A Japanese Meal at Yama Momo, London

As part of my monthly exploration of different countries, I’m trying to sample a menu from each country. In ‘Turkey month’ I cooked some Turkish meze, but frankly the idea of cooking up a Japanese feast during ‘Japanuary’ was too scary. We have two Japanese restaurants near by, but because I have a sesame allergy I felt it was a bit dicey to try them (so much Japanese cooking is heavily reliant on sesame).

I was really pleased then when I noticed that Yama Momo, 15 minutes walk from my house, has a detailed allergy menu online (although strangely not in the printed menu on tables). So I booked a table for 2 and headed off there with my husband.

The restaurant was very busy on a Saturday night, with a dubious 80s soundtrack playing all night (Beautiful South, anyone? OK, how about a bit of Steve Winwood’s Valerie?). There were tons of staff, slightly too many staff one might say, but at least that meant the service was good.

I had veggie sushi, noodles and lovely crunchy veg, plus tempura and a sort of seafood dumpling, while my husband added an order of truffle rib eye beef and eek, sesame rice for himself.

We had fun with the sake testing order, each trying three different sakes, as well as trying a Japanese-influenced cocktail and a digestif. This, combined with the two large G&Ts consumed at home meant we were nicely oiled by the time we left.

The food was amazing, fresh and light and delicious, and much better than I would have expected from the bland decor and terrible music!