db Eats: Aqua Kyoto

Five floors up above the bustle of Regent Street, science geek chef Paul Greening brings a subtly innovative Japanese fusion focus to a city slicker crowd.

Located on the fifth floor of 240 Regent Street, Aqua Kyoto boasts a spacious dining room complete with cosy, sunken sushi bar and roof terrace (Photo: Aqua Kyoto

The concept: Aqua Kyoto is one of four London restaurant venues of the David Yeo-owned Aqua Restaurant Group, which is based in Hong Kong (Spanish-flavoured Aqua Nueva is literally next-door to Kyoto on Regent Street, while Aqua Shard and Hutong are at the top of, yes, the Shard). It’s the high-rise glamour of Hong Kong transposed to the UK capital. Its also where former microbiologist Kiwi chef Paul Greening can indulge his fascination with pickling and fermentation, with smartly presented dishes that feature foraged ingredients and innovative flourishes to keep the curious diner on her toes.

The décor: Hong Kong-style, high-life dining. Guests pass through Aqua Spirit, the restaurant group’s smart-looking cocktail bar, to reach the dining room, which presents one with a striking view of Aqua’s large sunken sushi bar (seats 18) complete with sumbiyaki grill and an oriental chandelier of such vast proportions that it looks as if it’s about to consume the entire chef brigade. The restaurant, seating around 90, providing a buzzing, social atmosphere, is red, gold and black in colour scheme, with soft ‘mood’ lighting and the subtle bass pulse of generic dance music from the cocktail bar. Beyond the dining room is a terrace with another, smaller, bar, where, on a good day, you can watch the sun go down over central London with a pre or post-dinner cocktail.

The Experience Menu offers a choice of miso-marinated grilled black cod or this miso-braised suckling pork with unagi and jade oil (Photo: Aqua Kyoto)

Food: An explorative menu from Marlborough, NZ-born chef Greening uses many pickled and fermented ingredients he makes himself. Indeed he was one of the pioneers of nukadoko (a traditional rice bran mix for pickling ingredients) in London. From a lab in Canterbury he experiments with fermentation techniques (he’s big on lactobacillus/probiotics), while he incorporates seaweeds and mugworts foraged from the UK countryside, which he then ferments. He even makes his own miso using British acorns.

If fatigued by the thought of the extensive à la carte menu, opt for the kaiseki style (Japanese multi-course dining) Experience Menu or Foraging Menu, which are perfect for anyone who’s either not sure what to choose or simply wants to put their faith in chef to present an interesting selection of dishes.

The Experience started with edemame and sashimi, followed by blanched spinach in toffee-sweet sesame seed sauce (with just-roasted sesame seeds ground at the table); juicy, popcorn-style tempura prawns with chilli and garlic mayo and shredded seaweed; miso-marinated black cod (gindara saikyo yaki) with ‘land caviar’ (tonburi – processed plant seeds, bit like quinoa), pickled cucumber, yuzu mayonnaise and seaweed, very elegant nigiri sushi including Greening’s innovations of wasabi ‘ice’ over salmon and bacteria gel ‘skin’ over beef. A rich, creamy miso soup came next and the finale was a dessert of chocolate and sesame fondant with green tea ice cream and white chocolate powder.

Drinks: The drinks list starts with a double-page for saké, with eight bottles (£75-130 per bottle, also available by carafe) covering each of the principle saké styles, from the light, pear-flavoured Junmai Gingo to the rich aged-style saké which is more reminiscent of Cognac. The wine list that follows feels slightly disjointed and difficult to navigate – all reds, whites, etc, alphabetised according to region of the world, meaning a £1,000 bottle of Margaux 1996 sits next to a £52 bottle of common or garden Burgundy. Bibendum seems to make up the bulk of the offering. Apart from the smattering of the big guns (Trimbach Clos St Hune, Sassicaia, Vega Sicilia, Opus One, etc), there are some reasonable value New World bottles and an apposite selection of light, crisp, aromatic whites to pair with the sushi on offer. Fourteen wines are served by the glass.

Signature dish: Unctuous, molasses-sticky, miso-marinated black cod with earthy tonburi, sharp pickled cucumber, light yuzu mayonnaise and salty seaweed is a treat for the tatsebuds. 

Who to know: If you’re lucky, chef Greening will be hovering around the sumbiyaki grill and might be called on to explain something of his art of combining traditional Japanese cooking techniques with ingredients foraged from the British Isles.

Don’t leave without: Getting to know the saké menu, which is presented to give you a little bit of a primer on saké history and production (sufficiently brief that you won’t bore you co-diner(s)), and in which each bottle represents a different saké style.

Aqua Kyoto, 5th Floor, 240 Regent St, London W1B 3BR