s online/offline offer is getting very scrappy. The website already carries the review from next week’s magazine (12 December), but this week’s magazine’s reviews are not yet on the website! All very confusing.] Anyway, though there is no grading yet shown in the online review, TO’s head reviewer clearly took to the latest project of Alan Yau (“London’s most influential restaurateur”). He suspects, however, that it is is “one of those places you either love with a passion, or utterly fail to comprehend”.