It turns out last Friday night was a popular night for dates! Jim surprised me by booking a table at the small branch of
Ukai Sushi on Wandsworth Road, Lambeth. "Table booked for 8pm, be ready for quarter to" the last message he sent me at work that day said, but it didn't include any details of where we were going...Luckily I had an inkling it would be this sushi restaurant as I'd been banging on about it for weeks before. Neither of us had eaten sushi out before, and my sushi expertise only entended to the little lunch packs you can get from Tescos or M&S, so I was really looking forward to it.
We started with a small jug of hot Sake, not out of pleasure, but Jim had never had it before and I thought it a staple part of first-time Japanese dining. Surprisingly, we got through the whole jug (it did seem to get nicer after a few egg-cup-fulls!) Miso soup (£2) and Endamame beans (£2.50) were next and addictively salty. I could eat Endamame beans until I die.
We followed with the tuna and salmon mixed platter and the jumbo mixed platter for mains (about £13-16 a platter).
I know that most sushi consists of raw fish, but I was still a bit unsure about the seemingly huge slabs of plain, raw tuna and salmon atop of raw carrot and onion on the selection platters. But once they were dipped in soy sauce they tasted fine, although it took some self-distraction to not keep thinking about how there was a chunk of raw fish swilling about your mouth for 30 seconds...To take my mind off it, I dared Jim to eat a pea-sized lump of Wasabi with hilarious consequences!
The house white wine was nothing to write home about - not sure if it was Japanese or just a budget brand.
All in all a very intimate and cute little restaurant, well-worth a visit if you've never had sushi and if you're not keen on the raw fish aspect, there are plenty of other options including vegetables, beef and duck.
Ciao!
