"Okasan, meaning Mother in Japanese, is a bijou restaurant on the fashionable Portobello Road in W10. A yearning for a plate of sashimi, tempura and some dumplings drew me in to have a final treat before the rigours of co-running my own food business set in after a brief and well deserved break. My companion, a lover of Japanese salad dressings ordered a simple salad, chicken karaage, deep fried chicken and ginger with a spicy mayonnaise and we agreed on a delicate Pinot Girgot blush, a Sospiro priced at £17.00. The salad arrived first and the dressing was so good I had to beg the waitress to tell us what the ingredients were. The chef duly obliged. It was a mix of vinegar, peanuts, sugar, apple juice, water, salt, vegetable oil, sesame seeds and soy sauce. Knowing what is in your food doesn't mean you can recreate the same taste, but I'm going to give it a damned good try. It was simply sensational. Next came the steamed and pan fried dumplings; little golden nuggets of yumminess. My sashimi was spankingly fresh and served with the usual wasabi and the thin slivers of ginger had the perfect tartness to marry with the oily fish. If I had a little gripe it was that there was no daikon, the shredded Japanese radish (or mooli) that has a lovely crunch to it and nearly always accompanies it. The deep fried chicken that had been marinated in soy and ginger was delicious and the spicy mayo packed a punch. I don't recall ever seeing mayo on a Japanese menu before, (this was mayo mixed with chili sauce) but it worked. The wine, ice cold and very pleasant quaffing vino to boot slipped down all too easily. Being a greedy git I then ordered some prawn tempura, the batter of which was light as a feather and a crispy, heavenly coating for the juicy king prawns inside. A double espresso later and the bill came to £60. Japanese food is never cheap (especially when you think of the price of sashimi grade fish which only lasts a day at most) but the flavours, the delicacy, the quality of a good Japanese experience is well worth the price in my book and that's exactly what we had. I'm already looking forward to the next visit."
