Twelve courses in 45 minutes sounds like a challenge, doesn’t it?
It’s one course every three minutes which seems like punishment rather than dinner.
However, it was a challenge I decided to accept when I paid Sushi on Jones – found in King’s Cross – a visit to try the restaurant’s omakase menu out.
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Found inside music venue La Fayette and up the stairs, the King’s Cross venue is the first Sushi on Jones on British soil, and sister restaurant to several other Sushi on Jones spots found in New York.
Of course a 12 course omakase menu served and swallowed in 45 minutes is a NY idea – scoffing and dashing British style is more an M&S meal deal eaten on the run, not time effective indulgence.
I like the idea of a 45-minute dinner. It’s brisk, but it cuts the evening short before it stretches into rushing for the last train home, stuffed and sozzled, without being awkward or rude. However, at £48, the menu might not be too expensive but perhaps more than what many might want to pay for a quick bite to eat. With that in mind, I was curious to see who else would go out for a 12-course tasting menu designed to take 45 minutes.
I decided to bring along one of my chattiest friends, Anna, who I hadn’t seen in months, just for an extra challenge.
Sushi on Jones is a cute, informal restaurant. Smart and simple and streamline; not somewhere to settle in for the evening, but comfortable enough. It’s also tiny. There’re only nine seats around the bar which divides diners from the kitchen team and dining room from kitchen, and a couple more seats at the two small tables behind.
Sittings start on the hour, so if you are late you might miss a third of your meal. I arrived early, and watched two groups of two gush and purr over the last few courses of their meal as I waited.
As it turns out, Anna and I were the only people in our sitting. Two other women were perched at the bar in the corner, stragglers from the session just gone who were now getting on the wines. Otherwise, Anna and I were outnumbered by staff by one.
It’s hard to ignore the kitchen staff in such close quarters, although head chef Mattia Aranini, tells me some diners do.
As Mattia decides what’s on the menu, he and his colleagues explain each dish as it comes out – what you are eating and how it was prepared – so it feels natural to bring them into the conversation which makes for a lovely, relaxed dinner.
Fortunately, the courses are small. It’s one piece of sushi in each, which makes the meal a light dinner and not a punishment at all.
As Anna arrived and wanted to catch up on the last five months, she was quickly derailed by watching Mattia and co make quick work of preparing dishes, which soon escalated into a conversation about drinking, tipping, and housing prices in Japan.
Expansive, meandering chat was broken up by explanations of what was being handed over to us.
If you think 12 courses of fish on rice sounds a bit samey, you’d be wrong. Each portion of sushi comes ever so lightly dressed and fussed with and draped across rice, leaving the seafood or wagyu, the cut and preparation technique to speak for itself. It was a simple meal yet tasty, and one in which ingredients really are king.
The procession of seafood – each piece plump and fresh - was global, with fish from Scotland, Cornwall, South America and Canada among the selection.
Dishes arrived with the lighter cuts served first, moving on to the hefty flavours towards the end.
We had chopsticks, but as advised we ate with our hands, picking at slices of warming pickled ginger between courses as a palate cleanser.
Without rattling off twelve fish varieties, prepared raw and on rice, standout serves included a moist slice of delicate seabass brightened up with yuzu, and the lightly torched piece of seabream dressed with ginger shavings on top.
A serve of creamy prawn was lifted with some sharp lemon zest, while the torched toro tuna belly was subtly smoky.
The Scottish salmon with cucumber number was light and delicate, while on the heavier side, the pickled mackerel was punchy and strong and the hamachi served with truffle shavings was pleasingly musty.
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It was almost disappointing when Mattia handed Anna and I our final course – a piece of lightly torched wagyu laid over a block of seasoned rice – knowing our parade of dishes and the surrounding genial small talk had come to an end. While I would happily cut short many dinners, this one could have lingered for a little longer.
Address: 11 Goods Way, King's Cross N1C 4PW
Website: sushionjones.com
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