Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 4 and Version 3 of Saki, EC1A 9JX
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A Japanese "bar and food emporium" opposite Smithfield Market. Upstairs is a small shop selling various Japanese food items, and the basement is divided into a cocktail bar and a restaurant.
The cocktail bar is small but pretty nice; all mirrors and leather and decent, not-too-loud music (I suspect it of being Japanese, since I couldn't understand any of the lyrics and I didn't recognise any of it, but I liked it --Kake). There are a few low sofa-like things, but most of the seating consists of tall barstools and tables. The cocktail menu is extensive and includes sake and shochu cocktails as well as twists on more standard offerings such as Bloody Mary. We really enjoyed the ones we ordered, and didn't feel they were too overpriced at £8-9 apiece. Bar snacks (kobachi) are available, but we had dinner reservations so didn't try them. (Note: they keep a tight rein on the cocktail menus you get brought one when you sit down, and it's taken away again as soon as you order, so if you want another one you have to flag someone down again and ask for the menu back. lathos tells me that this is the way it works in Japan; if you want to keep the menu you have to explicitly say so.)
The restaurant side has a sushi counter, a large black marble communal table, and a number of smaller tables, one (at least) of them in a partly screened off area for extra privacy. It's quite elegant without being overdone.
Kake and doop visited on a Wednesday evening and sat at the sushi counter. There were a few people dining at the smaller tables, and another couple joined us at the counter a little later on. We had the six-course kaiseki with matched wines and sakes. The wine pairing was perhaps a mistake; it wasn't paced particularly well, with too much alcohol at the start of the meal and not enough at the end.
The food was very good though. The first course was half-cooked lobster with mizuna in a tasty sesame sauce. We were both very keen on the second course of seared salmon slices wrapped around marinaded raw onion and served with a thin green chilli sauce. Tempura was third; I am never very excited by tempura, so I'm not the right person to comment on this course. Salmon teriyaki followed this; the sushi chef said we could have rice with this if we wanted, but he didn't recommend this since the sushi course was next, and so we followed his advice. The fifth course comprised chotoro, yellowtail, and prawn nigiri, and inside-out rolls with shiso leaf. We were positively encouraged to eat the nigiri with our hands; the waitstaff brought round warm handwipes in advance, and the chef recommended we use fingers instead of chopsticks. The rice portions on the nigiri were smaller than I've had anywhere else, which I was pleased about in the context of the multi-course meal, and the fish portion was in proportion to the rice. The final course was ice cream (green tea flavour, I think), and a small portion of cake, which doop was very pleased with.
Service was patchy and sometimes slightly awkward. One of my wine glasses was removed before I'd finished drinking from it, and doop's dessert plate was whipped away just as I was about to transfer my portion of cake to it. Overall, I did feel as though we were rushed through the meal slightly.
The sushi chef was very chatty and friendly though, and sitting at the sushi counter was definitely a good choice. (Note that the chef at the time of our visit, chef Saotome, is leaving to open his own restaurant in China very very soon, so if you visit after October 2007 then you will have someone else.)
(I suppose I should mention that they have paperless toilets, since a good number of reviews on the interweb seem to be obsessed by this aspect. Personally I was more excited by the turbo-charged hand dryer.)
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