Inside restaurant Umami it is all very cool, sleek and extremely modern with white walls and blue fluorescent lights – all this encased in an old listed building. It feels a bit like you’re dining some twenty years in the future. A mere£13.50 at lunch will get you more than enough to eat and £19.95 at dinner will provide a banquet. To start we opted for a simple, cold blanched chicken salad with a peanut dressing. it’s very rare i eat chicken cooked this way, or see it much on a menu but i rather like it. It gives a lovely juiciness. The peanut dressing was spicy, very *ugh hum* peanuty and rather delicious.
Sashimi salmon was fresh, well portioned and sat on a bed of delicate pesto sauce which worked really well, though i would have liked a little more. The dollops of beetroot sauce looked pretty on the edges of the plate but had barely no flavour. Perhaps some fresh beetroot balls would have fared a little better.
The selection of dishes here at Umami have been very well thought out. They are all rather simple and familiar but the flavours executed absolutely perfectly. The small bowl filled with succulent prawns and delicate, yet flavoursome Thai red curry was testament to that. My only gripe would be that it have been a little hotter.
Some roasted pork arrived, and again unless you ate it quickly it cooled down rather fast. I think the culprit may not be the chef, but instead the staff not being particularly swift on their feet. The pork was very well cooked, tender yet a little crunchy on the outside and plenty of it. The thick sauce which coated the meat was a mixture of honey, five spice and chilli (otherwise known as pork char siu). A must try dish if you dine here at Umami.
The dessert menu was a limited one, and simple for that matter. I have a huge sweet tooth and i struggled to find something which could satisfy that. I went for the humble chocolate brownie with an almond bastogne parfait and slices of pineapple. The brownie was a little on the dry side, while the parfait was sublime. A lovely flavour of vanilla and cinnamon. Perhaps if the brownie was served warm it would have made this dish all that little bit better.
Wine at Umami was very well priced (we certainly drank a lot of it), and so is the food. If you’re on the fence, deciding whether to dine at Umami then hesitate no more it’s a great restaurant, with a nice vibe and good food. Service could do with some improvement and so could desserts, but with Thai curry as tastiest as this – it’s hard not to return.
6/10
