Category: sushi

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Time for some more Sushi Yama

I was looking for lunch. I was in Sollentuna close to Stockholm in Sweden. I was stranded in Stockholm after the air traffic control system at Heathrow failed and over a thousand flights were cancelled. My flight from Stockholm to London Heathrow was cancelled and I was rebooked onto a flight three days later. So, SAS booked me a hotel for three days. I now had three unplanned extra days in Sweden.

I had enjoyed the sushi from Sushi Yama the day before, so I went there again. Essentially I had the same as the day before with some differences.

I had six different sushi, Flamed Salmon, California Roll, Tuna, Salmon & Avocado, Tuna & Chili Mayo, and Avocado.

plate of sushi

As before, my sushi was made fresh to order. My favourite were the tuna sushi. As with the flamed shrimp, I wasn’t sure about the flamed salmon, I am not sure it added anything. I really enjoyed the sushi and it was very tasty.

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Time for Sushi Yama

I was looking for lunch. I was in Sollentuna close to Stockholm in Sweden. I was stranded in Stockholm after the air traffic control system at Heathrow failed and over a thousand flights were cancelled. My flight from Stockholm to London Heathrow was cancelled and I was rebooked onto a flight three days later. So, SAS booked me a hotel for three days. I now had three unplanned extra days in Sweden.

Close to the Sandic Sollentuna Hotel where was staying was the Sollentuna Centrum shopping centre. In there were plenty of food options.

I did fancy a light lunch, and decided to have some sushi from Sushi Yama. There are set menu choices, but I decided I would choose my own sushi.

I had six different sushi, Nordic Salmon, Crispy Salmon, Flamed Shrimp, California Roll, Tuna, Salmon & Avocado. My sushi was made fresh to order, which wasn’t expected and was a nice surprise.

I enjoyed all the sushi, though the flamed shrimp was my least favourite, it lacked the flavour profile I was expecting. The salmon and tuna was nice and fresh, and I enjoyed the two different maki rolls. The sushi came with pickled ginger, wasabi and spicy mayonnaise.

I was really impressed with the sushi, for what I initially thought was more of a fast food joint, my order was made fresh to order and was prepared quite fast.

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Remembering the Duck at the Hare and Tortoise

Sometimes when eating out, I don’t get a chance to write up the meal I had. Usually for another reason I am checking out that date or location and find photographs of a meal I had. This was the case here, when back in June 2024 I was staying in London at the The Hand & Flower in Olympia.  One of the places I would go for dinner in the area was the Hare & Tortoise in Kensington. This is a London chain specialising in Japanese food.

For a start I had some Tori Katsu Maki. An inside-out seaweed roll filled with deep-fried chicken in panko breadcrumbs with cucumber, avocado, dressed with tonkatsu sauce, mayonnaise and tempura flakes on top.

sushi

These were excellent, really tasty, good mix of textures and flavour.

For a main I had the Roast Duck and Rice.  Slices of roast duck, served on steamed rice with a homemade sauce mixed with cinnamon, aniseed powder and ginger, garnished with Chinese greens and spring onions.

roast duck

This was a generous portion of duck and I thought it was just okay. It was interesting when I had this same dish a couple of months later, I felt similar about the dish. I have to remind myself sometimes that the purpose of this blog is in the main about reminding me what I have eaten, when eating out, and not to order stuff I didn’t like or was not impressed with. I can imagine that over a year or so I might forget, this was just a couple of months!

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Remembering the Sushi at the Hare and Tortoise

Sometimes when eating out, I don’t get a chance to write up the meal I had. Usually for another reason I am checking out that date or location and find photographs of a meal I had. This was the case here, when back in June 2024 I was staying in London at the The Hand & Flower in Olympia.  One of the places I would go for dinner in the area was the Hare & Tortoise in Kensington. This is a London chain specialising in Japanese food.

I went with a selection of sushi. I had the Essential Sushi Box which came with ten pieces of sushi: salmon nigiri, tuna nigiri, octopus nigiri, prawn nigiri, 3 salmon maki and 3 tuna maki.

This was a lovely fresh selection of expertly made sushi. I enjoyed the fact it was (as it should be) made with raw fish. My favourite of the ten was the tuna nigiri.

I also had the California Maki which was an inside-out seaweed roll filled with omelette, avocado, crab stick, cucumber and mayonnaise, garnished with tobiko.

These were beautifully presented and I loved the flavour and textures of the maki.

That really should have been enough but I was intrigued and tempted by the Kani Gunkan or snow crab sushi.

I should have resisted temptation, the snow crab was very watery and lacked flavour. It was not quite what I was expecting.

Despite my (slight) disappointment with the snow crab, the sushi I had were delicious. 

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YO! Bento Box

I was in Leeds thinking about dinner, I passed the YO! branch in Leeds Trinity shopping centre. By the way when did YO! Sushi become just plain old YO!

Usually I don’t go to YO! as it can become quite an expensive meal, but I was a little surprised to see on their menu the prices were (in my t mind) significantly cheaper than I remembered. 

