DB Eats: Jidori, Covent Garden

With a cult following formed by its original Dalston venue, Jidori is a fresh face and a breath of fresh air in central London’s casual Asian dining scene, writes Edith Hancock.

It’s a Wednesday night. You’re in Soho. The Lion King starts in an hour and you didn’t bother to book a pre-theatre ahead of time. Now you’re starving.

You crave soy sauce and finger-food (Chinatown and its neighbouring venues serving everything from Nepalese to sushi are down the road), but don’t want to sit through three hours of empowering music and audience interaction with indigestion. You’re not queueing for Wagamama because, well, you’re better than that.

Enter Jidori, the new face in theatre-land specialising in Japanese juicy yakitori chicken skewers, sake and unfussy service.

Jidori first wowed trendy Londoners when owner Brett Redman opened a restaurant in Dalston in 2015, which quickly became a favourite of Hackney-based celebs. Aussie Redman brought his dining concept to Covent Garden in February, and we had to see if it stands up to the original’s hype.

The look

Anyone whose eyes were caught by the Dalston branch’s windowed front knows that minimalism is the name of the game.

The same rule of thumb applies here, with a neutral colour palette, plain-yet-sleek wooden tables and block colour lampshades that wouldn’t look out of place in Muji. It’s a welcome change of pace given how glitzy Covent Garden is throughout the week.

The food

Redman’s illustrious portfolio now also includes the likes of Neptune, an opulent oyster bar in Bloomsbury’s Principal Hotel. The offering here is more katsu curry than caviar, although the menu has been extended to include more small plates and a revelatory miso-based pudding (more on that later).

“Yakitori”, of course, is a Japanese delicacy of skewered, grilled chicken. Here, the majority of the food is served on sticks, and when it comes to the chicken, nothing goes to waste. Start off with the staples — thighs with spring onion; wings with shiso and grilled lemon — before moving onto something which is not for the faint of heart (sorry); chicken hearts layered with bacon.

While fish, seafood, tofu and even a pork dish do feature, Redman’s all about the poultry. Small plates such as chicken katsu scotch egg are as satisfying as they are morally problematic.

Signature dishes

If you’re new to this style of dining, it’s worth going for the Omakase; a sharing plate of Jidori’s most popular skewers (thighs, wings, and minced chicken bound with egg yolk) served alongside pickles, greens and egg-topped rice. The kitchen team know what they’re doing. Skin-on thighs and wings were satisfyingly crispy packed with chicken practically falling of the bones, while the soy dressing helped to cut through the heaviness of it all.

In the interests of due diligence, we ordered the hearts and weren’t disappointed. Offal is a beautiful thing when it’s done right — soft and gamey without overpowering the seasoning — but closer to the taste and texture of three-week-old rabbit droppings when it isn’t. Too many restaurants in the area try and fail with uncommon cuts, but Jidori’s version is spot on, spliced with morsels of bacon to stave off the lead-notes which can be off-putting to newbies.

The housemade pickles are as bright as they are delicate, balancing out the often rather rich meat dishes and small plates. A roasted sweet potato filled with egg and topped with crispy onions was deliciously decadent, but the vinegary sides were definitely necessary.

For dessert, a Japanese sundae of ginger ice-cream, miso caramel and sweet potato crisps stretched our understanding of the salty/sweet equation to its limit, but no one was complaining.

The drinks

There is a small and unfussy wine list featuring affordable and unusual organic and natural expressions from Italy, but really, this is a place for sake and cocktails.

While I opted for an Akita, a short, gin and sake-based drink not dissimilar to a martini, I had cocktail envy over my partner’s Ginger Ninja, which combined gin, beer and raw root ginger into a powerfully fragrant serve.

On the sake front, there are five to choose from. We went with Lapping Brook from Daiginjo, which had a creaminess which did well to balance out the saltiness of our various soy dressings, and Sky Conquerer, a super dry version ideal for cutting through the yakitori.

With the dessert, be sure to grab a measure of Umeshu, a plum sake Jidori makes in-house when the fruit is in season. The heady, stewed fruit aromas worked brilliantly with a subtle hint of ginger.

Don’t leave without: Heading downstairs and checking out the Karaoke room, which can be booked for private parties.

Last word

Jidori is hardly a fine dining venue, and the wine list appears to have been added for the sake of convention, but a modest and carefully chosen sake menu and the high quality of casual Japanese fare is never unwelcome in theatre-land’s sprawling dining scene.