Last updated: April 30, 2024
No matter how many new Japanese restaurants open in London, there’s one you know you can rely on for delicious, beautifully presented food in a glamorous setting – Aqua Kyoto.
The inconspicuous doorway on Argyll Street just a stone’s throw from London’s Oxford Circus hides an incredible space upstairs – featuring a stylish bar area, the Aqua Kyoto dining room, rooftop terrace and Spanish restaurant Aqua Nueva.
With dark and moody lighting and cosy booths, it’s the perfect place to meet friends after work, or for a fancy date. If you’re heading here for dinner it’s worth meeting early and hanging out in the bar area while you savour and enjoy some of the best cocktails that London has to offer. ‘Big in Japan’ served in a ramekin with a sweet red jellied fish hidden in a box under it, offers up a delightful combo of Java Mur Signature Rum, Yuzu Sake, Suze Liqueur and Yellow Chartreuse. The smooth high quality rum with some spice and bitterness from the liqueur along with notes of citrus and a hint of turmeric from the chartreuse makes this an aromatic must order!
Excited to get started on what looked like an incredible menu, we relied heavily upon our waiter to guide us. Starting with rock shrimp tempura while we sipped on our heavenly cocktails, we devoured the juicy seafood bites sealed in light crispy batter, dowsing them in spicy chili with a good kick of heat (but not too much) and a very garlicky mayo (just how I like it.)
The four piece gyoza (sounds like a band!) delivered a harmonious blend of crisp crescents packed with delicate black cod and elevated by the accompanying dots of mizuna miso.
Tuna tataki arrived next, pretty as a picture with thin slices of bright pink tuna carrying raft-like, a red flower and a bright yellow scoop of shiso sorbet with all its herbaceous goodness. The fermented tomato sauce was then poured around the plate for some added theatre and extra flavour.
A glorious arrangement of nigiri followed offering up a selection of akami (blue fin), hamachi (yellow tail), salmon, madai (red snapper), and seabass. Nothing beats the rich and distinctive flavour of akami – king of the tuna family, but buttery yellow tail and those irresistible notes of umami from the madai made them close contenders.
Another theatrical pour of champagne yuzu miso accompanied an absolutely outstanding slab of marinated Chilean sea bass – the sweet champagne yuzu hit all the high notes – crisp, tangy, sweet, while the flaky fish dipped in this combo was the highlight of the meal.
An Aqua Kyoto signature – the black cod with kamameshi rice, ikura and pickled ginger was a slight disappointment in comparison to the rest of our outrageously good dinner, but was still rather tasty depending on what you managed to capture via the chopsticks. Kamameshi meaning ‘kettle rice’ is a traditional Japanese rice based dish served in an iron pot called a kama with the dish arriving containg the various ingredients which are then vigorously mixed in the pot. Decorated with ikura (red caviar), this was a rather filling end to the savoury courses of our meal.
Having reached a point where we weren’t sure we couldn’t eat any more, the dessert menu proved too tempting and before we knew it, we were ordering one each! Having eaten the black sesame fondant before which comes with the smoothest, creamiest, most delicious green tea ice cream, I ordered the same again. My friend went for the ‘Forest Floor’ aptly named as the dish looked like a enchanted forest on a plate when it arrived! With a tonka flavoured panna cotta, chocolate brownie twigs, a matcha crumble as the forest bed and a refreshing raspberry sorbet on top, the combination of flavours was quite simply out of this world. Sweet chocolate, creamy, delicate tonka, sharp raspberry and all the textures combined made this one of my favourite desserts – possibly ever.
Time seems to stand still when you’re at Aqua Kyoto, the lighting, the music and the food makes for an intoxicating experience and we were surprised to discover that we’d probably been in the restaurant and bar about 4 hours! No matter how many new Japanese restaurants come along, Aqua Kyoto is still high on the list – every single dish executed beautifully.
Book your lunch, dinner or bottomless offering at Aqua Kyoto, here.
