The hunt for Glasgow’s best sushi continues…
We had heard that there was a new Japanese restaurant in town so being sushi and sashimi lovers we went along a few weeks after it opened. It was a cold night but it looked warm and welcoming inside. We were told that the card machine wasn’t working; a quick check revealed that we did have money so no probs there. We already knew what we wanted as well but there was a bit of confusion when we ordered for some reason – we went for the full 38 piece sushi platter (perhaps we were the first to do so?) We also noticed they stocked a few Japanese beers which we hadn’t tried so we asked for 2 different Asahi beers only to find out that they were both out of stock, so we each settled for refillable green tea instead, which we both finished before the food had arrived so we asked for a refill but we were brought the bill instead before we’d even eaten anything!!!
We looked over at the kitchen counter and could see a big platter for sushi sitting there…was it ours?
We eventually got our green tea refill and about 30 mins after ordering the sushi it finally arrived, but there was only 1 tamago – which we both wanted! We counted each piece and there were indeed 38 pieces as advertised but why only tamago? So we could fight over it?! Hmm..!
It did look good, and the rice was proper sticky sushi rice but…the fish was tepid as if it had been sitting out for ages (well I suppose it was sitting for 30mins!) and the Inari pockets were bland being filled with just rice and nothing else, there was also only a small blob of wasabi and not much ginger for a dish of this size, so all-in-all a bit disappointing.
We noticed that the table opposite us were having problems ordering as well and the waiter couldn’t understand the international facial contortion for “wasabi”!
The interior is a bit cold (lighting which changes colour but seemed to be blue for an awfully long time!) and sparse but with Japanese artwork dotted around. Also, the toilet we were directed to was a single disabled toilet – I’m assuming that there are more toilets elsewhere for when it gets busy.
Nippon Kitchen is a welcome addition to Glasgow’s list of Japanese restaurants and the food and staff may be authentic, given the difficulty we (and other diners) had ordering, it could just be teething problems letting it down, it has a fair bit of work to do anyway if it’s to become a serious contender to Nanakusa, Bar Soba and Oko etc but I’m sure we’ll give it another chance in the not so distant future.
