Review: Ukiyo Hand Roll Bar, Covent Garden

So I need to foreshadow this review. I love sushi and sashimi, except for one element of it. The thin seaweed sheet used for wrapping rice in various sushi forms. It’s often hard to bite through, and the texture is neither crispy nor yielding. It’s essentially the closest thing to chewing on paper that exists in popular world cuisine. Hence, I prefer nigiri, I’ll enjoy a roll, accept a maki, and I tend to avoid hand-rolls.

But Ukiyo is a specialist in hand-rolls, it’s what they do. And the way my brain works is, I want to like things, so maybe if I try hand-rolls at a specialist that people are currently excited about I’ll discover what I’ve been missing…?

It’s a very glossy glass box of a place, with beautiful light fittings and a single counter around the three sushi chefs. You perch on high stools and in the background they play disco. Not sure why disco. We pick a couple of cocktails from the list, and my smoky mix of mezcal and umeshu is punchy and good, Maureen’s also great. We choose two starters and two of the hand-roll sets, so that would be five hand rolls each.

The hamachi with jalapeno is a lovely starter, carpaccio-thin slices of perfect fish given just enough kick and capsicum flavour from the thin slice of pepper and the green jalapeno sauce. Very good. The seaweed salad is a vivid little pile of glossy green, sweetened with dressing and a sesame sauce, very oceanic at first bite but kinda moreish and addictive after that.

Then we have our hand-rolls. I don’t know if it’s an accepted part of this format in Japan, but we are handed our rolls at a pace chosen by the chef rather than us. What I mean is, he often handed us the next roll in the set while we’re still finishing the previous. We’re right there, he can literally see us still with half a roll in hand, so I’m guessing that this is how it’s meant to work…? The rhythmic pace without any pause to chat somehow enhancing the degustatory experience…? Anyway, it amused us more than it vexed us.

The hand rolls were nice. My favourite was akami, simply filled with meaty lean bits of tuna all shredded up. There were two or three “spicy X” rolls (e.g. “spicy yellowtail”) which translates as a bit of pleasingly warm chilli mayo added to the diced or shredded fish. The UKIYO Special was the same, salmon and chilli mayo, with shiso leaf added. Some were decorated with tiny green roe. The unagi was good, as I love sticky eel, although you get a more satisfyingly big piece on a nigiri than you do tucked into a hand roll.

My conclusion? I have the impression that Ukiyo is a place of excellence, and certainly the fish was all beautifully treated by skilled chefs (nice to be able to watch them work). But these hand rolls work out at £8 each for three bites and, alas, I still much prefer nigiri sushi. Chew, chew, chew, the seaweed paper is just such a big part of the hand roll. Especially the last mouthful. You’ll spend £55 each before drinks for what is effectively a very light meal. I know sushi is a luxury, but I just don’t find hand rolls luxurious. This is style over substance, for me.