Yashin Sushi

Sometimes we do things that suck up a lot of time and/or resources, but which are ultimately worth the outcome. Saving up for Glastonbury tickets. Worth it. Enduring a five-hour lunch with an painfully dull, but extremely wealthy relative. Will be worth it. Carrying out an elaborate prank on a mate involving a penguin, peanut butter, and Tom Jones. So worth it. And contrary to popular belief, it’s actually worth hanging out around High Street Kensington. And no it’s not for the shopping, the park, or the Euro trash clubs. It’s worth hanging out here because of Yashin Sushi.

Located on a side street off High Street Ken, Yashin is an excellent, creative, and modern sushi restaurant with an ever-changing list of unusual and seasonal ingredients. You’ll find sushi topped with things like yuzu salt, edible flowers, parmesan, truffle, and sun-dried tomatoes. While some of those ingredients sound heavy-handed, they’re used in small amounts, and really serve to complement the high-quality fish. Nothing comes with soy sauce, and if you ask for some, we'll personally judge you with the same side-eye our mum used to pass at our friends who’d asked for ketchup to go with their pasta at dinner.

photo credit: Jamie Lau

Beyond the sushi, which comes in omakase flights starting at £30, the rest of the menu is made up of small plates that continue with the overall theme of adding interesting ingredients to Japanese dishes. There’s a lot to choose from, but we’d start with the grilled octopus and the tuna, which comes with truffle ponzu jelly, before moving on to an omakase or sashimi course.

The restaurant itself has a sushi bar upstairs, while downstairs you will find a few tables where 80% of the evening patrons are on a date. The other 20% are on a double date. The atmosphere isn’t exactly buzzing, but the food more than makes up for it.

Yashin is definitely doing some of the best sushi in London, and naturally, it’s a bit pricey. But for the quality of fish and the inventive combinations, it is very much worth it. Now if you’ll excuse us, we have a very elaborate prank to work on.

Food Rundown

photo credit: Jamie Lau

Tuna With Truffle-Infused Ponzu Jelly

It happens all at once. The tuna. The lightness of the truffle coming through the slightly sweet ponzu jelly. You’ll shed a tiny tear when it’s over.

Chargrilled Octopus With Padron Pepper And Yuzu Kosho

Japanese - Spanish fusion, and it very much works.

photo credit: Jamie Lau

Softshell Crab With Mizuna

Sometimes salads are boring. This is not a boring salad.

photo credit: Jamie Lau

Paradise Prawn Tempura

A single giant prawn is probably never worth £6 on its own. And here it just barely makes the ‘worth it’ category. Order if you find some spare change lying behind the sofa.

photo credit: Jamie Lau

Omakase

High quality sushi, without soy sauce, but a dollop or sprinkling of whatever concoction that the chefs have come up with that day instead. You won’t be disappointed.

Sashimi Without Soy Sauce

The same drill as the sushi. And sometimes exactly the same ‘toppings’. Again fails to disappoint.