A new opening from Jason Atherton is always big news in London and his latest, Sosharu, is particularly interesting as its a bit of a departure from his usual style. Sosharu is an izakaya-style Japanese restaurant, plus a basement cocktail bar 7 Tales, and is located in what was the legendary London club Turnmills in Farringdon. We popped down there on opening day to check it out and were very impressed. The menu is split up into quite a few short sections which reflect different specialities such as temaki, hibachi grill, yaki grill, tempura. We ordered a healthy amount across the sections and found a few stand outs such as the sea bream sashimi with shichimi and crispy potato, and the taco-like Temaki, crispy shells filled with tuna tartare and topped with a very addictive spicy mayonnaise.
We also tried excellent light and crispy prawn and avocado tempura; juicy stuffed chicken wings with pickled turnip; grilled prawns with sweet potato; and a tonkatsu crumbed pork chop with kombu dressing. The only slightly disappointing dish was our final one of wagyu beef with glass noodles and cooked sukiyaki-style on a hot plate at the table, but this was more than made up for with dessert, the very instagrammable matcha mille crepe with matcha ice cream.
Overall, it looks like Jason Atherton is on to yet another winner with Sosharu.
64 Turnmill Street, EC1M 5RR
www.sosharulondon.com