"Is it 2.5 stars or 3 hmm..I guess that 3 'll have to do as 2 's too few eh.. I guess Sunday wasn 't my day as sadly Nanakusa didn 't stop the rot. I 've eaten at their sister restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I was hoping for more of the same, but sadly found this to be quite a bland experience. I ordered 3 small plates, the agadashi dofu, sweet potato makimono seaweed salad. While the dishes came quickly were presented well, the execution wasn 't great and the flavours were well.. meh. I went for the makimono first found the sushi rice so soft, it was like I was biting into a food cloud, but then the filling didn 't really taste of anything was crispy.. Now I quite like food that makes your palate jump, whether it 's contrasting flavours, heat or texture, but if this soft outer vs crispy inside was intentional, I fear I missed the point. Instead of oooh interesting! my brain was thinking uhh what.. Next up I went for the seaweed salad, which was alright at first as I was eating mostly seaweed a little iceberg lettuce, but the more I dug, the more I realised it was 80% iceberg, which isn 't what I ordered sir! Add to that a general lack of flavour bar the umami of the seaweed and soy, there wasn 't any acid or sweetness to balance it out. Lastly there was the agadashi dofu, which having recently called off hostilities with soy, I was really looking forward to. It was lightly fried, leaving the inside almost uncooked, and served in a soy based, tempura dressing. Sadly the lack of spring onions meant that there was nothing to counter the soy because of the softness of the dofu light tempura batter it all just fell apart after sitting in the sauce. I 'm really not sure about the decor, it seems to be part traditional part modern Japanese set within a beautifully corniced old building. The changing lights were kinda fun in a modern way, but set amongst the wooden panelling they seemed somewhat out of place. Not to begin end on a moan, the staff were really efficient friendly despite it being a quiet Sunday night. I was given plenty of time to peruse the menu afterwards the service was swift friendly. It 's a shame that this occasion didn 't live up to expectation. I 've heard people say a lot of good things about Nanakusa, maybe I just made the wrong choices or it was an off night. I 'd go back, but there are many more places higher up the list to try before I consider another sitting at Nanakusa, shame really.."
Ebi Tempura
