Aqua Kyoto London, more than a Japanese dinner

Aqua Kyoto is one of those places which offer an experience, something more than just a Japanese dinner.

First of all, you reach the top floor of the building by a private lift, doors open into a lovely reception desk were to hand in your coats and get info about your booking. A soon as we get into it, we realice the great atmosphere. The binchotan (Japanese charcoal) deco of the spirit bar roof surprised me in a positive way, it was a saying: robatayaki (Japanese grill)... Yeah!

The decor was very lovely, all black and dark lighting, the centre piece, which was a massive red hanging lantern was just above between the sushi bar and the robata grill took my daughter breath away, the amazing music was loud enough to have a conversation and to create a nice atmosphere without dominating the entire experience. The service was simply outstanding, helpful and very friendly, they looked after us all night long with a big smile and sympathy.

Regarding the food, I could tell you for sure they really know what they do... And they do it very well, because everything was amazing.

Wagyu Gyozas

Hamachi Jalapeño

We ordered some edamame as a appetizer while we took a look at the menu, suddenly after a couple of minutes we had them on the table, it was so fast that we couldn't believe it. We were recommended by the waitress, who kindly made some suggestions like the great hamachi jalapeño with Japanese plum or umeboshi, we decided to have a wagyu beef gyozas with onion miso and ponzu pearls, they were more than oishii (delicious in Japanese), loved the enoki kurobuta pork kushiyaki, it was so umami, the soft shell crab and the rock shrimp tempura were crunchy and well cooked, not oily at all, then they brought us a shiitake negi yaki (shiitake mushroom yakitori with garlic butter sauce) nice option for vegetarians, my little princess was more than happy with the otoro, sake and maguro sashimi, (3 pieces each) and for the salmon and tuna hosomaki as well, the sushi rice was perfect, the size, the taste for the salt, sugar and vinegar balance was more than excellent, it spread in our palate, I can not remember the last time that I eat a really good and well execute piece of sushi, domo arigato to the itamae.

Kurobuta

Shiitake

Soft Shell Crab Tempura

Rock Shrimp Tempura

Tekka Maki

Sashimi Moriawase

I did not drink sake that night but saw the sake list, it was very short, but had some good selection of Junami, Ginjo, Daiginjo and plum sake, they only have Kirin beer, not Asahi or Sapporo.

For the dessert we went for the out of this world super amazing black sesame fondant, the first time that I see a kurogoma fondant, it took like 15 minutes, so be patient and the chocolate "domo" nice textures of ginger and chocolate mix.