Picking fresh sushi

Ed eats

Sako
7 St George’s Road,
Spinola Bay,
St Julian’s
Tel: 20106969

Food: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 8/10
Value: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

This story begins, like most do, at the very beginning. Only the beginning in this case is separated from the dinner I am writing about by about six years.

A conveyor belt twists and turns its way through the dining area

During what could have been another dreary conference, an hour was allocated to a man whom I had not heard of back then.

Simon Woodroffe was touted as entrepreneur, motivational speaker and founder of the Yo! brand andthe associated Yo! Sushi chain of restaurants.

I had no idea what to expect and wondered what a restaurateur was doing at a forum dedicated toinnovation.

The man turned out to be this huge guy with an even bigger personality, wearing a reasonably normal suit and very brightly coloured shoes that he insisted on taking off and showing around the room.

He also claimed he’d always wanted to be a rock star and sang his own rock song at a very high volume and with little respect to the basic tenets of singing.

More interestingly, however, he told the story of a penniless man with acute business acumen who ‘imported’ the concept of conveyor-belt sushi from Japan.

To make sure people spread the word, he brought in robotic drinks trolleys that spoke to customers and regularly insulted them.

And thus the sushi-guzzling UK public now had sushi that whizzed around a restaurant and were sworn at by foul-mouthed drinks trolleys, all controlled by a man in very bright, custom-made shoes.

The Yo! Sushi chain grew and even made it outside the UK. The drinks trolleys did not last too long.

That evening luck had me seated at table with Simon and a more sombre and business-like man emerged. He went into detail of his string of failed businesses prior to thephenomenal success with Yo!, his plans for Yotel, now a successful part of the Yo! franchise and the only bit he’s retained after selling his stake in the restaurants for a tidy sum.

All this had me very curious so on my next visit to London I went straight to Yo! Sushi, did not pass Go and did not collect £200.

I try to visit a Yo! Sushi restaurant whenever I am in London since they are dotted around the centre and are open for a quick sushi fix at all odd hours of the day.

I know it is meant to be no more than a novelty, I know it is far from fine dining, I know there are plenty of better places to snack, and I don’t really care.

If I feel like a cheeseburger from McDonalds at 4 p.m. I walk under the dreaded Golden Arches and buy myself one so I am not going to be held away from Yo! Sushi for any reason when I am in the mood for picking fresh sushi off a conveyor belt while seated on a stool.

I was half sceptical and half happy to find out that a conveyor-belt sushi place had opened up in St Julian’s.

There was only one way of finding out which feeling was right and, since you’ve seen the rating at the top of this column, there are no surprises in store – I liked it.

The restaurant has taken over the front half of Wagamamas, the noodle place a stone’s throw away from the no-way-you-look-at-it-does-it-make-sense LOVE monument.

Now the two restaurants share an entrance, with Sako the Sushi place getting the luck of the draw in terms of view. Those who have been to a conveyor-belt sushi place before can skip the following description – there are no surprises here either.

A conveyor belt twists and turns its way through the dining area and passes by the open kitchen, where chefs prepare sushi and pop their creations onto it.

The belt never stops rotating so the result is a long, articulated snake that bites its tail and gets peppered with round bowls of food. A bit like fusing the old Nokia Snake game with Pac-Man. For a geeky lover of food like myself, this is heaven.

The lovely people at the door point you to your stool and there you sit, facing the conveyor belt with nothing much in front of you except your pair of chopsticks and a little container into which you pourSoy sauce.

That’s as much as you will need because all the food you can eat is making its way around the place in coloured plates covered with plastic domes.

When something tickles your fancy, you wait for it to be within easy reach and pluck it off the conveyor. The colour of the plate itself represents the price of the dish and all dishes can be one of four colours, and therefore one of four prices. Dead easy.

This means that all the variety of food that the chefs can dream up are presented to you in a random order so you can pace your meal as you please, eat dishes in whatever order you prefer, and basically make up your own rules as you go along.

I sometimes wait patiently for sashimi to pass by until hunger drives me to more rice-containing dishes. The portions are small so you are bound to eat four or five dishes at the very least.

You will need the friendly staff that’s in attendance to order extras like drinks and Miso soup. For the rest of the meal you’re on your own.

This is a very convivial way of eating, at least for two to three people. A party bigger than that will have an odd conversation since everyone is sitting in a row, rather than facing each other.

There were only two of us on the night and we found that we interrupted our conversation very often to discuss the food as it passed by.

I tend to give very much importance to food so talking about it means I do not have to pretend to be interested in a conversation about anything ordinary humans would rather engage in.

We started by picking maki (rolls of rice and seaweed with different ingredients inside) in the form of California rolls as well as salmon and avocado rolls, both of which are in the middle price bracket.

Next up came a dish of tuna sashimi (just the raw fish – no rice) and this is naturally a little more expensive. Also in the higher price range was smoked eel sashimi that, like the tuna, was served atop a delicious wakame salad.

We kept at it, eating what reads like a sushi menu – tuna nigiri (bite-sized blob of rice with thinly sliced tuna on top), tuna and avocado maki, salmon nigiri, prawn nigiri, and small salmon maki. To this we added a couple of bottles of water and two bowls of miso soup.

The food quality varied from good to very good, just stopping short of the excellence you get when paying a small fortune in the fancier sushi places. This was practically fast-food and we were very happy to be served such a high level of sushi.

With the empty plates stacked high, and feeling full but not uncomfortable, we decided to stop eyeing the conveyor belt and ask for the bill.

The total for all we’d eaten was €30. While we technically could have worked it out ourselves by adding up the prices of our coloured plates, it was a pleasant surprise.

I immediately asked whether they accept take-out orders and it turns out they do and were happy to supply me with a very well-pricedtake-out menu.

For a party of four or more, taking a few of their mixed sushi combos home probably makes more sense than shouting across a conveyor belt.

From three people down, there is no way I am doing without the Sako experience.