With hotter days and longer nights ahead, people are looking for a lighter alternative meal to tickle their taste buds, with sea food being the preferred option for many.
StyleNest recently visited a little gem situated in a quiet road in the heart of Kensington called Yashin Ocean House in order to sample its new drinks and sharing menu.
Yashin Ocean House is the second of two sister restaurants –the other called Yashin Sushi and Bar, situated on High Street Kensington which focuses entirely on sushi.
Yashin Ocean House offers an exclusive Japanese experience with a pinch of Britishness – not the other way round like many other Japanese restaurants do.
What is unique about the restaurant is that it preaches the head to tail method – no meat is wasted. Roe, flesh and skin will be served. This is important since we live in an age of overconsumption and perfectly fine meat can be trashed. Another feature of the restaurant is that it uses soy sauce during the cooking process, thus eliminating the need to serve the dishes with soy sauce on the side and making your meal healthier.
When arriving at the restaurant, we were greeted by the receptionist, who took care of our coats and showed us to our table. There we were greeted by our lovely waitress. From what we could sense the ambiance and the beautiful presentation of the food, it is an ideal spot for a first date.
The interior was contemporary with a modern twist achieved by the turquoise hub in the middle of the room where experienced chefs did their magic. We loved the open kitchen, the street lamps incorporated into the design and the exposed brick work.
To start, we were given the drinks menu, from which we chose a Smoked Fashion and a London Fun Fair. The London Fun Fair was a lovely mixture of gin, grapefruit, cucumber and mint served in a Mason jar – a drink perfect for summer! The Smoked Fashion was whiskey which was smoked right at our table.
To follow was a selection of mouth-watering treats specially selected for us, the first which was a palette opening prawn bisque with prawn tartare and orange canapé.
The second dish was a Himalayan Salt Bowl Grouper. A mixture of grouper fish in a lemon and coriander juice with cherry tomatoes were released into a salt bowl at the table. The acidity of the lemon juice was balancing out the saltiness of the bowl to achieve a perfectly composed set of different flavours that were provoking our taste buds. Needless to say, its presentation was exceptional.
The third set of small plates we had was sashimi – small tuna, salmon, brill and prawn pieces. It was presented on a plate with dry ice, which oozed an uplifting citrus smell.
We also had Ishiyaki Sukiyaki, which is beef with candy floss and sweet soy sauce, and Paradise Prawns on the side.
Afterwards we had sushi and Miso Cappuccino. The miso was something that I had my eye on since the beginning of our dinner. It is hot soup with cold foam served in a teacup.
To sweeten up our palettes we shared a Miroir Chocolate Cake, which was hands down the best chocolate cake in town.
All of this we enjoyed while sipping on a glass of white Japanese wine, called Koshu.
Yashin Ocean House offers a unique experience to its guests – from the inviting atmosphere to the theatrical presentation of the food. It’s perfect if you are looking something different and this restaurant will surely not leave you disappointed.
A three course sharing meal will cost you £49 per person. The restaurant also offers a long list of cold and hot tapas, sashimi, wagu, tempura, sushi and yashin rolls.