Ginza St James

1 Location

Ginza St James can be found at 15 Bury Street. Bury St is off Jermyn Street, which is off St James Street. The nearest station is Green Park (a 5-minute walk) & a mere 6 minutes from Piccadilly Circus station.

2 Restaurant

The Japanese word Ginza comes from the words gin, meaning silver & za, meaning guild,   Ginza is the most glamorous shopping district in Tokyo, similar to Oxford Street or New Bond Street. 

The exterior of Ginza is impressive & once inside, we make our way upstairs to the main restaurant. As you would expect, the decor in the main restaurant is calm & peaceful; the decor uses stone-clad walls with furnishings using a mix of greys & light wood tables. The main restaurant is divided from the other areas with light wood panels and mirrors. 

There are several Private dining spaces, a private 7-seat Teppanyaki room, where you can sit around one large table, and the chef is centerstage. Another small private dining area & for larger groups, there are semi-private dining areas.

3 Our meal: A journey through Japan

Once seated, we are greeted by Richard Jayakody, the restaurant manager. Richard talks through the various areas of the Ginza St James menu. I confess to my lack of knowledge of Japanese cuisine & we all agree that leaving the menu selection to Richard was the best option. Being honest was the best policy here, as right from the start, it was clear we were in safe hands.

We were advised to go for the tasting menu with drink pairings, another good recommendation.

For this review, as there were six courses, including desserts, I will list the restaurant’s tasting notes on the food and drinks, and then I’ve added our thoughts on each course.

4 First Course:

Yellow tail carpaccio – thin slices of Yellowtail served with a gentle topping of finger limes and yuzu

infused soy, finished with coriander cress

Spicy tuna tartare – Mix of Akami, Chutoro and

( all the 3 cuts of tuna from the back to the

belly) dressed with aka (red) miso and gochujang with a touch of onion ponzu

Seaweed Kyuri Sunomono Salad – Mix Seaweed salad with sweet sesame dressing and yuzu soy

Asahi Dassai 45 Junmai Dai Ginjo

Premium sake has dreamy honeydew melon aromas and a light tropical fruity taste. Using top-

grade sake rice milled down to 45% to remove impurities, Dassai 45 delivers supremely

balanced sake with mild acidity – great as a gift for newbies.

Grade: Junmai Daiginjo

Brewery: Asahi

Region: Yamaguchi

Rice polishing: 45%

This was a lovely way to start our meal, with many flavours going on here, but all aimed at complementing the Tuna. The tuna Tartar was delightful, and we were amazed at how different each cut of Tuna was in taste & appearance. The seaweed salad was the perfect accompaniment to the two Tuna dishes. 

Side Note: A few months ago, I  bought Yuzu soy sauce from a Japanese store; it works like a really good vinegar and brings out the flavours in vegetables, fish & meat. It is worth giving it a try & adds a little sparkle to dishes.

I’ve digressed slightly, but back to the first course, the Sake was lovely and served chilled. It was earthy & dry, and it went perfectly with the Tuna. As a newbie to Sake, it was the perfect choice.

5 Second Course:

Okra Tempura – Fried until golden and seasoned with sancho salt and served with yuzu koshu aioli

Lobster Tempura – Lightly buttered and served with tendashi sauce and spicy mayonnaise

Sapporo Beer –  is a Japanese beer brewing company founded in 1876. Sapporo is the oldest brand of beer in Japan. It was first brewed in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, in 1876 by brewer Seibei Nakagawa.

As tradition dictates, we have a fried course. Cooking Tempura is an art in itself; it needs to be light, crispy & not greasy.   The Okra was a good accompaniment to the beautiful Lobster, served in small bite-sized pieces. But dipping the Lobster into the spicy mayo was just divine; it was a real wow moment. Judging by our waiter’s reaction, we were not the first to mention how good the mayonnaise was.

The drink pairing was a beer; I have to admit eyebrows were raised when the beer arrived.

 Don’t get me wrong, we both like a beer but never had one on a drinks pairing menu, which is precisely why drink pairings done well are so good.

Needless to say, the beer worked so well with the tempura dishes.  

6 Third course:

10 Pcs Nigiri platters – each individual nigiri is made with a specific topping of marinated quality fish quality fish;

Otoro (Rich marble Tuna), Chutoro(MarbleTuna), Akami (Tuna), Botan Ebi Hamachi(Jumbo shrimp), Suzuki (Yellow tail Tuna), Tai(sea bream), Hirame(turbot), Sake (salmon) and Hotate (Scallop)

I like how we went from the first raw course to fried tempura and back to raw fish. 

