sushi in london

it had been over four months since we had last tasted japanese food, teresa's favourite. in toronto, there are japanese restaurants everywhere, albeit mostly owned and run by either chinese or korean families. but the quality is usually decent and the prices reasonable.

in london, you can get sushi easily enough, as it's quite popular here. but unlike toronto, the quality is suspect and the prices most definitely unreasonable. the big, quick-service takeaway chains (notably wasabi and itsu) do sell pre-packed sushi. and by sushi, we really mean maki and nigiri. one thing we'll give the brits is that, due to the popularity of sushi, most know the difference between nigiri/maki/sashimi and will often reference the more specific term instead of the generic catch-all of 'sushi'. i'm not sure the same capability exists in the average canadian.

you can also find pre-made sushi sets at ubiquitous pret, which is more known for its fresh sandwiches. even the big grocery stores sell sushi sets, designed to capitalise on the office lunch rush.

you can also find sushi at some pan-asian eateries, like hare&tortoise. we suppose the benefit of this is if you go with company that doesn't particularly like the idea of raw fish, they can happily munch on some black bean beef chow mein instead.

then there are the numerous japanese restaurants. but do not be fooled: japanese does not necessarily equal sushi. japanese food in london is much more sophisticated and can be broken down into different cuisine sub-types. some are ramen specialists. others are really izakayas (japanese pubs). there's even a restaurant near leicester square that specialises in okonomiyaki (japanese pancakes). so if it's sushi you're after, make sure the place actually sells sushi.

needless to say, it seemed a daunting task to sort through all of this and find a place that does sushi, does it well and won't charge you a small fiefdom to eat it. for teresa's birthday, we finally decided to test the waters. after some research, we discovered a place that was reputedly run and approved by japanese people, and reasonably priced. it was a little far, being out in ealing common (that's zone 3!), but we decided it was worth the trip to find out if this was the real deal.

sushi hiro definitely lived up to the hype. we're not the most sophisticated of diners and would likely be happy with mediocre quality, but to our simple palates, the fish here was excellent! when you walk through the doors, you are greeted by the wait staff all chiming 'irasshaimase' in unison, which is a good sign. the waitresses are clearly japanese and at one point, caspian thought it might be more fun to try to communicate in broken japanese than in broken english. we ordered a chirashi-don and a nigiri/sashimi platter. and the selection was very impressive, even including toro (fatty tuna), hamachi (yellowtail), and hotategai (scallop). we topped off our meal with extra orders of toro, hamachi and uni. all were fresh and very tasty.

while it wasn't the cheapest place to get sushi, the value was superb. the chirashi-don cost £12. in toronto terms, that's quite pricey. but keep in mind that, in toronto, chirashi rarely (if ever) comes with toro and hamachi). you're more likely to get maguro and that relatively tasteless tai stuff. sushi hiro definitely satisfied the long outstanding craving for sushi, and did so in style. of course, in so doing, it whet our appetites for more.

our next foray took place the night immediately following. we had tasted quality and now we were simply gunning for quantity. enter hi sushi, which is all-you-can-eat (AYCE) japanese. there are a few located around town, but the closest one is on frith street in soho, near the shaftesbury theatre. £14.80 gets you the AYCE deal, which is a little deceptive. first of all, there's a one-hour time limit. so it really should be all-you-can-eat-in-one-hour. second, the AYCE menu is divided into two sections, hot and cold. of the hot menu items, you can only order up to 8, and only once per sitting. it's only the cold items that are AYCE. and by cold items, we really mean salmon in a few variations (sashimi, nigiri, maki, spicy salmon maki, salmon and avocado maki). which was fine by us, because we quite like salmon.

we now know where to go to satiate our sushi cravings when they do come up. there are probably better places out there, in terms of quality. of course, we're also quite sure that those establishments are much much more expensive. for our money, sushi hiro and hi sushi will do just fine.