Their green plates were £1.95 and the blue ones were £2.95. Comparing the menu to the Bristol Cribbs branch I saw that the green plates were £3.50 but had more sushi. So I wasn’t misremembering, the prices in Leeds were cheaper. However, in the end I didn’t have small plates, I went with their bento box. These are only available at the following restaurants: Ashford, Belfast, Cheltenham, Exeter, Glasgow Braehead, Guildford & Leeds Trinity.

There are four to choose from and they cost from £9.95 to £17.95 and upgrades are available.

I went with the O! (meaning happiness) box and for £13.95 you got three small plates of sushi and a katsu curry bowl. From my seat I could see they were making my sushi fresh to order.

The sushi were crunchy cali roll, salmon maki with Sakura daikon radish, and smoky mayo popcorn shrimp.

sushi rolls

The shrimp had a nice crispy batter and the salmon maki were good. The crunchy cali rolls were my favourite and very tasty.

I went with the crispy katsu prawn bowl, which was authentic Japanese katsu on steamed rice with tonkatsu sauce and YO! smoky mayonnaise.

prawn katsu curry bowl

I got two large crispy coated prawns and a side of slaw which I wasn’t expecting. It was a very tasty bowl, though I found it challenging to eat with chopsticks so I went with a spoon instead.

I really enjoyed my bento box and I thought (for YO!) was really good value, with a five pound saving on buying the dishes individually from the main menu.

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YO! Sushi Magic Bag

I knew I would be around at the collection time of 8pm so I ordered a Too Good To Go Magic Bag from Yo! Sushi at the Mall at Cribbs Causeway.

The app stated £15 of food for £5.

I got three items.

Pack of o-mega Salmon – 3 YO! roll, 4 salmon nigiri, 4 avocado maki
£8.95

Kaiso seaweed – marinated mixed seaweed, edamame & carrot in a su-miso dressing.
£4.25

Classic edamame
£3.25

Value of Bag
£16.45

So it certainly meets the terms of the deal. However on a previous visit I got almost three times as much sushi, and as they had over-estimated the number of bags, they actually made me some fresh sushi for the bag. So though this bag was a good deal, you can imagine I was a little disappointed as the bag did not meet my unrealistic expectations. Would I go again, probably. 

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Time for Sushi

There are a number of places for sushi in Weston-super-Mare and after doing some research decided we would visit Sakura Finest on the Boulevard. They had a good gluten free offer. They don’t really have an online presence, so I actually went there to check the gluten free options and to book a table. They limit the number of covers they do, so to ensure that everyone has a better experience; over filling the place with people.

On the day itself, we arrived a little early and were given a warm welcome, we took our seats and poured over the menu. There was a lot of choice. I found it difficult to make a decision but got there in the end.

I had some tempura soft shell crab maki.

This was a beautifully presented dish. The crab had a crispy tempura batter and tasted of crab. They were delicious.

I also had a portion of Tori Kuwayaki, crispy chicken in a teriyaki sauce and sesame seeds. 

We had this made gluten free. I did think the salad garnish was a little bit on the large side. The chicken was tender and tasty.

I had some maguro (tuna) nigiri.

The nigiri was presented lovely, and looked fantastic. The tuna was lovely and fresh.

Feeling a little peckish, we ordered some more sushi, and this time I had some hokigai (surf clam) nigiri.

It was very interesting, and I was intrigued about the dish. It again was beautifully presented. The clam was a little chewy, but it was tasty.

Overall we had a delicious meal. 

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Wasabi Sushi

I was in London and needing a quick lunch. Popped out to get something to eat, lots of long queues at my favourite places, so I walked along to Wasabi to get some sushi.

I bought a mixed sushi box, which contained various sushi.

Wasabi Sushi

It was all nice and fresh and rather tasty. The prawns lacked flavour, but otherwise I quite enjoyed the box.

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Yo! Tesco

I don’t go to Tesco that often, usually using other supermarkets. However having enjoyed the Sosu Amoy Donburi Meal Kit which I bought from there I headed there to get another pack and do some shopping. I was a little surprised though to see this new Yo! kiosk in the store.

I didn’t realise that this was both a thing and that there was one in my local Tesco.

They did have a really nice selection of sushi on sale, and I was tempted. Maybe next time I fancy sushi, I might try it out.

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Time for some great sushi at Obon

I have enjoyed sushi from various places, but Obon in Kingston upon Thames was excellent. Visiting family in Kingston back in August, one night we headed out for a meal. Our destination was Obon, a small sushi restaurant.

There is quite an extensive menu, but everything is made fresh to order.

We ordered the 12 pieces of assorted nigiri.

12 pieces of assorted nigiri.

We could see this being made to order. There was a wide choice, from smoked eel, salmon, tuna, scallops and prawns.

We also ordered cucumber and avocado maki, as well as some tempura.

The sushi was delicious and I really enjoyed it.