PAN CHAI, HARRODS

Who knew there was a lovely little Japanese restaurant hiding inside Harrods?! I certainly didn't until I was invited to go and check out Pan Chai recently. I thought it was going to be a restaurant "proper" but it's more of a sushi bar on the ground floor, nestled behind the food court. You sit right up at the counter and watch the chefs slice and dice the fish with such great precision. I took Hana with me to try some of the dishes - I've mentioned Hana before as she's one of A Little Lusciousness team for cooking events and pop ups, and I wanted to treat her as she's supported me from nearly the beginning of my cooking ventures.

We wanted to try a range of the menu, which offers sashimi, sushi, salads, grill, tempura and ramen, so started off with some of the Pan Chai signature sushi rolls - the Black Dragon roll, made with tiger prawn tempura, cucumber and avocado, and topped with caviar and unagi sauce. The rolls were perfectly made with just the right amount of filling, sweet sticky sauce and salty caviar to balance them out. A great start....

 
We followed this with hamachi jalapeno salad - Japanese leaves topped with yellowtail sashimi, jalapeno, caviar and fresh wasabi. So light and tasty and something I would definitely stop off for during shopping trips in Harrods.

 
Our second salad was a classic favourite of mine - duck and watermelon. I could've done with more watermelon in Pan Chai's version, but I think at £21.50 a portion they up the amount of duck to make it more worth what you pay. I understand this but for my personal tastes I prefer more juicy chunks of fruit to duck. It was still absolutely delicious though.

 
We shared two grilled jumbo tiger prawns - one with teriyaki sauce and one with Korean spicy sauce. I preferred the teriyaki while Hana's favourite was the spicy one.... each to their own!!

 

We finished our feast on a high with four pieces of Otoro, which Rhea and I had craved at Sosharu recently but couldn't have because they were all out, so made up for it at Pan Chai - melt in the mouth fish served at the optimum temperature to taste it properly. 

 

 

Hana and I had a wonderful evening together - it was great to catch up over good food and not over a hot oven in the kitchen! Pan Chai is pricey, but it's also in the middle of Harrods so I think that's to be expected!! The food is really top quality and as I always say, you pay for what you get! Especially with good sushi.