World Foodie Guide

Background:

Japanese restaurant Dinings is the latest participant of the recent Taste of London festival that I chose to visit (the others being L’Anima, Launceston Place and Salt Yard). At Taste, I sampled a tiny bit of my friend’s wagyu beef tataki with ponzu sauce and porcini oil, as well as my own dish consisting of three pieces of maki sushi – foie gras with sweet soy; tuna with creamy wasabi sauce; king crab wth spicy taramo sauce. LondonEater also wanted to return to Dinings, having visited once, so we went together, along with his partner.

First impressions:

It’s a tiny place, with the ground floor consisting of just the sushi counter with about six bar stools, and the main dining area located in the basement where there are a few tables. It was also uncomfortably hot downstairs and we had to ask for the electric floor fan to be turned in our direction. If there are two, or perhaps three, of you, I would recommend booking seats at the sushi counter, particularly in hotter weather. It’s also more fun to watch the chef in action.

What we ordered:

The menu is pretty substantial, and there were many ‘daily specials’ handwritten on a blackboard to have to consider as well. In the end, after all the options were digested, we ordered:

• wagyu beef tataki with ponzu sauce & porcini oil (£12.95) – this was as I remembered it at Taste, but LondonEater, who ordered it last time he was at Dinings, remembered the beef being much more thinly sliced when he had it. As one of Dinings’ signature dishes though, it’s pretty good value for money

• tender octopus carpaccio with yuzu garlic sauce (£7.85), grilled razor clams with creamy jalapeño (£8.90), sautéed scallops with yuzu garlic sauce (£7.80) – the octopus was the best of the three dishes. I didn’t think much of the chopped up razor clams buried deep under the creamy jalapeño (and I love razor clams), while LondonEater’s partner thought the scallops could have been frozen ones (and the presentation could have been much improved)

• braised pork belly ‘kakuni’ with sweet soy (£6.95) – I rather enjoyed this, particularly as it followed the above three dishes, although the meat could have been slightly more tender. But I love braised pork belly and could have happily devoured the entire dish on my own

• shrimp tempura roll (£6.75, with sweet soy sauce £7.25), house special roll (£8.20), toro & takuwan roll ‘toro-taku’ (£8.90) – these were all very fresh, but two weeks after the meal, I can’t recall anything special about them (I’ve had far more creative rolls in very ordinary New York and Tokyo restaurants…)

• seared wagyu beef sushi with truffle salsa & ponzu jelly (£8.90 for 2 pieces, so we ordered an extra piece, which cost £4.00) – however, this more than made up for the slightly disappointing offerings above. As you can see from the photo, each piece is elaborately arranged and has to be eaten whole in order to fully appreciate the different flavours – I love ponzu jelly! This was my absolute favourite dish of the evening, and is a must-order item. Highly recommended

• jasmine tea panna cotta (£4.95), macha crème brûlée (£5.25), black sesame crème caramel (£5.95) – these were the most interesting-sounding puddings on the menu and so we ordered all three. Although I’m not the biggest pudding eater, I have to say, they were sublime. Please save room to try them. You won’t be disappointed!

The verdict:

If you’re a fan of Nobu, then you’ll probably love Dinings, as the chef-owner used to work at Nobu. I’m not a fan of Nobu (ten years ago, when Nobu first opened in London, I found the food exciting and innovative), and so I didn’t really appreciate the Dinings version of modern Japanese food. The outstanding and memorable dishes were clearly the wagyu beef sushi, wagyu beef tataki and the puddings, while the other dishes were a little hit-and-miss and not particularly noteworthy. In terms of modern Japanese, I still prefer Roka’s style. That’s not to say that I won’t return to Dinings again though to try some of the other dishes, now that I know what to expect. A tip: LondonEater did say to avoid anything listed under ‘Tar-tar Chips’, although Time Out seems to think they’re great!

Dinner, excluding drinks but including service charge, totalled £36 per person. The entire set of Dinings food photos on Flickr can be viewed here.

10 – Perfection, 9.5 – Sensational, 9 – Outstanding, 8.5 – Superb,
8 – Excellent, 7.5 – Very Good, 7 - Good, 6.5 - Above Average, 6 – Average

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Contact details:
Dinings
22 Harcourt Street
London W1H 4HH
Tel: 020 7723 0666

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

Tags: dining out, Dinings, food, Japanese, London, restaurant review, restaurants, traveleating