Kam-Pai's happy culture clash

This review was first published in April 2001

Just in case we Londoners should become jaded with the eating-out options available to us - I mean, we're bound to tire eventually of Nepalese, Ethiopian, Sri Lankan, Tibetan et al - the latest Islington opening offers a bizarre marriage of Japanese and Mediterranean (Greek, actually) under one roof. With one Greek chef and one Japanese chef as owners, I suspect that Kam-Pai is the result more of an organic accident than a grand game plan.

I also get the impression it's a labour of love on their parts; hints that they haven't a massive budget come from the fact the décor has hardly changed a whit since it used to be Kavanagh's. So, if you get the urge to eat sushi as a main course with spanokopitta (a feta cheese and spinach pastry) as a starter, this is the place to come - and it's already been discovered by an enthusiastic bunch of Islingtonians, mostly of the social worker-ish breed. Something to do, perhaps, with the extremely reasonable prices: with three flasks of sake, a beer and two courses each, our bill only came to £38 for two. And it's good food, too.

My octopus, though a little tough, had been tactfully cut into discs avoiding that unaesthetic sucker effect; it was sharp with lemon and slick with oil. Chicken yaki-tori skewers didn't look too inviting - a bit scrag-endy - but tasted excellent. Fried tofu managed to be silky, crisp, melting and savoury: much, much better than it sounded. Main courses of soba - buckwheat - noodles in broth with prawn tempura and more tempura in the form of a prawn set meal (the prawns and vegetables in first-rate batter, rice, miso soup, shoyu and pickles) were both splendid.

Kam-Pai might represent a peculiar marriage but at least it's a happy one.

Kam-Pai
26 Penton Street, N1