Any London foodie who likes there Japanese food will be aware of Taro. This excellent and growing group of Japanese restaurants was started by the eponymous Mr Taro on Brewer Street in Soho back in 1999.
From humble beginnings then, there are now find 11 Taro restaurants dotted across London. This year alone has seen two openings for the chain.
After the Crystal Palace restaurant opened in March, Taro has now branched out into North London, with Holloway becoming the latest area to be blessed with an opening.
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We headed down to the Holloway restaurant for a classic Taro feast of sushi, dragon rolls and bento boxes.
I have to start by saying how calm and welcoming the restaurant environment was. The moment you walk through the door of Taro, you leave behind the hustle and bustle of Holloway Road and Seven Sisters Road, and land in the serene world of sushi and sushimi.
To start, me and my dining partner enjoyed Tako Taki (deep-fried octopus balls with tonkatsu sauce, £8.90) and Shrimp Sumai (grilled sumai filled with shrimp and vegetables, £6.90), as the perfect bite-sized amuse-bouches to kick off the meal.
Then, onto one of Taro’s signatures – the Chef’s Special Rolls. These are hefty rolls of sushi delight.
Being in the land of the reigning Premier League champions, we felt it would be rude not to try the Arsenal Special Roll (£17.90, eight pieces) comprising prawn tempura, cream cheese and avocado, topped with tuna and a house special dressing in a striking red to match the team’s iconic colours.
It’s safe to say, these rolls lived up to the performance of their namesake, each an indulgent bite of Japanese cuisine.
We also went for the Dragon roll (£17.90, eight pieces): avocado, crab stick with mayonnaise and teriyaki sauce topped with grilled eel and tobiko. Again, these were wonderful.
On to the mains, where bento boxes were the course of order. One of these on its own would have been enough for a satisfying meal. Meat, sushi, nigiri, sashimi, rice, vegetables, each in their own compartment.
Between us, we went for the a duck bento box (deep fried duck and vegetables on rice with teriyaki sauce, edamame, beansprouts, 2 pieces of roll sushi, prawn & salmon nigiri and salmon sashimi, £21.90) and the tonkatsu (deep fried breaded pork, edamame, beansprouts, 2 pieces of roll sushi, prawn and salmon nigiri and 5 pieces of salmon sashimi, £20.90).
Every single component hit the spot here, giving us a smorgasbord of Japanese enjoyment.
And there’s always room for dessert. Mochi ice cream was of course an option, but it was another Japanese staple that caught my eye: the matcha cheese cake (£6.90).
This was both as decadent as you’d want a cheesecake to be without being too cloying or dense. As someone who doesn’t usually consider themselves a macha fan, the flavour was spot on. You could taste the macha, but there was still a sweetness and decadence to the cheesecake.
Even after this banquet, there were still large parts of the menu we didn’t manage to explore, such as the ramen, udon noodles and hand rolls.
You could come back here dozens of teams and manage to have a completely different meal every time.
Taro is the exact sort of restaurant that makes you glad to live in London. Great quality world cuisine on your doorstep, that didn’t need a reservation two months in advance and doesn’t break the bank.
Arigatō, Mr Taro!