the salt & pepper diaries

So I’ve been hearing a few rumours for a while now about a supposedly great Japanese restaurant that’s opened in Kentish Town. The first was from a chef who said he’d heard other chef friends had been going and rated it highly. The point of his comment was that if chefs go, it must be good. A couple of other remarks were from other friends who’d heard similar things, but had no idea where it was. I finally asked my stepbrother, a recently qualified sushi chef, but he couldn’t offer any further clues.

So it was a pleasant surprise to walk home last week and stumble right onto it, not five minutes from my house. I blame the iPod and mobile for my ‘zoned’ state whilst walking back and forth to work, as I’ve been traipsing past this now legendary spot for a few weeks and it hasn’t even registered.

This isn’t to say it’s so plain it may as well be invisible, not great for a new restaurant starting out, especially one on the wrong end of Kentish Town High street – can there be a wrong end of Kentish Town? It’s actually well set-up, (very) bijou in size and style and now I know where it is, very clearly visible to all.

Satuma is a Japanese restaurant with a Korean twist, influenced heavily by the Korean manager, Moon-Sang Park. The size of the place is part of the charm – all the food is freshly prepared just feet away from you and Mr.Park is able to provide a full run-down of anything that may seem confusing.

Lunches are very good with a selection of Bento boxes at incredibly good prices; Chicken Teriyaki Bento Box (£6.50), Salmon (£7.00) and the Satuma Bento Box (£8.50).

The sushi – a-la-carte Nigiri and Sashimi are superb - with fish freshly supplied by the same guys who supply the Japan Centre. We also had the Vegetable Gyoza dumplings as a starter along with lightly cooked Tempura and Fried Tofu. To follow, Beef Teriyaki with fresh vegetables and Teriyaki sauce. Very good all round and all very good prices – no Nobu charges here.

I don’t understand enough about good sushi, but now have the perfect excuse with this on the doorstep to learn more and as they do take-away, it will make a change from the pizzas.

This is highly recommended. Head to Kentish Town, turn right out of the tube and you’ll be there and seated in two minutes – that is if they can squeeze you in. One tip, be careful not to confuse this with the Satsuma Japanese restaurant on Wardour Street.

Satuma
8 Fortess Rd
Kentish Town
NW5 2ES
020 7485 7078

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 12:43 am and is filed under Reviews, Restaurants, cafes & bars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.