The first thing you notice about Umu is the entrance, effectively hidden as a sliding wood panel and activated by a touch panel. The discreet entrance is a feature of restaurants in Japan, though I have not seen a touch panel used in this way before. Inside it is smartly decorated and peaceful, with no music playing. Umu offered a couple of tasting menus at £95 but also a range of a la carte dishes of assorted styles of Japanese cooking. Umu sources its ingredients carefully, its fish mostly from the supplier Atari-ya. There was a wide range of sake as well as an extensive wine list. It is not for the faint hearted: there were a few more modestly priced wines, such as David Traeger Verdeho 2006 at £40 for a wine that costs about £12, but mark-ups were high even as you move well up the list. Felton Road Chardonnay 2007 was £75 for a wine that you can buy for £16, Leoville Barton 2002 at £165 for a wine that retails at £43, and the lovely Tignanello Antinori 1990 was a hefty £405 for a wine that will set you back £120 in the shops. Those dining on their own money may decide to take one look at these mark-ups and do as I did, and stick to beer.
Tonight we began with a salad of tuna tartare (£20) with cashew nuts adding firm texture, sesame seeds and Japanese pickles, and deep-fried lotus roots in amongst fresh leaves and carefully judged dressing; this was well-balanced and refreshing (16/20). Tempura vegetables was less interesting, the tempura light enough, the assorted vegetables (onion, pepper, carrot, tomatoes, etc) of pleasant quality, but you need to eat the tempura in Japan to appreciate just to what a level this form of cooking can be taken (14/20). Mackerel sushi was decent but no more, back of tuna good, while there are also modern sushi variations such as seared tuna; the rice was fine, but again this was competent but did not really excite me (14/20).
The best dish was skill fish, a deepwater fish from the Sea of Japan that is reminiscent of cod, grilled in teriyaki sauce, coated with grated radish flavoured with a little citrus element, topped with little blobs of wasabi to add bit (16/20). Eel kabayaki (£21) was dipped in a marinade of sweet soy-based sauce (mirin, soy and sugar) and grilled, this process repeated, and the eel certainly had absorbed plenty of flavour and was glazed from the marinade by the time it arrived (14/20). Service was pleasant and dishes arrived at a steady but quick pace, though we did not feel rushed. The bill was £137 for two, with no wine but with beers and cocktails. Umu has a reputation for being wildly expensive, but we had plenty to eat and £68 a head is hardly excessive for good quality food like this. Steering clear of the excessively marked-up wine list is a good way to keep the bill to manageable proportions.
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Further reviews: 02nd Dec 2016 | 30th Sep 2015 | 13th Aug 2014 | 01st Jul 2007 | 01st May 2005
Shara
Umu has a new head chef Yoshinori-san. I would like to hear of anyone who eat there recently.
Alex Chambers
I had an excellent meal here in April 2008. Over the course of a good four hours we ate our way across the spectrum of the menu and there were very few bum notes. Their modern sushi is interesting, though personally I far preferred the classical stuff, and the grills were very good indeed, notably a stunning pork dish. Given the rather odd reputation this has as an extremely expensive resturant, the bill was no more expensive than other top end Japanese. Service was friendly and unrushed. Personally I marginally preferred Umu to Becker's restaurants, and it is streets ahead of Sake No Hana.