Sushinho Restaurant King’s Road Chelsea

Brazil meets Japan in a friendly that’s anything but confusion cuisine
Jo Grobel sizes up the situation

For the few days before reviewing Sushinho I am troubled by the concept of its Brazilian-Japanese fusion cuisine. How can it possibly work, with the two extremes of the intricately-presented, subtle tastes of Tokyo and the brightly-coloured exotic fruits and Havaiana flipflop-wearing carnival city of Rio, I wonder? This sounds to me more like a carcrash of cultures than the perfect culinary marriage.

However, I am also intrigued as this fusion wasn’t just conjured up out of nowhere; Brazil’s Japanese population stands as the largest community of Japanese people outside Japan. And after just six months of opening, the restaurant has also already won its first AA rosette, suggesting it must be doing something right.

From the outside, Sushinho shouts King’s Road cool with its black, slatted blinds and unassuming doorway. Yet inside we find a warm, dark-wooded interior with bamboo screens dividing the restaurant into intimate areas, giving a nod to the Japanese with its muted tones and warm up-lighting. Brazil is also represented in the various palm trees dotted around, with one growing under a large lantern roof with natural light pouring in from above. And here the fusion begins.

As we are seated my eyes are drawn to a couple in their thirties sitting at the long cocktail bar drinking green tea from delicate Japanese teacups, while a mixologist shakes up exotic-looking cocktails behind them. We can’t resist the cocktails and order a Bluebell, which muddles fresh blueberries with vodka and wild bilberry liqueur, topped with Champagne (£9); a white peach Bellini (£8.50); a classic margarita called Tommy’s Margarita (£8.50); and the driver among us is keen to experience Safe Sex on the Beach (£5) which, surprisingly, is just as good as the alcohol-infused version.

The far end of the cocktail bar is equipped as an open sushi kitchen where diners can watch their food being prepared. For starters, we share a bowl of edamame with sea salt (£3.25), a long-standing favourite of mine, as well as the more adventurous spider roll (£12), which is a deconstructed roll with fresh crab meat, cucumber and a chilli mayonnaise, beautifully presented on a palm leaf placed on a square glass plate. The hiramasa king fish carpaccio (£9) uses a pineapple and vanilla vinaigrette to spice up the otherwise not very flavoursome fish and works a treat. But we all agree that our favourite starter has to be the sushinho rolls (£10), which we later learn is the restaurant’s most popular dish. These tempura rolls contain salmon, crab and cream cheese and have a wonderfully crispy bite to them making us wish that we’d ordered another plate.

The main courses are equally as impressive, with all the meat cooked to perfection. The incredibly lean molasses duck breast, sancho pepper and dressed melon (£15) is served with a mango, chilli and lime chutney and simply melts in the mouth. The crispy seabass, which is sliced into small tapas-size pieces and served on a sweetcorn, cucumber and tomato salsa, is much more filling than it first appears and tastes incredible when eaten with the avocado purée which accompanies it.

Sushinho is pretty much impossible to fault, however if we had one complaint it would be that the waitress, while very accommodating, could have made more suggestions and dare I say it, “upsold” more. We wrongly assumed that the main courses came with vegetables, so it was only when they arrived that we decided to order sesame spinach with ginger, some grilled mushrooms and the sliced sweet potato wedges with lime (all at £3.25 each). We didn’t mind eating our side dishes after the mains, but some of the beautiful clientele might have.

As a chocolate fondant devotee, there was only one dessert option for me. The chocolate fondant with a mango heart and coconut ice cream (£7.50, like all the other desserts) was as delicious as it sounds, although I would have preferred the fondant served unadulterated, minus the mango centre. This is just a personal thing: I am a chocolate purist who can deal with other flavours on the side, but not actually within the chocolate recipe.

Our tapioca queen on the table was suitably impressed by the unusual texture combination of the tapioca with a crystalised yuzu (Japanese lime) topping. The green tea custard came in a large bowl with a sesame tuille biscuit which did not look dissimilar to a piece of cuttlefish balanced on top of the bowl of custard. Luckily, it tasted a million times better! We all thought that the passion crumble, served in a glass with toffee ice cream and a sesame tuille biscuit could have been larger, however this was violently disputed by the person who chose it, who believed it was the perfect size.

Am I a Brazilian-Japanese fusion convert? The answer is simple: I have been raving about this place ever since I visited. Sushinho is not a credit-crunch option, but our meal was easily worth every penny.

Jo Grobel July 2009
The cost of your meal: starters £7 – £14.50; mains £12.50 – £18.50 (side dishes £3.25 each);
desserts £7.50. Cocktails £7-8. House wine from £16.50 a bottle.
Sushinho

Sushinho, 312-314 King’s Rd, London, SW3 5UH

Tel: 0207 349 7496

Opening times: Monday to Saturday restaurant and bar: 12.00pm – 3.00pm, 6.00pm – 10.30pm; Sunday restaurant and bar 1.00pm – 3.30pm, 6:00pm to 10:00pm

Public transport: Nearest tube is South Kensington