Cubé — Restaurant in London

In a nutshell, the chef forgot the customer's food preference and also forgot to serve all 10 pieces in the omakase course.

I made a booking with high expectations based on a recommendation from a Japanese restaurateur in London. Upon arrival on a cold and rainy Saturday evening, no one offered to take customers' coats. It also took quite a long time for waiters to notice finished plates and to take them away.

Food-wise, for £80 you can get better sushi elsewhere in London. Temperature control was inconsistent as some of the fish was too cold. Some of the rice also broke apart (e.g. the rice in the unagi nigiri). It was also not well paced, as the chef served sushi before I could finish the previous one. I was the only customer sitting at the counter, not sure what the rush was all about.

When I ordered the omakase course and the waiter asked if I had any dietary restriction or food preference, I said that I do not want salmon and the waiter clearly communicated this to the chef in Japanese. Unfortunately the chef forgot about this and I was still served a salmon nigiri.

I was going to overlook this (though I do wonder what would happen if customers have food allergies), but the last straw was when the waiter then walked up with the menu, said my omakase course was finished and asked if I wanted to order anything else. I told him I hadn't had all of the 10 pieces included in the omakase course. The waiter didn't quite believe me and reiterated again that all pieces of sushi were already served. I then had to proceed to show him the photos on my phone and count the pieces I had, which was embarrassing and very awkward. At that point they finally realised that they forgot to serve some pieces (for example they hadn't served me the unagi nigiri).

After that, they did apologise and offer to make extra pieces of sushi, and they also took 10% off the bill and did not charge for service. However, having had omakase in Japan, other places in Asia, and in London, this really was a disappointing experience with mistake after mistake. Normally chefs in omakase restaurants have to look after 5-10 customers (or even more) at any one time. It was not a busy evening and I was the only customer sitting at the sushi counter. Further, when I once dined in a sushi restaurant before where the chef forgot to serve all pieces, they promptly made up for it when the customer raised it instead of second-guessing the customer with the customer having to go through sushi photos on the phone to prove it. It really was not satisfactory. Unfortunately I...

Nigiri was good with clear explanations, including the origin of fish by the chef at the sushi counter. But one nigiri was missing, making it just 9 pieces, not 10 as advertised on their omakase menu. So I raised that with the server to see which nigiri was missing.

The server queried if I had forgotten to take photos, and I was fuming inside why customers were required to provide photo evidence of what they ate and what not. Then I replied calmly I could show her the time when the photos were taken (consistency of everything I had taken photos of). I took written notes of each nigiri as the chef explained the ingredients and took photos of the chef working and the final product. I genuinely enjoyed the exquisiteness of Japanese cuisine.

The restaurant was very busy around 6pm on a Monday evening when customers rushed in all at the same time for dinner service. The chef did slice a bunch of akami, chutoro, and otoro, but none landed on my plate as the first nigiri. My first nigiri was hamachi.

After the server and the chef communicated in Japanese, Chef responded in Japanese that he would do the 10th nigiri I guessed from his body language. The server said in English to me that the chef was sure there was no mistake but could do that as complimentary. When presenting the bill, they put the other two nigiri on the side as complimentary as well.

The experience would have been better if they acknowledged the missing nigiri and provided it, rather than going through the argument, not apologetic, yet with "complimentary" food. After the 10th nigiri was served, I was 100% sure that was the missing piece. I did not have it on my plate as the chef said that should be the first nigiri. And when I looked through the photos of the busy kitchen, I spotted the nigiri of the same type on at least two separate platters serving the customers at the table, not at the counter. The restaurant could take this to verify with their orders around the same time at 6pm.

Foodwise, all went well; the argument with the server about the missing piece on the omasake menu...

I thought their omakase menu is very reasonably priced considering its location, and I heard many great reviews from friends so I was excited.

I doubt the sushi chef actually has a passion for what he does. He was quite clumsy with his handling of the nirigi - toppings kept felling off and the wrapping of seaweed on a Gunkan maki was rather messy. The whole experience felt very rushed. His movements were closed to smacking the sushi on the plate. I overheard his conversation with another customer, which he seemed impatient and to a certain extent - rude.

On to the food - the order of the fishes served felt a little off balance. Some fishes were fishy such as the halibut and akami. I was very much looking forward to the uni but again, it was fishy and weren’t plumped. The best pieces of the meal were scallop (so sweet!) with caviar and the seared wagyu. The yuzu sorbet was a nice and refreshing ending to the meal.

There was a couple next to us having the oamakse too, they arrived slightly later than us but we were eating at the same pace. We were all waiting for the temaki roll at the end, then they got theirs before we did and the chef started preparing something else? I had to ask if our course has finished to give them a hint that we didn't get the temaki...

Apparently, the master sushi chef doesn't work on Sundays (when I visited)? I will definitely bear that in mind next time. Other waiting staff was friendly and professional. It was a shame that the omakase experience wasn't comprehensive nor impressive on...