441-445 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
0141 332 6303
Style: Modern minimalism under a Victorian corniced ceiling
Food: Japanese
Price: About £14 per person
Wheelchair access: No
The prospects for Japanese cuisine in Scotland have rather waxed and waned over the last decade. While Ichiban has persevered for most of that time, Yo!Sushi opened with much fanfare in Edinburgh and closed with a whimper, only to be reincarnated in Glasgow's Silverburn shopping mall late last year. The sun similarly once set on OKO, Glasgow's home-grown sushi bar on Ingram Street a few years ago, only to see it rise again in Queen Street in late 2006. I have extolled Japanese food's virtues only to see the market clearly contract, while other food writers dismiss the cuisine as a trend lacking legs.
Well, recently opened Nanakusa (not to mention two new operations in Edinburgh) may restore my faith that it's not just a passing fashion. Here is a stylish but informal restaurant in the heart of that hectic western stretch of Sauchiehall Street. The menu has more than 100 options, from sashimi and sushi to burgeoning noodle bowls, tepanyaki grilled meats and more traditional Japanese dishes such as gyoza, katsu and teriyaki.
I'll admit: I'm biased. I like pretty much everything about the Japanese style of cooking, from fresh raw fish on a pillow of sticky, slightly sweet rice to light, quickly prepared grilled meats. Yes, they deep-fry ingredients, but it is done quickly in super-hot oil - completed in only a few minutes rather than the quarter of an hour that chips can sometimes take.
Yasai tempura (£3.50) is a case in point at Nanakusa. A selection of root vegetables and mushroom come coated in batter that has bubbled up and crisped in the searing oil, absorbing its heat but not its grease. Agedashi tofu (£2.90) presents three moist cubes of deep-fried tofu in a miso-influenced bonito sauce with strands of brittle seaweed.
Among larger dishes, the breadcrumb coating of the duck katsu (£7.50) doesn't quite equal the nearly perfect tempura batter, but the escalope of breast meat, sliced into slender strips, is tender and unctuous. It comes with a mild, brown curry sauce. Una jyo (£7.50) shows off the tepanyaki grill (essentially a big griddle): a fillet of eel, with a sweet soya glaze, set atop a mound of steamed rice.
The desserts, which come primarily from the neighbouring and equally new Hong Kong Cafe, include freshly made sponge, although the chef's Japanese speciality is a sweet red bean pancake, rather akin to a bean-stuffed dim sum sticky bun.
I had an inkling that the man in charge was related to the well-established Chinese restaurateur Gerry Wan - who previously opened Bleu Ginger on this site in 2002 and is perhaps better known for founding the Peking Inn - and further research revealed that it is in fact his son, David. It's clear that Wan the younger represents the same kind of generational change as Raymond Man at Dragon-i: Asian Scots energising the local culinary scene. During my visit he's on top of things, concerned about whether customers are warm enough and engaging in conversation about the necessary pre-launch experimentation to get the key elements, such as an airy tempura batter, done correctly in the kitchen.
Wan says he consciously sought out chefs with experience in cooking Japanese food (his head being from London) rather than Chinese chefs seeking to dabble. I think it shows. Nanakusa illustrates that the prospects for Japanese cuisine are in the ascendant - at least for now.
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