Yesterday I went to Taku for their 18 course lunch omakase menu for my birthday. Overall a good experience but there were also some faults.
Food: All of the ingredients were extremely fresh and high quality. And it was clear they show care and passion for the art of sushi making and presenting it unpretentiously to the customer (the head sushi chef was amazing in his craft and explained a lot of the details to us). Taku makes note to prioritise local seafood so the menu does lack a bit of variance that I’ve experienced on other omakase menus. But this is made up for the quality of the fish. My favourite of the meal was the scallop nigiri.
The dessert was the most disappointing dish. It was a basic ‘deconstructed’ yuzu meringue tart. Not awful but not great. And given that we had 17 savoury courses before that, it felt unbalanced to only have 1 small dessert course. Some petit four or similar at the end would’ve been nice.
Drinks: I’ve never seen a drinks menu that expensive in comparison to the meal price before. The wine/sake pairing was £320 for a £160 tasting menu! We ended up getting a bottle of sake (the cheapest started at £130) which was tasty. The drink prices felt out of sync with the price of the meal in comparison to other 1*s I’ve been to in London, particularly for lunch.
Service: When we arrived 5 mins before our booking at 12:30, they still hadn’t opened the restaurant so they told us and a few other groups to ‘walk around and come back.’ This felt a bit strange given how close we were to the seating time. When we did come back about 5 mins later, they quickly ushered us in and rapidly went through the amuse-bouche, hot hand towel service, drink menu orders, and water all at the same time. It felt pretty chaotic with multiple people asking us to do things simultaneously.
The attention to detail was fine during the meal and what you’d expect from a 1* (they give you a little leather pad to rest your phone on the table which I thought was nice). But in general, the service felt rushed throughout the entire meal. Even given the fast paced nature of omakase plating which we knew going in, we went through the 18 courses in less than an hour and a half. They seemed to go at the speed of the fastest eater at the counter.
Another thing that felt strange was that they give a small bouquet of roses out to guests at the end of service. It was my birthday (which we had told them about beforehand), and there was absolutely no acknowledgment to this and we didn’t get any flowers despite the two groups either side of us getting some with ‘happy birthday’ wishes. Felt odd that we were left out.
Space: It’s a gorgeous and intimate space with seating for only 12. Beautiful wood panelling and stone is used throughout and it’s clear that the design of the space was well thought out. A nice touch was the Japanese toilet which is always fun. The only downside would be that the foyer/entry is too small for the restaurant. There’s absolutely no space to wait, hence why they make you wait outside if they’re not ready to seat you. For the price point, a small seating area in the entrance would go a long way to setting the experience off positively.
Overall impressions: I had a positive experience overall and I really enjoyed the food which is the most important part. I do think it’s a bit overpriced compared to similar omakase spots in London (particularly with the service issues) but you’re paying for the Mayfair location. I likely wouldn’t go back as there are just too many amazing 1* spots in London, but it was a good birthday meal overall.
by krkrbnsn
9 Comments
Truly unacceptable for a 1-star restaurant. Sounds like you had an okay meal but probably will never return. That wine pairing being double the price of the omakase is crazy
Local fish huh? Lowering the priority of dining here…
Telling you to walk around and come back is insane.
Hmmmm. Disappointing. This has been high on my list but now rethinking. Thanks for sharing!
They have some funny ideas about time. Their website says “All guests will be served at the same time, with service beginning at the reservation time. Any guests arriving after the doors close will not be seated.” and when I booked I was told to arrive at 12:25 for lunch. But they weren’t ready then either!
I had the lunch menu too and asked for an extra Uni (not on the menu) without checking the price — it was 30 pounds for that one extra gunkan.
I don’t think I’ll be back for the 400 (!) pound dinner menu either…
Not going to defend the absolute pricing, but presumably these cost of the drinks pairing is meant to be in sync with the £300/400 cost of the evening menu, but they just haven’t adjusted it down at lunchtime.
Never been told to walk and come back, but have been left outside 5 minutes past reservation at 1 star Japanese in NYC a couple times. They obviously are trying to close out the last crowd and finish upselling closers and/or delaying to ensure stragglers arrive for a single fluid seating. I find this strategy odd.
In contrast, for a first seating, another unrated easy 1 star brought us in early on a rainy night, and served complimentary snack and bev, which was unnecessary and impressed excellent hospitality.
I literally have no idea how taku got a star over other sushi restaurants in london. Granted the quality of ingredients is good but you can get similar nigiris of a similar quality in london for £50.
Thought the yuzu meringue tart was a tofu megatron initially