Roka - Charlotte Street, London
Review by Jack Foley
THERE is an element of fun to be had in visiting Roka for the first couple of times because the menu is so vast – and the food so mouth-watering- that you’re never quite sure what to order.
I have visited on three occasions and have yet to be disappointed. The service is first-rate, the ambience nice and relaxed and the food rates among the best I have tasted in London.
Indeed, it’s safe to say that my wife and I can’t get enough. We now have our favourite selections – but have yet to conquer the menu as a whole and almost always see something else being served that we would like to try.
Roka specialises in Japanese cuisine. It is the award-winning sister restaurant to Zuma in Knightsbride and, roughly translated, means cooking with open flames.
Hence, the focal point of the restaurant is a kitchen area at the centre of the room in which several Japanese chefs meticulously prepare the food for all to see.
I’d recommend sitting at the counter on at least one occasion as this can help with picking through the menu, particularly if you see something you like the look of.
The food is split into different sections, from tempura, sashimi and maki, to kushiage, chu-maki robabata yasai and robata niku.
It’s easy to get confused and lost, so best ask the helpful staff who are more than willing to explain what each dish comprises and to make recommendations.
Having both been new to Japanese cuisine, each of our three visits succeeded in providing us with an exciting new taste sensation. Hence, I shall pick out some of our highlights.
Dishes are relatively small in Roka, so choosing a few is not a problem, as you will probably notice from this selection!
One top tip is the Butaniku Hotate Gyoza, a pork and scallop dumpling that just explodes with flavour once you put it in your mouth.
A good companion is the bacchu kim chi, a napa cabbage in garlic and hot chili – and we’re talking hot. The sauce could well have you reaching for the bottled water if you attack it too wildly (a rookie mistake, granted).
Of the Roka dishes, the kani no kama meshi provides a mouth-watering treat for lovers of fish given that it is a rice hot pot with king crab and wasabi tobiko.
Meat-lovers, meanwhile, are extremely well-catered for with the hireniku no pirikara yakiniku, a fillet of beef with chili, ginger and spring onion which is as tender and melt-in-the-mouth as you might expect from a top London restaurant.
The kankoku fu kohitsuji is another terrific meat dish – lamb cutlets with Korean spices; while the tenaga ebi no shoga yuzu fumi provides fish-lovers with some tiger prawns to genuinely savour.
As a perfect accompaniment, the vegetable selections are both fresh and expertly prepared, with the yaki asparagus a particular speciality – cooked with sweet soy sauce and sesame.
Put together with the eggplant (aubergine), they make a winning combination that sits well with the meat and fish selections.
Drinks-wise, we would recommend bottled water and wine – we chose the Buiten Blanc which, at £9.50 a bottle, is a rich, fruity white that is served with just the right amount of chill. It’s ideal to set the taste-buds roaring at the top of the meal and goes down nicely with any of the aforementioned food selections.
Given the sheer scope of course selections, we have only managed to reach the dessert menu once when we shared the Roka platter – a rich and beautifully presented selection of fresh fruit and after-meal choices.
It is the best way to sample the full extent of the dessert menu, containing everything from exotic fruit to strawberry and mint jelly with jasmine flower ice-cream and mocha and honeycomb custard.
The average cost of a meal at Roka works out at around £40 per person if you’re not too greedy and the food is such that you will want to return in a hurry.
It comes highly recommended as one of the very best dining experiences in London and is ideal just for kicking back and spending the evening in.
Roka, 37 Charlotte Street, London, W1T 1RR. Telephone: 020 7580 6464