Authentic Kyoto-style Kaiseki restaurant in London
I’m very privileged to spend time eating exceptional food by very talented chefs. So, my visit to the Japanese restaurant Roketsu fits very neatly into that category and ranks highly as the complete food experience.
Roketsu is the only traditional Kyoto-style Kaiseki restaurant in London. Its Head Chef and owner, Daisuke Hayashi, learned his craft at Kikunoi, a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Kyoto.
Kaiseki is a traditional multi-course Japanese dining experience that showcases seasonal ingredients and presentation. Originating from the Japanese tea ceremony, kaiseki has evolved into a sophisticated culinary art form. A typical kaiseki meal includes a variety of dishes served in a specific order, highlighting different cooking techniques and flavours. Each course is carefully crafted to reflect the season, which is why Roketsu’s kaiseki menu changes every month. The presentation is as important as the taste.
Roketsu is located on charming New Quebec Street, a quiet street full of restaurants, bars, and boutiques tucked behind Marble Arch and Oxford Street. The restaurant itself is pretty special, designed by the talented Nakamura Sotoji Komuten using materials sourced from Kyoto.
What blows my mind is that the Chef creates a new kaiseki menu every month, and the staff have just two days to learn each dish on the new menu. Trust me when I say many dishes are very complex. Tell any Chef that he has to create over one hundred dishes in a year, and you would probably see them running for the door; thankfully, Chef Daisuke seems to take this in his stride, and we are treated to November’s menu of nine courses.
The structure of the menu remains the same each month, and I have listed each course below with a description of what was served to us from the November menu. As mentioned, it is good to see that most of the produce is sourced locally, with sauces and spices coming from Japan.
Kaiseki Course Menu
Listed in serving order;
- Sakizuke, A small seasonal appetiser. Scallop brulee, crab-an
- Hassun, Similar to a Western amuse-bouche, often sets the seasonal theme of the meal. Mizuna, chanterelle, monkfish liver, sweet potato, chestnut, cassava, prawn, squid, walnut, bottarga, quail, smoked salmon and finally beetroot.
- Mukozuke, a sashimi dish of raw fish. Cornish white fish and the fatty part of Tuna called Toro
- Futamono is a lidded dish featuring soup or stew. Red Mullet awa-mushi
- Yakimono is a grilled dish typically served with fish, showcasing grilling skills. Turbot marinated in shio-koji and grilled sea-urchin.
- Sunomono, a vinegared dish with seasonal vegetables, is used as a pallet cleanser. Kaki-namasu, persimmon, daikon, carrot, bergamot, mitsuba and ikura
- Shiizakana is a substantial dish that complements sake. Lobster, kudzu-tataki, Saikyo jitate, turnip, and komatsuna.
- Gohan is a closing dish of rice or noodles with seasonal ingredients. Irish eel and foie gras rice served with shredded egg, clear soup and pickles.
- Mizumono, a seasonal dessert dish. Soy glazed apple tatin, ginger ice cream.
If you are like me, some of the sauces and spices on the list will be new to you, but many are now becoming mainstream in Western kitchens. For reference I have shown in italics what we were served for each dish for November. So that you know, Roketsu lists a complete description of each month’s menu on its website. I will add a link at the end of the article.
So, as the chef’s table was fully booked, we sat down to our 9-course Kaiseki menu in the Bo-sen lounge. The lounge is an intimate room with a relaxed and friendly ambience —the perfect place for our feast.
Good food should employ most of your senses, and at Roketsu, all your senses work overtime.
We started with a Sparkling Sake aperitif, which was new to me and a lovely way to prepare your pallet for so many different flavour sensations.
I’m not going to give you a blow-by-blow description of each course because, quite frankly, dear reader, I would run out of superlatives by course two; I think an entire team of MasterChef celebrity food critics would struggle not to repeat themselves reviewing this menu. I have posted pictures of each course, which hopefully will shine a spotlight on the stunning presentation.
However, I will highlight a few courses. The Hassun course (no 2) contained at least ten different elements and was designed to depict Autumn, I have posted the concept drawing the chef produced next to a picture of the actual dish. I cannot comprehend how much work has gone into this dish alone.
The sashimi course was a delight, and course five was Yakimono, featuring grilled Turbot and very much seasonal sea urchin. The Turbot was marinated in koji. I started using koji to marinate meat last year. It gives a lovely charred effect to meat or fish whilst adding to the tenderness. Needless to say, it worked so well with the king of fish, the turbot. The sea urchin was a great addition, as was the accompanying sauce called kimi-jyoyu, which is egg yolk soy sauce.
Next up was Sunomono, a vinegared dish with seasonal vegetables; we were informed this course is a mid-meal palate cleanser, such a clever idea when eating a multi-course meal. Is it just me, but was this Chef’s playful take on Halloween?
A couple of final mentions: Shiizakana, course seven, is a dish designed to compliment Saki, and November’s dish contained the sweetest lobster kudzu-tataki, Saikyo jitate, turnip, and komatsuna. On the subject of Saki, we enjoyed Kikunoi, which is the name of the 3 Michelin-starred restaurant our chef trained at.
After the final savoury course which was a delightful rice dish with eels it was the turn of the sweet course was a seasonal dish of Soy glazed apple tatin, and ginger ice cream. The tatin was a work of art, and the point of difference was the soy glaze, the ginger ice cream was cooling with a nice warm feeling of fresh ginger.
Hopefully, I have painted a picture of what you can expect from Roketsu’s authentic Kaiseki menu. It is a food experience like no other, and I can highly recommend it. It’s the perfect introduction to the culinary scene of the land of the rising sun. I’m looking forward to seeing what Chef Hayashi has planned for next month, moving from autumn to winter.
Finally, some of you out there might be thinking that I would love to eat at Roketsu, but there is no way I can eat nine courses, which I understand, and it might surprise you that although I’m passionate about food, I’m not a big eater. I ate all the courses feeling nicely full. The lightness of the sauces and the sympathetic cooking of the ingredients make the dishes so delicate. However, if you are still worried, don’t let it put you off, as Roketsu offers a 7-course and A La carte menu.
Roketsu, 12 New Quebec Street, London W1H 7RW
Finally, if you liked this review, you might like to read our review of Ginza St James.
