Japanese restaurant Taka, which already has a spot on Shepherd Market in Mayfair, has expanded and taken over the old Providores site in Marylebone for restaurant number two. A larger space means a larger menu, and this one has a large Japanese tapas section alongside robata dishes, sushi and a very interesting cocktail menu – if sake isn’t your poison, these are definitely worth a punt.
Many of the dishes under the tapas part of the menu appear familiar but come with their own Taka twist, like wild fennel salt on the edamame, the addition of fermented plantain on the miso glazed aubergine (giving an already great dish extra depth) and smoked daikon tartare serviced with the fired chicken wings, like a Japanese version of buffalo wings with blue cheese sauce. Then there are dishes we’ve never seen before like the mochi flatbread. A cross between a naan and a foccacia, it comes with a pot of garlic butter on the side and little paintbrush for you to adorn it with (or you can just go for the dunk method instead).
The robata section is where things start to get expensive, that wagyu sando that’s been doing the rounds on Instagram being culprit number one. It’s £50 and yes that is a hefty price tag for a sandwich, but it really is excellent – buttery wagyu, sweet tonkotsu sauce and great milk bread from Happy Sky bakery in Shepherd’s Bush. We preferred it to the other robata dish, the masterstock chicken, so unless you’re paying on someone else’s card we’d say stick to the sando.
Thankfully you don’t need to save too much room for pudding as the ice creams and sorbets are the perfect size; single scoops topped with shards and sprinkles of crunchy bits. The yuzu sorbet with cripsy matcha is super refreshing whereas the white chocolate saikyo miso ice cream with milk crumb is sweeter without being cloying.
We were big fans of the original Taka and we’re happy to say that its big sister is just as good and even more fun.
109 Marylebone High Street, London, W1U 4RX
takalondon.com