Studio Gauthier — Restaurant in London

This is a lengthy review as I am passionate about food and dining experiences. If you don’t want to read the review just know this: HAIR IN FOOD DEEP-FRIED - NO APOLOGIES OR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FROM STAFF ABOUT ISSUE. WILL NOT RETURN AGAIN.

This has been one of the worst experiences I've had at a restaurant in a very long time.

First of all, I'd like to say we have been to Gauthier Soho, another restaurant by Alexis Gauthier, and it is absolutely fantastic. The service is wonderful, and the food is simply divine. This is the second time I've been to 123V, and it was for a friend's birthday, but it left such a sour taste that none of us will ever be going again. I also have to say that having Alexis Gauthier's name attached to this restaurant is shocking, as I would not expect this level of service or food quality.

We had a 7:45 pm booking on Saturday, November 11, for the bottomless sushi. Bearing in mind that I have been here before, we were told we would try everything but were only given the Tuna Roll, Dragon Roll, and Crispy Rice Green Dynamite dishes - nothing from the Grand Sushi Set. At around 8:40 pm, we were informed that the kitchen had closed at 8:30 pm. From initially looking at the website, booking our table, arriving at the restaurant, being seated, and brought our first three dishes, we were only told that the kitchen closes at 8:30pm. You would expect staff to perhaps kindly inform you at the beginning of your booking or at least after they bring out the first few dishes that the kitchen closes shortly. For bottomless sushi that states a maximum of 2 hours, we were served a few plates that would have amounted to probably about £45-50, but we were a party of 3 paying £30 each for "bottomless" sushi. The staff checked if there's anything the kitchen could do and kindly brought us a couple more plates.

We had two waiting staff, and both were nice and friendly, but I have had to lower the service to 1* because the last plate we received had hair in it, and the staff's response was disappointing. Not just one but multiple strands of hair were deep-fried in the batter with the vegetable tempuras. We were absolutely disgusted. We informed the staff, and they did nothing. It makes you question whether this was done intentionally because the kitchen staff had to cook another batch after closing down – obviously, we hope not and will give the benefit of the doubt. We can also understand that these things can happen, but it wasn't even one discreet hair but multiple strands of hair in the tempura vegetables in separate items, with one obviously half deep-fried with the batter and half sticking out.

So, we wanted to clear things up to get an understanding and asked the staff when we were getting the bill, whether the chef said anything about the hair in the food. Her response was just "the kitchen's closed." We weren't asking for another plate of food. We wanted to understand the situation; a simple apology would have sufficed. However at no point from returning the plate to paying the bill were we apologised to for this issue.

I am very disappointed and will not be returning to this place to eat ever again and will highly recommend that any friends or family...

Vegan sushi at its very best …

I’ve wanted vegan sushi which wasn’t just an easy cop-out for a long time and Alexis Gauthier’s menu at 123V has delivered it. Yes it has the Southern California sushi which has been mimicked in all vegan places purporting to make good vegan sushi, but the other sushi was on another level. It’s hard to describe this sushi without sounding sycophantic but my review is honest and from a real sushi eater’s perspective as I only turned vegan 2 years back.

Petit Sushi Set or Grand Sushi Set? The grand has more of what is served in the petit with the addition of Prawn Tempura.

‘Petit Sushi Set’ - Lets start with the Uramaki There were two California makis which were as anyone would expect but very nice all the same, and two vegan-salmon with avocado makis which were on a new level. The blend of salmon and avocado complemented each other - the creaminess of the avocado supported the salmon flavour balancing the taste into a moreish, light and fresh bite. Next was the Nigiri and in my sushi opinion, the stars of the plate. Like the uramaki there were two of each. The avocado was a nice twist on a sushi dish, creamy, light and perfect to accompany the warm sun on my back. Get ready to gear up because the other two were the vegan-salmon and vegan-tuna. I thought them impossible to replicate as both have very defined textures and tastes but Alexis managed it beautifully. The salmon is cold, the texture sticky to the tongue like the real thing and soft with a light chew as you bite through it. The salmon flavour is there and it tasted like it was caught that morning. The tuna has more bite as you’d expect and the flavour is stronger than that of the salmon, but it’s not fishy and incredibly akin to a fresh piece of tuna. When all of the sushi has a slither of the amazing pink picked ginger placed on it and dipped in the sauce it’s reached a new level. Looking and tasting like the real thing it would fool any sushi eater. To finish there’s a sweet tofu pocket - simply delish.

Paired with a bottle of Albariño it was unbeatable.

Thank you Alexis Gauthier

(To help others - The ‘Uramaki’ is the round rice rolled one with a filling. The ‘Nigiri’ is the rectangular mound of rice topped with a piece of fish (vegan in this instance), usually with a small amount of wasabi between the fish and rice to hold the two together, or a thin strip of toasted seaweed might be used to tie them - the latter in this case...

Last year we went there on my birthday after seeing your initial review and it was incredible, I raved about them to everyone - but after tonight I will never go back.

We eagerly booked to go back after seeing your promotion for all you can eat sushi. The first few plates of sushi arrived and my heart sank, it was clearly a rushed plate and the presentation was not up to their past standard. I ignored it knowing that they were probably just busy given it being Saturday night. The first bite was even more disappointing, the rice was hard and had obviously been sitting out for some time and the the slices of “fish” were half the size they were last time. The taste was still good so I happily continued and eagerly ordered another around of sushi.

After about half an hour (bearing in mine our first round came out in under 10 minutes) one sad plate of disheveled and falling apart sushi arrived. After another 15 minutes a waitress told us that the rest of the sushi we ordered had run out and only the deep fried dishes were left, and they were calling last orders - this was 45 minutes into our seating. Now I was frustrated but still wanted to enjoy our evening so we changed our order.

While waiting the table next to us was able to order each of the sushi dishes we had previously ordered with the waitress saying she had specifically saved the last one for them - this happened twice. My jaw hit the floor. I looked around the room and saw several tables looking confused at what was going on, frustrated by the lack of food, and dissatisfied by having to rely on a greasy mess of a sushi pizza to fill them up.

If you don’t have enough food for service past 6pm, then don’t take...