Dinings SW3

Japanese

Lennox Gardens Mews, London, SW3 2JH

London, England

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Overall Rating (out of 10): 6.0

Stand Out Dish: Seared Japanese’s Wagyu Beef Tar-Tar Chip with Chilli Miso

Meal Time: 1.15hrs

Ave Cost Per Head (excl. drinks): £120

Summary: swankier less authentic version of Dinings Harcourt, worth sticking with the raw courses

Would I Go Back? No

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Dinings SW3 opened in 2017 and is the second London instalment of the popular sushi restaurant Dinings on Harcourt street. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and our craving for Japanese / sushi over the course of the pandemic put this restaurant high on our list of post “freedom day” activities.

We arrived at a quiet mews street just south of South Ken station. The grand front door is a portal into a multi layered warren of a restaurant. Starting with a small bar and reception area you are lead backwards and downstairs to a sushi bar facing a dining room. There is also a dining area on a mezzanine above the sushi bar.

Overall the ground floor dining area felt very small and cramped despite it only being half full on the evening we went. The interiors are tastefully done and the sushi bar jammed full of fish and shell fish is an impressive sight. Finally the back wall of the restaurant is dominated by an imposing Victorian carved wood fireplace surrounded by mirrored walls which serves as an alternative focal point if you are facing away from the sushi bar.

Proceedings kicked-off with cocktails, Miso Cherry Sour and a Gimlet. Neither of us loved our cocktails but that was down to individual taste, the sour had a very sweet foam on top and the gimlet tasted like a posh limoncello, as opposed to poor execution.

The tar-tar chips were an absolute must have. The combination of the ratio of chip to sauce to fish/meat was in perfect balanced complimenting each other without one element overpowering another. We had four chips with the wagyu beef being the stand-out and lobster being a close second.

Crispy rice with akami tuna was a clean well executed dish. The crispy rice was freshly made and had a simple elegance which worked well when combined with the tuna tartare

The miso soup was packed with ingredients from tofu to vegetables but at £7 was a good bell weather for a restaurant where no expense could be spared.

The hand-dived Cornish scallop with monk’s beard, wasabi salsa and yuzu vinaigrette was overcooked leaving it on the too chewy side and the overall dish was a bit disappointing.

The wagyu beef bun was fun to eat. The highlight was definitely the bun which had great texture and flavour but sadly the wagyu was a bit lost in the dish.

The miso aubergine was a strong contender for the best we have ever had and a close runner up for stand out dish (along with the nigiri). The aubergine was cooked perfectly so that it had the right amount of give and the two types of miso sauce topping were delicious

The quality of the fish in the nigiri sushi was absolutely excellent and really augmented by perfectly marinated sushi rice. We had the following:

• Hand-dived Scallop with Taramo sauce – really fresh and clean
• Shimofuri-toro (Bluefin Tuna) – translated as marbled meat taken from behind the jaw it had excellent fat content and taste
• Kama Toro (Bluefin Tuna) – a special as opposed to menu staple the back cheek / neck was a very interesting well marinated cut
• Salmon Belly with Yuzu Ceviche – good quality fish but overpowered by the sauce
• Omelette – home made in the traditional style

Our nigiri was accompanied by the house sake which served as an excellent pallet cleanser between pieces.

Verdict
When Dinings SW3 gets it right it is really top class. However, there were too many dishes that were just off mark and combined with the cost and compromised space drove our score lower. If we were to eat here again our financial firepower would be focused solely on sushi and other raw dishes which deserve a higher score than 6.