Review: Endo at the Rotunda

Chef Endo has spoiled all other sushi restaurants for me. When your sushi is made by hand in front of you, and the piece of seafood is firm and perfect, and the rice is still warm and of perfect pearly grains with a hint of very friendly vinegar, and it is handed directly to you without touching a plate… well, it’s going to be hard to enjoy a chunk of cold tuna on cold rice off of a conveyer belt ever again!

Endo at the Rotunda is a dramatic yet meditative space, high up in the great circular room at the top of the old TV centre. There are a dozen seats in a wide semi-circular sweep around the preparation space where Endo performs culinary magic with the help of his team. Memo to self: this is a shared dining experience, so unlike most Michelin restaurants you will feel silly and self-conscious if you arrive 10 minutes late and find Chef Endo and ten other diners all waiting patiently for you!

It took the first two courses to get over our mortification.

Luckily, Chef Endo is a charming host. That’s actually a big part of the meal, and is an (admittedly expensive) echo of traditional restaurant culture in Japan, where local restaurants are small, many of the clientele go frequently, and the chef is as much host as cook.

So what can I tell you about the culinary wonders? Well, I never imagined that oyster nigiri would be so stunning, the shellfish a perfect combo of sweetness, ozone and cream. Another splendid revelation, monkfish liver nigiri had all the richness of foie gras but with a powerful underlying oceanicness (that’s a word, okay?) that the delicately sweet-and-vinegar rice balanced wonderfully. And the plated dishes between the sushi courses were way more than sideshows. A bowl of lobster pieces in a sharp jelly was deeply oceanic but bright and lively too.

Okay, I seem to be spewing adjectives like a love-sick fool. It was that kind of meal; every mouthful felt full of love and a minute attention to detail in pursuit of perfection. I have absolutely no doubt that the whole performance of the meal, dishes prepped and finished before you with precise and balletic movements, contributed a lot to how great the food tasted. But that’s rather the point. I say we should love and celebrate how cleverly our taste buds can be fooled by presentation, ambience, decor and service. I’ll remember this meal for a LOT longer than many other fine dining restaurants where the food is prepared in a kitchen out back and set before me by a waiter!

It was £200 each when we dined at Endo. I’d go back in a heartbeat (although doing that too often might start to hurt in the wallet!) because it was a magic experience and chef Endo is a very charming host. And I seriously doubt whether I’ll ever find sushi to match this, anywhere.