WAZEN, KINGS CROSS

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Japanese food - in fact, for a regular meal out, I'd probably choose Japanese over any other cuisine - I love the clean, fresh flavours and I like the prevalence of fish in the menus, as it makes for a satisfactory yet not overly heavy meal. So when a new Japanese restaurant opens in London I always try to get there to check it out. Wazen opened in Kings Cross in October and I went along to see what all the fuss was about - I'd read only good things about it from some of my favourite food writers in the few weeks it had been open.

The first surprise of the evening was the person to greet me when I arrived - the lovely Ken who used to work at Kanada-ya is now working at Wazen. Always smiling and so knowledgeable about food, Kanada-ya's loss is Wazen's gain. Wazen is in the old Prince Albert pub on Acton Street in Kings Cross, and due to still having the old pub exterior, with the sign still almost intact, I couldn't actually find the restaurant when I first got there. But when I did I was welcomed into the large dining room, full of wooden tables and stools and the old pub bar that's now serving as the restaurant's bar.

I was invited to review Wazen so we were given a tasting menu to try. Every dish was exquisite - beautifully presented and utterly delicious. Chelone, who's been working on photos for my book, came to review with me, hence the much better than normal photos in this post. He's an excellent food photographer, so drop him a line if you want any reasonably priced, top quality food pics done - I can't wait for you to see the photos he's taken for my book, though you'll have to wait a while longer for those!

First up, after a few edamame to snack on, was the agedashi tofu. What I love about tasting menus that the restaurant choose for you are the dishes that I'd never choose for myself. I would never pick tofu on a menu - I think of it as a bit bland and generally a waste of stomach space, but this was fantastic. Deep fried tofu wrapped in wonton skins, served in a mushroom based sauce that had such depth of flavour, with a dashi foam, which didn't really add anything to the dish. But it didn't need anything added. The mushroom sauce/soup was the kind of broth that felt like it had serious healing powers!

 

 
Second to the table was a dish I definitely would've chosen myself - salmon zuke - seared salmon with kimizu dressing, which was made from egg yolk and vinegar, a sort of Japanese mayonnaise - the tangy acidity of the dressing perfectly complemented the sweet salmon.

 
Having said that I like Japanese food for the fish led menus it was nice to try some meat dishes on Wazen's menu too. The first of two chicken dishes we tried rivals Kricket's KFC in terms of juicy fried chicken. The chicken kakinotane was sublime - chicken thigh coated in crumbled Japanese rice cracker, the chicken was so tasty and the deep fried cracker had a wonderful nuttiness to it.

 

The Wazen salad was a good dose of our five a day. I love beetroot anyway and this plate of roasted beetroot, golden beetroot, yuzu daikon, edamame, salmon roe, pomegranate, tonbruri kochia seeds (sometimes known as land caviar due to their texture and saltiness), shiso cress, cervil and chrysanthemum petals, with a yuzu dressing, was spot on. A refreshing vegetable interlude between the other plates.

 
Then we were on to sashimi. Beautifully cut pieces of tuna, salmon and butterfish were so, so fresh. We were given a lighter soy sauce to match the fish served on its own.

 
With our sashimi we had the isaribi sushi platter - three pieces of ngiri topped with the same fish as the sashimi platter, and the salmon and avocado roll. All perfectly made and a really good ratio of fish to rice. I don't like it when there's too much rice which then dominates the sushi pieces. The isaribi platter was served with a different soy sauce than that with the sashimi - it's the little touches like this that make Wazen a step above a lot of other Japanese restaurants in London.

Last but not least for savoury dishes was chicken namban. Pan fried baby chicken with a thick namban sauce and julienne vegetables. Again, the chicken was succulent and flavoursome, and the namban sauce was divine - it's a pickle type sauce that the chicken is marinated in, which is then reduced down to an unctuous, thick sauce for the dish. It was all topped with a Japanese style tartare sauce that kept it light and fresh.

Throughout the meal we had sake pairings to match each set of dishes - sohomare karakuchi (a 15% premium dry sake made with Yamadanishiki rice) for the first dishes, kawashin (15% with hints of chestnut and lychee water, with an almost salty taste) for the sushi and sashimi, and omachi (made with omachi rice, and again at 15% abv, it has a soft yet rich flavour) for the namban chicken. I really enjoyed the first two particularly, and could see why they'd been chosen to pair with the plates as they really complimented the food. It was great to sample sakes chosen by the restaurant as I'd have no idea where to even start when choosing sake with food.

Puddings were matcha tiramisu which really just tasted like a decadent tiramisu that had been dusted with matcha powder. I'm not a huge fan of puddings anyway, and by this stage was struggling to eat anymore after so much food, but I preferred the tiramisu to the other pudding which was a matcha chiffon cake - chiffon cake is a sponge made with oil rather than butter so is very light in texture, but it didn't really do it for me. My advice would be to fill up on the delicious starters and mains and maybe just skip dessert!

 

Photos by Chelone Wolf - Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

 
If you want excellent Japanese food in a relaxed environment, served by those with real knowledge of the food who are able to guide you through drinks to enjoy with each dish, then definitely check out Wazen. Full info, their address and menu can be found on their website. Dishes range from £3 for nibbles, to £17.50 for the black cod main, which is really reasonable compared to what other Japanese restaurants charge for their versions of that dish. I'm looking forward to trying the black cod, as well as the teriyaki cream soft shell crab and the spicy tuna roll next time I'm there.