Japanese precision with British backdrop

10 April 2012

When you cross the threshold of Ozu you are transported to another world. Pine world, that is. The floor is pine, the tables are pine, the chairs are pine and the walls are pine. It is all unremittingly pine.

Even our fellow diners on Friday night seemed strangely wooden - being silent and immobile - and the waitresses walked around with one arm tucked behind their back like Prince Philip. There was no buzz at all except, that is, for the hum of air conditioning.

Ozu, which means "little harbour", is a Japanese restaurant tucked under the skirts of the County Hall building. It has been relocated from the depths of Ken Livingstone's old GLC stomping ground to a Grade II-listed dining room.

The contrast between the grimy outside and the antiseptic inside could not be greater. Walking into the restaurant is like entering an aeroplane.

A mist of disinfectant hits you in the face, hot towels greet you on your table to wipe your hands, and then there is the music - or Muzak. When did you last hear Dionne Warwick's Walk on By in a smart restaurant? It was playing a little too loudly, presumably to mask the sound of the air con.

Despite the unfavourable first impressions, thank goodness we stayed. What Ozu lacks in decor it more than makes up for in its spectacular-views of Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and the South Bank.

A table by the window must rank as one of the best places to clock-watch in the world. (Make sure you ask for a window table, as there aren't that many.) Two bonsai trees were perched on the outside ledge in case we hadn't noticed we were in a Japanese restaurant. Or a "restaurant Japonais" as it styles itself.

When my wife and I chucked our chests up to the table we were offered tea or water but no drinks list, which must be a first. Did we look like teetotallers or was this an oversight?

We ordered green tea and studied our menu. The drinks menu, when it came, talks pretentiously about sake but there's not an iota of information about the wine. Hence our sake (£7.90 a glass) was "full bodied with multi-layers of citrus fruits and a long mellow finish".

Leaving aside the verbiage, what it did make one realise was just how rubbish normal sake is. The selection on offer here was truly top notch [see Charles Campion's Food Spy column on sake on the left].

I have never much liked Japanese food, but Ozu converted me to its merits. We ordered fresh clams steamed in sake (£11.50), which looked pretty, sprinkled with finely sliced chives. However, the effect was undermined by a bit of grit and one or two broken shells. We slurped the broth with gusto.

The sea bream preserved in kombu (seaweed) starter was faultless. My wife said the thready substance looked like something you might find in the washing machine after a wool cycle, but once she had tasted it she compared it to a cobweb from the sea.

The Japanese cuisine is filtered through a French sensibility but I doubt if French restaurants would serve up carrots and radishes cut into flowers.

For my main course I had Gressingham duck breast (£17) with a duck brioche and peppery long beans. Oddly, the duck arrived with two brioches and the beans were hidden under the meat. Was this a witty interpretation of meat and two veg?

The beans were a bit watery and flavourless and not peppery at all but their crunchy texture provided a good contrast to the succulent meat, which was sublime. The highlight was mackerel braised in miso (£14). I have always thought mackerel a boring fish until now. It was slightly overcooked and powdery on the teeth, rather than slippery, but was stunningly good and accompanied with a tea-flavoured shitake mushroom.

Ozu is a restaurant pretending to be posh and insists on a smart-casual dress code which forbids trainers. But when we went there we were surrounded by trainers. Its proximity to the London Eye makes this inevitable. What is the point in having a dress code if you allow it to be flouted?

Also, if it has pretensions to be a foodie restaurant then it should really instruct its staff to mug up on the menu. They were ever courteous and attentive but time and again we asked the waitress about our food and she would scuttle off and come back with half-baked replies.

Too much attention is devoted to serving rather than being able to identify what's on your plate. Also Lynne Truss needs to be brought in to sort out the menu. Take the "daikon and cucumber salad with carrot and ginger dressing". No, there was no carrot in the ginger dressing. Once these teething problems are sorted out, it could well become a pleasing fixture on the culinary map.

Ozu Restaurant
Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7PB

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