Weekly Review: Sushisamba
With sumptuous decor and great food, it's easy to see why it's gone global.
Quick hit: Japan-inspired delights accessible to anyone.
Details: Booking advised. City & Covent Garden. £££.
Restaurant website. More on Instagram.
Find it on Google Maps (City and Covent Garden).
City: Heron Tower, City of London, London EC2N 4AY
Covent Garden: 35 The Market, London WC2E 8RF
My preferred specimen of Levi’s jeans (511s) now comes with a stretchy waste band — at least if you buy them in the U.S. This was very good news on the morning on 2 January when I was contemplating the day’s attire.
As I mentioned earlier, I’m using January as an excuse to try to eat a little healthier. So with the day off on the 2nd, and the sun shining, I was planning a vigorous walking excursion across London. A visit to the British Museum then a walk to St. Paul’s then onto the Tower of London.
But I wanted a good lunch along the way. Somewhere with healthy options, table, service, and a pleasant vibe.
After much frustration and many failed Google searches, I settled on Sushisamba.
Its online menu helpfully offers calorie counts, and I could see a fair number of dishes that sounded both healthy and nice to eat.
The Covent Garden branch was the perfect stop following a morning at the British Museum.
I appreciate that Sushisamba is now a global chain with locations from Vegas to Singapore, but some places are successful for a reason, and the Sushisamba concept really works.
The decor is sumptuous, bright, and rich. It’s warm and a real feast for the eyes. The Covent Garden location is upstairs in the old market building, and the right table offers a view of the tourists below.
The City branch is even more appealing, at the top of Heron Tower with stupendous views for miles around and similarly warm decor.
In keeping with every trend, the food comes when it comes, but in this case, my assortment of dishes arrived sensibly.
Miso soup to start. 38 calories, filling, with those wonderful, tiny mushrooms that are packed with umami. Just what I needed to warm up after my walk from the BM.
Then there was green salad. Fresh green and shaved asparagus with some avocado and sesame dressing. Topped with tempura made from microscopic ribbons of seaweed. 216 calories of deliciousness. And after weeks of holiday food and sugar, just what my body was crying out for.
Next was “Poussin” teriyaki with pomegranate seeds. The chicken was tender and perfectly done. The sauce was sticky with strong flavour. And the pomegranate seeds weren’t as annoying as I expected. 282 calories.
536 in total. The perfect lunch (for me, in healthy mode). And I should have asked for the bill. But instead, I had a California roll. Which was excellent. Real crab — none of that fake stuff here — and cucumber prepared by someone with superb knife skills in tiny matchsticks. Wonderfully creamy. It was sushi for the win, and I loved every bite. Moreover, it didn’t entirely ruin my attempt at a low-cal lunch.
There were other healthy options on the menu, too, including eggplant and asparagus plus sashimi, of course.
And I had a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The service was attentive. The atmosphere was pleasant. And it set me up for an excellent afternoon continuing my walk across London.
My only complaint was about the calorie counts: I’d seen them online while researching, but they do not appear in the version of the menu that’s actually given to customers in the restaurant. I wonder why that it is. Not enough to spoil the experience, but my mission was only a success because I’d happened to spot the information I needed on the website. More on that next week.
Bottom line: Sushisamba is a great choice for a Professional Lunch, whether in the City or Covent Garden. You can eat healthy or gorge on Japanese delights. Either way, you’ll enjoy yourself immensely.
Thanks for reading my review this week. Where do you go for a healthy lunch in London? Let me know in the comments. And here are some shots from my walk around London.
It's funny, I wrote a review of the Sushisamba in Dubai and, in the run up, I wondered who still wants to eat at this place some 20 years after the chain started. To my surprise, I enjoyed it much more than I expected. The food was fine but it's really the whole experience that made it a pretty successful date night. In other news, Duck and Waffles recently opened in Dubai and, again, I cannot bring myself to go for the same reasons; but I could be wrong.