BARBICAN LIFE
Sushinho restaurants’ – Sushinho City is the second following on from the hugely successful original in Kings Road, Chelsea – executive chef is himself a Brazilian and has succeeded in putting together a London version of what one might find in either Brazilian –influenced Japanese restaurants in Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo, or perhaps in Japanese influenced churrascarias in those cities.
Sushinho City
(a garlic bread with parsley and sea salt) at £3.95 or pissaladière (warm flatbread with caramelised onion) and anchovy, olives and parsley for £3.35 or with reblochon cheese and thyme for £3.95 – both almost meals in themselves. Desserts are mostly around the £5 mark. Côte Barbican also opens for breakfast with a seemingly good selection of English style or French offerings – full English at £7.50 (two eggs, bacon, sausage, tomato, mushrooms and toast) for example, or a French style Breakfast Complet (Croissant, fruit salad, yoghurt at £5.25). Good coffee is between £1.95 (espresso) and £2.75 (cafetiere). This is served from 8 am to noon weekdays and from 9am to 1 pm at weekends. There is a fairly comprehensive all- French wine list starting at £14.95 a bottle up to £68 for a Chateau d’Issan 2007 Margaux, but with many good offerings in the £20-30 range – again the kind of level that many of the supposedly classier restaurants would offer their cheapest house wine! Several of the wines are available by the glass at between £4.35 and £6.95 – would recommend the Côte de Gascogne sauvignon blanc at £5.25 – which makes choosing a different wine for each course if one wants a reasonable exercise. As to personal dining experience one can only comment on a snapshot of what is available, but the starters and main courses I and my dining companions have had have been excellent. Breadcrumbed calamari sautéed in garlic lemon and parsley nicely tender – maybe slightly over salted, but very tasty
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nonetheless. An asparagus in hollandaise sauce daily special divine. Chicken liver parfait very good indeed as are the moules marinières and prawn gratinée starters. Dover sole main course special served on the bone was cooked to perfection. Pork belly melt in the mouth. The Breton chicken really moist and very tasty indeed. Excellent frites. Only complaint some rather mediocre green beans which look like they might have seen better days. We were pretty full so shared a dessert – iced berries with white chocolate sauce. Such an easy dish to prepare and delightful to consume! The tables are a little small – however if you can secure one by the window there is a very wide almost table height window ledge which gives lots of extra space.
Overall Côte Barbican is an excellent addition to Barbican area restaurants – and so convenient! Will definitely be eating there again – there’s lots on the menu which looks really good and I haven’t tried yet!
T Sushinho City
he fourth restaurant we are covering this issue is located in Devonshire Square a short distance on the other side of Bishopsgate. Its food theme is Brazilian/Japanese – or perhaps vice versa.
On the face of things perhaps a strange confluence of cuisines, Japanese and Brazilian, but given that Brazil has the largest population of ethnic Japanese outside of Japan itself, perhaps not such a strange combination. Indeed the
This new venue opened in what is the eastern end of the Old Bengal Warehouse – now more of a restaurant and bar warehouse – in the section abutting into the Cutlers Gardens office and residential complex’s western courtyard at the end of Devonshire Square. The restaurant space is large and airy with light wooden tables and chairs and comfortable banquettes along the eastern and southern walls, and seats around 120. However, it was quite empty on the occasion of our visit on the day after the Easter long weekend. We were assured it is usually a lot more busy in the evenings and also at lunchtimes where it has become a popular haunt for local office workers (presumably mostly of the business lunch, or well heeled variety as it’s not a cheap place for a quick lunch). There is a special lunchtime menu at £19.50 which gives a pretty good selection from what is on offer on the a la carte menu. There is also a good-sized, very nicely furnished and exceedingly well stocked lower ground floor bar which does have its own more limited bar menu and is something of a destination venue in its own right, as well as a private dining area seating up to around 20. Both are available for private hire. In reality, Sushinho is more of a Japanese restaurant with Brazilian overtones than vice versa. Sushi, Sashimi, Nigiri, Tempura are all present in numbers on the menu, but there are also plenty of other treats to whet the appetite amongst the sushinho plates, steaks, prawns and fish from the broiler and sandwiches and salads with a distinctive Japanese element. Even with the broiler items the sauces with which they are accompanied are more Japanese perhaps than Brazilian, but the flavour combinations that result are something special.
But, lest I am putting off those who are
not over-happy with Japanese food (I for one am not exactly a sushi fan and am
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