Evening Standard
Bored of London’s small-plates scene and bewildered by the “ruinous” prices of London’s Japanese-inspired restaurants, Jimi Famurewa had the highest hopes of master sommelier Yukiyasu Kaneko’s tiny Hackney spot, anticipating “the modern trope of the natural wine bar through a thrilling new cultural lens: luscious Juran reds, sansho-dusted crisps and an
atmospheric sweet spot between familiarity and surprise.”
He was, on balance, disappointed. The railway arch space “radiates cool” and fulfuls expectations of “a great hidden bar”, but Jimi was “not wholly convinced” by a venture which “doesn’t seem to be sure whether it wants to be an expansive restaurant or merely a place for high-impact drinking snacks”. “Even with the better dishes (like a fragrant chicken tsukune hotpot, roiling with creamy gobbets of tofu, greens and mushrooms in a dashi-spiked broth) there was a thrown-together quality; an appreciable imbalance of effort and reward”.
Perhaps, he concluded on a hopeful note, “like certain vintages, this is one that will make more sense if it is given time to develop”.
