UNI, VICTORIA

I'm a big fan of both Japanese and Peruvian cuisine so put the two together and I'm a very happy blogger. Nikkei cuisine - a fusion of Japanese and Peruvian cooking - seems to have become really popular in London in recently, and UNI in Victoria is a fine example of where it's done well. I was invited to review the restaurant so took the boy along with me to eat all the food!

But before food comes drinks. Such pretty drinks. For me it was the sake with pineapple juice and passion fruit - I can't remember the actual name of the cocktail, but it was deliciously fruity, not too sweet and served perfectly cold on a warm day. The boy had the raspberry daiquiri, which was so cold he got brain freeze!! But left it for a few minutes to de ice, and really enjoyed the rest of the drink.

We nibbled on edamame while we waited for the our food to come. They were just edamame but they were good. Still warm and sprinkled with flakes of sea salt.

The restaurant had arranged a set menu for us to showcase various dishes they serve. This was wonderful, apart from a lot of the dishes containing chilli, so they very sweetly arranged for non chilli dishes for the boy, including excellent king crab tacos with lime and coriander.

They also gave the boy butterfish ceviche, which I don't is even on the menu. The fish was so soft it just melted in the mouth - I can see why it's called butterfish.

The boy's butterfish was in place of the seabass ceviche that I had. It was one of the best versions I've tried of this - seabass ceviche in tiger milk with aji amarillo (a Peruvian yellow chilli pepper),  choclo (Peruvian corn), red onion and sweet potato, topped with crunchy corns. The fish was so fresh, and still firm after the perfect amount of marinating and I really like the punchy tigers milk sauce and all vegetables in it.

Another favourite were the prawn gyoza dumplings with ponzu sauce. These were packed with prawns and excellent dipped in the slightly sharp ponzu. I love gyoza, and will be posting a recipe/how to make guide on here soon.

Next up was the sushi platter. All the food at UNI was gorgeous to look at, and the taste matched the beautiful presentation. We had tuna sashimi, butterfish ngiri and dragon maki rolls - prawn tempura, freshwater eel and avocado. All of the sushi had really generous portions of filling/topping and it was all really good. Though I was suddenly feeling really full having added rice to the mix!

But we had to make room as there was more to come. We finished the savoury course with two fish dishes - salmon teriyaki, which was delightful. Perfectly cooked fish with a noticeable but delicate teriyaki flavour.

And the absolute winner - the miso black cod. Cooked to perfection and so tasty, we really tried to eat all of this, but we were so full we had to ask to take it away with us, and polished it off the next day. As the waiter said "this dish is so good, but it's even better if you're hungry!" And he was right.

Despite needing to unbutton the trousers at this point, there was more to come. Sadly I'm not really a fan of mochi, and as we were trying a set menu this was the only option for dessert. But it didn't matter because a) I was too full to eat another morsel of food and b) the boy is a fan of mochi so he sampled all 3 - the mango, vanilla and green tea, and judging by the speed he ate them and the nearly clean plate afterwards, they were apparently very good!

UNI is doing one of my favourite cuisines very well and I will definitely be back for my ceviche and black cod fix. It's located 2 minutes walk from Victoria, and although it's not the cheapest option for this type of food in London it is one of the best, so worth those few extra pounds in my opinion. For more information, to book or to find out where the restaurant is, check out their website here.