The five-storey Japanese/Nordic emporium Pantechnicon in Belgravia opened last year in between lockdowns and, despite this difficult start, is now fully up and running again. Pantechnicon is already home to Cafe Kitsune and Nordic spot Eldr (which we were big fans of – check out our review here), and now we have Japanese restaurant Sachi which has just opened on the lower ground floor of the building. It’s a suitably slick dining room with lots of hidden cosy booths, a bar area and chef’s sushi counter, meaning that even though it’s low on daylight it feels like somewhere you can happily spend a few hours.
Pantechnicon’s Exec Chef Chris Golding (ex-Nobu, Dinings and Zuma) and Sachi Head Chef Collin Hudson (ex-Dinings and Roka) have taken inspiration from regional Japanese cooking for their menu whilst making use of seasonal ingredients produced in the UK. Across the menu there’s Cornish line-caught fish and Scottish hand-picked shellfish as well as British meat from premium heritage breeds and organic Japanese greens grown in Sussex.
We went heavy on the sushi selection on our visit, including tuna akami, trout, sea bream, and scallop nigiri; trout with wasabi & vendace roe; shiitake, enoki, black garlic & mizuna; and not forgetting our favourite ‘otoro’, the prized fatty tuna cut, which is always a must order in our book. There’s much more than just sushi of course, with the hot dish section featuring dumplings; tempura; tobanyaki; pork belly & barley miso with mustard leaf; trout with whey & miso; chicken with chili shio koji & baby peach; and seabass usuzukuri with lava salt & sea buckthorn. If you’re feeling flush there’s also an excellent wagyu A4 grade sirloin served with beetroot and miso that is well worth the price.
Naturally the drinks list is heavily Japanese, with rare whiskies and sakes coming from Pantechnicon’s bottle shop Sakaya, and all the ceramics, cutlery, wooden bowls and uniforms have been crafted in Japan too. They also have a sake sommelier and this was truly one of the highlights of the meal – we essentially had a sake masterclass alongside dinner with the sommelier telling us all about the history and production of sake and introducing us to so many different styles and regional varieties, many of which were real eye openers. We can 100% recommend coming here for the sake alone if you’re interested to learn more.
A Japanese restaurant in the heart of Belgravia is never going to be a regular destination for most of us – but the quality of the ingredients is plain to see and it’s definitely worth splashing out on for a special occasion.
19 Motcomb Street, London, SW1X 8LB
pantechnicon.com