Category: Bistro
I should have know better,especially as I know I prefer quality over quantity…what on god’s earth made me go for the Hi Sushi all you can eat tasting menu? To be fair –everyone in the restaurant seemed to be doing exactly this and it was filled with Japanese,so I prematurely got my hopes up I have to admit (even though it is common knowledge that ‘all you can eat’is worthwhile only for people who actually eat a lot and don’t care how it tastes).
Anyway,back to Hi Sushi. Hi Sushi is a small chain with a few branches all over London (we went to the one in Covent Garden) and the worst website possible. The restaurant itself is actually really nice –all in wood and with loads of light,the seating is distributed over two levels with some intimate boots as well as comfortable tables. I liked the atmosphere a lot.
The concept of the all you can eat menu (which they offer every evening until 10pm for 15.60£) is as follows:you have a (limited selection) of sushi,maki and sashimi to choose of which you can order 3 times. In addition there is again a limited choice of hot dishes of which you can choose 7 (this only once). We were intrigued…how is this gonna work? It did sound like a lot of food…
We started with a choice of 5 dishes from the sushi menu and we got a huge plate of food. The quality was variable:the salsa roles (only to be ordered once,damn it!) were very nice indeed –inside out roles with soft-shell crab and avocado,covered with green fish roe. Also the generous portion of salmon sashimi was good –very fresh and tender.
The other three dishes were not that inspired I have to say. The salmon and avocado roles were boring,the spicy tuna roles were not spicy and the inari sushi –well this was weird:a fried pouch of tofu filled with sushi rice.. hmmm not something I would need to eat every day.. in fact would be very happy to never eat again..
Now we got to the hot dishes –and they were bad!! Everything was served together on one plate. As you can imagine,this really did not look very pretty and unfortunately also did not taste very nice:wasabi prawns (prawns covered in wasabi mayonnaise) were insipid and the beef teryaki and chicken curry were also bland but edible.
This is something you couldn’t say about the chicken yakitori (tough and fatty chicken,yuck) and the fried squid which resembled in texture and appearance rather a shoe sole and could only by its awful smell be recognized as sea food . Quite nice in comparison was the salmon katsu –but you can’t do much wrong deep frying fish I reckon.
Overall,I had the feeling they used cheap ingredients and the least amount of effort to prepare these dishes and I felt ripped off.
So in the end this dining experience as a whole was a waste of money and a waste of calories,so really not worth it. And I have re-learned my lesson to NEVER HAVE ALL YOU CAN EAT!!!
- Food: 4/10
- Ambiance: 7/10
- Service:7/10
- Value for money: 4/10
- Chances of returning: 0%
- Verdict: all you can eat is what you get…
Too bad you didn’t have a great experience when you went. As you saw,mine was hit and miss too!
And how about that waterfall? Did you get sat far enough away from it,or did it annoy the crap out of you as well?
Yes I know…! your tofu did not look very appealing I have to say…In my case it was just as well that I didn’t take any photos,these would have spoiled your appetite believe me..
fortunately I sat upstairs,so far enough away from the waterfall,but it would have driven me mad! even thinking of it makes me want to go to the loo…;) not very well thought through I have to say..
have you found any other decent sushi places around Covent Garden?
The All You Can Eat was definitely not an experience I would repeat,but the a la carte menu may have been better,to be fair. I would consider going again to try this,however there are so many really good restaurants in London,why waste a second meal on one that we didn’t like?!