When you see the selection of fish we were served, it was hard not to like: three tuna cuts on their own platter with Wasabi & pickled ginger, each one with its own distinctive flavour. Then, each Nigiri sushi,  A small portion of vinegared sushi rice with raw fish, each fish had a different topping to add individual flavour. Beautifully presented, not the first time today. It would be repetitive to list all the Nigri again, but suffice it to say the combination of raw fish, rice & topping is something I will never get tired of. This is a strange description, but Sushi is so clean on the palette; the raw fish allows the natural flavours to shine through, complemented by the tiny garnish on top of the fish.

The wine was the most unusual in our pairings; it loosely reminded us of a very dry sherry. The fermentation process & skin maceration & then aged for 22 months in oak barrels, produced this very dry, slightly unusual taste, which worked perfectly with the raw fish, much like how Sake complemented the first course.

Wine; Benjamin Zidarich, Vitovska- Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy

7 Fourth Course:

Miso Mustard Chilean Seabass

Chilean seabass and okra wrapped in Ohba leaf and finished with a gentle brush of mustard miso.

Ohba is a very aromatic leaf and a key ingredient of Japanese cuisine, and by wrapping the seabass in Ohba and steaming the fish, it absorbs all the aromas and moist from the leaf and the okra.

Wine: Thorne & Daughters “Rocking Horse” Cape, White blend South Africa.

The wrapped Sea Bass was unwrapped from the Ohba leaf at the table, and already we knew this was going to be delicious.

The sea bass was thick & meaty & perfectly cooked in the Ohba leaf, which retained the juices from the fish & okra. A quick thumbs up to the mustard miso. It added to the flavour without overpowering the fish.

The South African white was dry but had the right balance of acidity to balance the flavours of the fish.

8 Final Course:

Kobe Gyu – house favourite meat, Ginza, is one of the eight restaurants in the UK with a certificate confirming accreditation in selling real Kobe.

Known for its flavours, marble and mouthwatering property. For most, it is considered the best beef in the world.

Wine; Johanneshof Reinish – Pinot Noir, Thermenregion, Austria,

Like the headline act at Glastonbury, the Kobe Gyu beef arrived. The crowd was waiting for this moment, and boy, it delivered. This was my first experience of Kobe Gye, and this has to be the benchmark for melt-in-the-mouth beef.

It almost dissolved in your mouth; we were both in awe of the flavour of the Kobe. At this stage of the meal table, the conversation was replaced by the odd grunt of approval.

 Two dipping sauces were served with the beef. Unfortunately, they were redundant. This is a big statement as I will only eat beef with good mustard or my favourite bearnaise sauce. This star act did not need any backing singers.

The Austrian Pinot Noir was a lovely choice & worked so well with the beef. Austrian wines seem to be very underrated & in the shadows of the larger European wine-producing countries. 

9 Dessert Course

 Coconut Silken tofu – it’s a coconut pannacotta served with a couli of yuzu and strawberries.

The analogy with the tofu is simply due to the look of the pannacotta with firm and shining like a chilled tofu.

 Matcha (green tea) pannacotta topped with kuromitsu, an unrefined Japanese black sugar and fruits. 

We shared both dishes, and I can report that both pannacotta passed the wobble test & finished off our journey of courses perfectly. 

10 Final thoughts…

This was my first gastronomic journey through the cuisine of Japan it will not be my last. The stunning presentation & the subtle flavours bring out the very best of the quality ingredients. 

As for Ginza St James’s, you can see from my comments above that the food was sublime. My guest Michael described it as “Best in Class”. I’m not going to pick favourites. However, the beef will live long in my memory. Also, could I have a jar of the spicy mayo served with the tempura lobster?

I recommend the drink pairing. Yes, it adds to the overall cost, enhancing our dining experience. I took us out of our comfort zone, which is a good thing & a big compliment to the team at Ginza especially Wine Director Angelo Lorea

Finally,  a nod to the service we received; with so many courses, the timing of each from start to finish was impeccable. you really do not want to be served too quickly, but then again, you must keep the courses flowing. It was uncanny that the next course arrived just at the right moment. Richard and his team were always happy to explain each dish & created a relaxed atmosphere in the restaurant.

Ginza St James’s, 15 Bury St, St. James’s, London SW1Y 6AL.

Ginza St James reservation and website

If you liked this review, then you might want to read our review of Roketsu, an authentic Kaiseki restaurant in London’s Marylebone