Portland
Portland is a great restaurant in the vein of so many in London that focus on simple ingredients and offer a reasonably priced tasting menu.
If you’ve ever thought, hey, someone should open a serious sushi restaurant inside a Georgian townhouse, you’ll find exactly that at Dinings. A dedicated sushi counter’s been shoehorned inside what would be the hallway, and there’s a pokey sit-down restaurant downstairs. It isn’t the most comfortable place to sit, but it’s worth the trouble for some of London’s best sushi, which does both classics and new-school dishes very well. The lunchtime sushi sets and chirashi are a great deal, as you’ll find the best stuff – even o-toro – mixed in there for the relative bargain of £25. For dinner, Dinings is definitely one for the sushi enthusiasts, as a serious bill can rack up very, very quickly.
Food Rundown
Karolina Wiercigroch
Despite their insistence on calling sashimi ‘tapas’, we’ll let it slide when they taste this good.
Karolina Wiercigroch
Probably the most fancy thing you’ll ever order while being sat at a bar. It’s already pretty extravagant, but the truffles and ponzu jelly just push the whole thing over the top.
Karolina Wiercigroch
Kind of like fine sashimi on top of rice tacos. The crunch is a nice variation on a regular piece of nigiri.
Karolina Wiercigroch
The cooks take a sushi roll filled with soft white crab meat and then drape fried soft shell crab all over it. Yes, it’s really good, and no, you shouldn’t share it.
Karolina Wiercigroch
Freaked out about the foie gras, baby dill, and other weird European things on your perfect raw fish? Get the nigiri set, which is pretty much as good as you’ll get in London.
Chirashi Sushi
If you don’t want to drop a ton of money on dinner here, the chirashi set is the best we’ve tried in town, and a bargain at £25. You’ll be glad to know that they don’t skimp on the good stuff, either.
