Kouzu

6 Reviews on “Kouzu”

• Amaranth

  Nothing about Kouzu is bad per se. Even the style, which is ostentatious in a slightly cheap way, is passable. It’s just that for this kind of price you’d expect something more. The aubergine starter was good, the fish was fresh and relatively tasty, sake was ok. Nothing much above average but the price. The service was very good though.

  August 7, 2016, 5:38 am

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• Karen Tien

  This place looks very impressive with great lighting and sense of coziness. Distinctly different to bustling Victoria. The staff were welcoming and pleasant too. We had a Timeout voucher which was basically the set lunch menu. I opted for the salmon yuzu which tasted fresh and melted in my mouth. I then opted for the assorted sushi which was a great way to try their chefs skills. That too was great and fresh. The only dish I didn’t like was the pannacota as I felt it didn’t suit the rest of the menu and even worse have no taste!

  June 4, 2016, 3:15 pm

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• Angela Yang

  I enjoy going to an authentic japanese restaurant to enjoy simple but high quality food, and I also like fancy westernised japanese restaurant, for example Zuma or nobu. Unfortunately kouzu is neither of these two types, and it’s just in between… I had a good time, but it’s very average. I don’t think I’ll go there again unless I’m nearby and craving for japanese

  December 20, 2015, 7:22 pm

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• Mircea Lazăr

  Kouzu is s good quality modern Japanese restaurant near Victoria station (not an area that would come to mind quickly when thinking of good restaurants). Although the restaurant is in a traditional building, the interior is refreshingly modern and minimalistic. We sat at the sushi counter, ordered some champagne and started to watch the chefs in action. The food started to arrive: excellent starters – beef tataki and the yellowtail truffle, both very nicely presented with very good tangy sauces, and a seaweed salad made with five different types of seaweed. In the meantime, the sushi chef made the sashimi we had ordered (chu-toro and yellowtail), but the waiting staff asked him to hold it for a while, as we hadn’t yet had the black cod we had ordered. The chef covered the sashimi up and put it in the fridge, which I thought was unfortunate, as the whole purpose of sashimi is to be eaten as fresh as possible. The waitress should have asked us if we wanted to have the sashimi earlier instead. The black cod was one of the highlights of the meal – a beautiful piece of flaky white fish, with a nice crispy glazed skin. I could have eaten it all, but I had to share it!The sushi section of the meal allowed us to sample some of the things we saw being made in front of us. The fish was nice and fresh, and the nigirizushi had a good proportion of rice vs. fish. We sldo had some nice desserts (more European than Japanese, although using Japanese ingredients such as matcha). A nice way to finish a meal. The unpleasant surprise arrived with the bill. We knew this place wasn’t going to be cheap (the bill came to 279, including four glasses of champagne), but what we didn’t like was that, even though the bill had a 12.5% service charge included, when the credit card machine was presented to us it asked if we wanted to leave a gratuity! I think this is one of the worst possible marks of poor service in a restaurant.

  November 22, 2015, 11:45 am

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• Em

  Having heard great things about the new Japanese kid on the block Kouzu, I was curious to explore it for my birthday. We chose to go for the pre-theatre menu as it seemed to have a good selection for reasonable value at 25-30 per person.Kouzu is laid out over two floors, with a bar on the ground floor and an open sushi counter on the 2nd. Id naturally recommend the 2nd floor for dinner as you can watch the chefs work. The interior is very light and chic, more modern European than your usual Japanese restaurant.From the moment we walked in, the service was excellent, much thanks to Salvatore the manager. As a treat, instead of the ordinary Prosecco which is included in the set menu, we were offered Bellinis topped with lovely peach foam. I have to say this is one of the tastiest Bellinis Ive tried, it was delicious and I highly recommend it!- Appetizers included Miso soup and Kobachi of tuna. The Miso soup was just right. For the starter I had the yellowtail truffle which was tasty, however, I found that the flavour of the avocado and grapefruit overtook the taste of the yellowtail.I preferred the beef tataki starter over the yellowtail. The beef fillet was cut into fine tender slices and served with a light soy sauce.- For my main I chose the black cod, as always! This cod was well made and had a very interesting citrus sauce on the side. It wouldnt have been my obvious choice of sauce but it was nice nonetheless. The mixed sushi platter was delicious and in this dish you could really taste the freshness and quality of the fish.- For dessert I chose the fondant which had a lovely unique flavour but unfortunately as they were changing menus they couldnt serve the chocolate ice cream which usually accompanies it. You could notice the ice cream was missing from the dessert, leaving it slightly dry. Both together would have been a fabulous combination.If you expand outside of the set menu Im you will find the Kouzu gems. Although there is no doubt that the produce Kouzu uses are top notch, something was lacking and there wasn’t much excitement in the dishes. It almost had too much of a European twist that it took away from the Japanese that I love so much. Having said that, despite there being many competitors in London, Kouzu takes the crown for Japanese in Belgravia. catch52.me

  October 2, 2015, 3:21 am

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• Food And Drinks Noob

  Exclusive private dining modern Japanese styleKouzu is a modern Japanese restaurant in Belgravia, near Victoria train station. London is full of Japanese restaurants that have been engineered to make Japanese cuisine more suitable and approachable to the western palate, such as Zuma and Nobu. And judging from the menu at Kouzu, it is following more or less the same style and format, with head chef Kyoichi Kai who has a wealth of experience at Zuma and Kyubi. The latest offering from Kouzu is its chefs table which seats up to seven guests and has a window view of the kitchen, the privilege of dining at the chef’s table is you get to eat a special menu that is exclusive to the chef’s table dining room only, a 10 course tasting menu that is cooked in front of your very eyes and deliverd by Kyoichi with a dedicated waiter at your service.Foie gras with blue cheese and teriyaki sauce is a very West meets East fusion dish, the foie gras itself was smooth and not too earthy and was finely seasoned by the salty blue cheese, but I think the sweetness of the teriyaki isn’t the best combination as I would prefer something lighter to offset the robust flavours. Yellowtail with truffle was a refreshing dish with a hint of sharpness from the grapefruit, the fish was oily and settled with an earthy undertone followed by some bitter and grassy notes from the micro herbs, a really well contrasted dish with bags of flavours.I had already got a good idea of what Kouzu is capable of in delivering high level sushi, and this time was no different, some very impressive and luxurious fatty tuna sashimi followed by some delightful salmon nigiri sushi, the wasabi and soy sauces were not necessary at all as the sushi were already seasoned brilliantly by head sushi chef Yamaguchi Nobuyuki, just as how eating proper sushi should be. The last savoury course of the day was a very fine cut of wagyu beef, a very fatty piece of rib loin steak that visually looked so appealing with multi layers of fatty tissues spreading evenly through the meat. It was really a special plate of beef with an explosive melt in your mouth sensation, rich and tender, truly stunning. There is no question about the cooking quality from the Kouzu’s team, some very high level dishes with good use of prime ingredients. For me the small issues are some of the heavily flavoured dishes with countless of garnishes, the cooking principle in fine Japanese cuisine is all about using fresh and prime ingredients and letting them shine, but some of the evening dishes, the main element on the plate are sometime overshadowed by the supporting ingredients, sometimes is all about less is more. I understand that the balance is hard to get it right especially for a modern fusion restaurant but Kouzu has a very talented and capable team and I am sure head chef Kyoichi can take Kouzu to a new high in the near future.*I dined as a guest of Kouzu foodanddrinksnoob.blogspot.com

  September 25, 2015, 1:24 am

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