O Satsuma restaurantO Satsuma
On entry it looked like a Wagamama copy, and on appearance it is. It is a formula that works. However, the food is so much better. Not saying Wagamama is bad, I'm just saying this is good stuff.
I was in London on business and decided to meet up with Max whilst I was there. After a couple of cheeky beers in O'Neills at the end of Chinatown we went up Wardour Street. There was a small queue but it quickly died down. I am told it is a very, busy place especially on the weekends.
I went for the Prawn and Vegetable Tempura instead of the more expensive Prawn Tempura which had 6 instead of 3 prawns. It was superbly down. Very light coloured and fluffy batter. Badly done tempura is thick and stodgy, like Chinese style batter. Tempura is more about the freshness of the content and the lightness of the coating. These were very good.
Max went for the Chicken Katsu Curry. It was his usual so it must be good enough for a return. There was plenty of it. After a hard day's coding, this was what Max was looking forward to.
I went for the Bara Chirashi. It sounded nice but when it came, I wish I had a camera. It looked fantastic. A large bowl of rice with small pieces of tuna and salmon sashimi throughout. The softness was offset by small crunchy cubes of cucumber. On the top was a large decorative green leaf with pickled ginger and wasabi. I think the leaf is called shiso and is Japanese basil. What really made it striking was the different fish roe: red, black and yellow. I was honestly taken aback by it all.
I love my food but this is one of the few times when the sight was just fantastic. On another note, it tasted fantastic as well!
Pricewise it wasn't too bad. £38 for one starter, two mains and a bottle of red wine. They do include a 12.5% service charge which is a bit large and unusual, for us Northern cum South Coast types.
