Toriton Izakaya — Restaurant in London

A boring weekend, decided to go check out a restaurant we have not been before. So found this one with v high ratings, drove 25 mins here. Unfortunately, worst sushi I have ever tasted. The sushi used very low quality rice, and is too gooey, far too much water, almost like a congee, but at the time, under cooked, has hard cores?! Don’t even understand how could they manage to achieve that?! And it was not properly flavoured either. Incredibly bad. I forced myself to eat some and for the rest, I ate the fish and left the rice, just because I paid. If it wasn’t for the money, I would not abuse myself like that. I don’t understand how could it have such high ratings. People in this area don’t ever go to a Japanese restaurant in other parts of London? There’s only one waitress and one chef ( the owner?). So needless to say the service speed is very slow. As we speak, there are guests sick of waiting and left. And yet the gentleman came and cleaned the floor with his hands (picking up bits of food), moved on to serving food and drinks, delivering straws, without washing his hands:). The hygiene was four stars for very obvious reasons then. Oh to do it justice, the skewers were not bad. But the not bad here is not the usual British way of saying it tastes good. It is just, not bad, better than the...

A hidden gem of Coulsdon. My partner and I have been meaning to dine here since coming across it on google and are kicking ourselves for waiting so long! There's nothing I can critique about either the food or the service. We were too greedy to take more pictures of everything we ordered, but not only the taste but the presentation was to a high standard. The prices are incredibly reasonable as well, for the quality of the food and dish sizes.

The host, Emi, and the staff engaged with us throughout the meal, happy to inform us about ingredients used in homemade sauces and of the chefs passion for Japanese cuisine. When asked, they happily gave recommendations, one was the Miso Salmon Belly which was beautifully tender and melted in your mouth. The owners are clearly passionate about their service and food, and be making regular visits from now on to further appreciate what they have to offer.

UPDATE

Within a week we already revisited to try out more dishes, and actually get some pictures. Please consider this place if you're a fan of Japanese food!

All I can say is book ahead on expected busier times, as there's only a few...

Absolutely INCREDIBLE restaurant, the staff are wonderful, the food was delectable- the chef here really is an artist- absolutely nothing to fault here whatsoever. My partner and I went for Friday dinner, after I just happened to walk past the previous night and thought it looked interesting. We recently moved to the area from Streatham and were on the hunt for a new go to local restaurant (we were spoilt for choice previously, being so close to Tooting market, and do like to eat out fairly regularly), I think we’ve found it! We are yet to try any of the sushi, but the small plates were very impressive, my partner is vegetarian and there were so many options for him- it’s really nice when a restaurant puts care and consideration into their veggie options rather than leaving it as an after thought. Of course I forgot to take many pictures but the short rib was EPIC so that ended up on my camera roll.

10/10...