 |
Tsuru Mansion House, photo copyright Tsuru
|
Delicious, sustainable, reasonably affordable sushi in London. It shouldn't be a huge ask, right? London is, after all, the capital city of an island nation, with world-class salmon, scallops, mackerel and crab all landed not a million miles from The Smoke. Yet, your chances of finding a good, mid-range sushi spot in London remain slimmer than a Ukrainian model during Fashion Week.
So if you can't afford to sup saki with the oligarchs (Zuma, Nobu, Roka et al) and you don't want turgid conveyor-belt nigiri, what's a London sushiphile on a budget to do? Turn, my friends, to Tsuru.
This budding chain of delicious (tick), sustainably-sourced (big tick) and affordable (tick) sushi spots fills that big maki-shaped hole in the mid-range Japanese restaurant market. The first branch opened a couple of years ago in Southwark, the second in 2010 on Bishopsgate in the City, and Tsuru Mansion House opened near St Paul's Cathedral in February 2011.
Tsuru-addicts come mainly for two things - the katsu and the sushi. At lunchtimes, the Southwark branch near my office heaves with suits and magazine hacks in search of their katsu curry and salmon and avocado roll fix. The katsu curry, made to a traditional recipe, is crazily addictive stuff. Crisp, crunchy pieces of free-range chicken, beef or salmon drowning in a thick, deeply savoury but also slightly-sweet sauce. The new Mansion House restaurant has the same short and effective lunch menu as the other branches, but the dinner menu is longer with some new offerings.
When we visited Tsuru Mansion House on a Friday night a few weeks after opening, only 4 tables out of about 12 were occupied, and Tsuru lacked the buzz that defines its hectic lunch hours. But what it had lost in frenetic katsu-downing, it gained in mellowness. The Asahis were cold and the tealights were out on the low-slung wooden tables.
Highlights from the Mansion House dinner menu include the yakitori chicken (£4.25) - meat juices dripping from the chunks of free-range chicken thighs, skewered with spring onions. The pork and vegetable gyoza are both light and crisp (£5.75 and £4.95), and the
Aburi Saba - mackerel sashimi with mustard (£6.45), packs the kind of flavour-punch you should probably resist on a first date.
 |
| Niku Miso, Tsuru Mansion House |
And then there's the
Niku Miso (£4.35), a dish I've been a little bit obsessed with ever since I ate it. Take a block of cool, silky tofu and add a big dollop of red miso paste mixed with beef ground to minuscule pieces and a scattering of spring onions. I couldn't see it on the website just now so please, Tsuru, from a katsu junkie turned
Niku Miso addict, if you've dropped this dish from the menu please reconsider. It's worth a trip to Mansion House alone.
If you haven't tried any of the three Tsuru branches yet, I implore you to do so. As far as the question about where to find affordable but delicious sushi in London goes, at the moment Tsuru IS pretty much the answer.
PS the coffee at Tsuru Mansion House is from none other than Kiwi flat white maestro,
Allpress.
Tsuru Mansion House, 10 Queen Street, EC4N 1TX.
http://www.tsuru-sushi.co.uk/
Posts
