Romeo San — Restaurant in London

Short version: If you want to pay £1 per minute to be rushed out of a nearly empty restaurant, this is your place

Long version: Where to begin? I haven’t had such a disappointing dining experience in London in a very long time. Usually, something, the service, the food, the atmosphere manages to redeem the meal, but this place had nothing going for it. We arrived to a nearly empty restaurant and were greeted with a cold, unwelcoming atmosphere. The chef stared blankly at us as we entered, not exactly a warm start. We chose to sit at the end of the counter. The drink selection was extremely limited, and there were no desserts on offer. We ordered the set menu of six temakis, which turned out to be a complete letdown. The seaweed was chewy instead of crisp, clearly poor quality. Each roll tasted exactly the same, overwhelmingly dominated by chili flakes, you couldn’t taste the fish or anything else. The rice made up about 90% of each roll, was piping hot and completely unseasoned, while the fish inside was ice cold and mashed into an unrecognizable texture. It was like eating flavorless mush. The rolls came out far too quickly, leaving no time to enjoy or even process each one, not that there was much to enjoy. Midway through what felt like the shortest meal of our lives, a staff member interrupted to ask if we wanted to order anything else, we hadn’t even finished the set menu. As soon as we were done, they immediately returned to ask again, and when we declined, they rushed to clear our plates, brought over a pre-split bill (oddly assuming we wouldn’t be paying together), and handed us the card machine in under a minute. To top it all off, as we were gathering our things, another staff member asked if the bag on the chair next to me was mine, not to be helpful, but because they wanted to seat someone there. Mind you, the restaurant was still 80% empty, and the hooks under the table are too narrow to hang a bag anyway. The whole interaction felt like a push to get us out as fast as possible. We left after just under 45 minutes, having paid £44.44: essentially £1 per minute for a thoroughly unenjoyable experience. An hour later, we passed by the restaurant again, and some of the people who were seated before us were still there. Were we rushed out because we didn’t order more? That’s hard to do when you have five drink options and no dessert. I honestly don’t know if the 5-star reviews for this place are fake, paid for, or just written by people with no taste or understanding of what a proper hand roll should be, but we definitely felt misled. In short, this place is a disaster. I don’t see it lasting long. For a proper experience, I recommend Sumi, Temaki Bar in Brixton or Ukiyo: places that actually understand what good service and...

Tip: I never thought taking a proper, pro looking pic of hand rolls would be this painful. If you’re hoping to get a clean shot of your food, make sure to ask the chef to spread it out (like in the pictures below) before rolling it up. Just be mindful and only do it when the place isn’t too busy, since it can slow down their workflow. Lucky for us, it was quiet when we visited and they kindly made it work.

After trying Kokoro in Dubai, I kept thinking that London needs something like this. It’s the kind of concept that feels fitting for this city, and I’m still surprised it didn’t start here in the first place.

This spot has been on my list since it opened, and I can finally say it was worth the wait. The hand roll bar I tried in Dubai was a step above, but this one is still great, and I have no doubt they’ll get there with time.

Big shoutout to the team (CHEF RODRIGUEZ, CHEF LUIS, MOHAMMED, and KC) who bring the whole place to life with their warmth, attentiveness, and genuine care. Their energy really holds everything together.

Highly recommend checking it out. I’m already planning to come back again this month. Solid...

An absolutely fantastic experience. One of my best culinary experiences in London, if not the best. Everything was perfect from when we walked into the restaurant. All staff were extremely friendly, accommodating and chatty. Had fantastic conversations with the two chefs while we watched them prepare the food in front of us. They spoke to us in depth about all the different options we had ordered, recommended their favourites, spoke all about the ingredients and components, checked up on whether we were enjoying, joked with us and generally provided some of the best conversation I've ever had at any restaurant. The food was amazing, brilliant textures, unique flavour combinations - every item we ordered was delicious in its own right and in a different way. Can't wait to come back here again to try the remaining items we didn't try this time, and have an another great chat with the two brilliant chefs. The fatty tuna sashimi, daikon yellowtail temaki and negi toro temaki were sublime,...