Right now I’m currently obsessed with Japanese food. I’m having it for lunch, dinner – sometimes I can’t wait and get on the salmon sashimi for breakfast – that’s how obsessed I’ve become. There’s so many benefits to Japanese food too, with the most attractive being just how healthy it is (minus the mounds of rice). Murakami is a relatively new contemporary modern Japanese restaurant and sushi bar on the tourist heavy street of St Martin’s Lane, nestled between steakhouse chains and Pizza Depress. One thing the restaurant really does well, is cocktails – they’re full of flavour (tons of alcohol) and a little playful. I ordered the Wind in the Willows – a gorgeous blend of Japanese whisky and spices, topped off with a piece of blow-torched cinnamon. Delicious.
Inside Murakami I will admit, it looks pretty spectacular. A lush green living wall catches your eye as you walk in, along with modern, urban light fittings and lovely tones of grey and natural wood. It feels very clean and fresh – the sort of restaurant you want to be eating in. We started our meal here at Murakami with one of my favourite dishes from our lunch, new style sashimi. A generous helping of salmon seared in hot oil and swimming in a yuzu sauce. Little slivers of fried garlic and sesame sat perched on the end of each piece, giving it a lovely punchy flavour. The yellow tail sashimi on the other hand a little disappointing and lacking that buttery, soft, melt in the mouth texture it’s so famed for.
When I talked about my Japanese sushi addiction, I failed to mention that I’m particularity fond of gyoza. I love the different textures you find, thickness of the pastry and what seems to be an endless array of fillings and mixtures. Murakami’s pork gyoza however didn’t let the cuisine down – these beauties were absolutely brimming at the seems with filling that was full of herbs and spice. The outer pastry had the perfect thickness, with a good crunch but a gooey soft wall. A must order dish. Chilli and lime squid was equally as delightful (though had a lot to live up to after the gyoza), but was perfectly crisp, seasoned and the squid had not an ounce of chewiness.
By this point during the meal our tiny wooden table was awashed with countless numbers of dishes. That’s the one thing which puts me off ordering all my food at once at these sharing menu restaurants – it arrives all at once. With a mixture of cold and warm dishes, you race to eat the hot ones and before you know it your done in an hour and its time to leave. So in short, order your food bit by bit here. The rib eye steak slathered in a sweet soya sauce was probably our let down dish of the afternoon. In parts it was great, such as the flavour – but for a cut this good it’s sacrificial to charcoal-grill it to a well-done. On the flip side a dish of epic proportions and flavour arrived and left us quite literally drooling at the table. Seared tuna drenched in a sweet and luscious teriyaki sauce. The chunks could have been perhaps a little smaller for easy eating, but the sweet flavour, acidic tang and luscious mouthful was a dream I didn’t want to end. Dishes like these are why I love food so much.
Being my greedy self I never normally have any room for dessert, but I always feel sort of obliged to eating it – getting that full restaurant experience. We chose the three almost spring roll like pastry fingers, filled with a fruity compote, heavy on the banana and a scoop of coconut ice-cream (if my memory serves well). They may not look spectacular but they tasted rather good, satisfying all my sweet tooth urges.
Murakami was a breath of fresh air in the lower area of Covent Garden, which is packed with a lot of otherwise mediocre restaurants. While Murakami may not necessarily be the best Japanese restaurant I’ve ever visited, it’s still a very good one which serves delicious cocktails, some mighty dishes and feels like the sort of place you really want to spend your whole night in, eating and drinking the menu away. Murakami is the diamond within the rough when it comes to dining in this part of town.
7.5/10
I love Japanese food too but have not been in a while. Have not noticed this one in my travels through Covent Garden. Might have to put that on my list to visit.