Hi Sushi - Frith Street

Hi Sushi

40 Frith Street
London, W1D 5LN



Having been recommended to Hi Sushi by C, our friend who has since left London, we went in high hopes of decent sushi in London - something that has so far strangely eluded us.



From the outside, one could observe the diners downstairs through a CCTV link to a big screen in the window. Gimmicky and pointless.



All you can eat sushi... Not such an odd concept, but there's a good reason that restaurants offering it all seem to turn out to dash hopes and expectations.



Copious sushi, sashimi and hot-food options. Too much choice, it seems. Many of the items are definitely not Japanese by provenance.






The dreaded buffet deal. Don't get me wrong, I flock to a buffet like a vulture to a cooling Tibetan, but the deal here sent off deja vu alarms from Ikkyasan, a place I stopped visiting due to its declining quality and its treatment of customers. Basically, the deal is that you can graze once over the limited a la carte (full of starch and fat to fill you) once, then you can choose as much as you like of the sushi and salmon sashimi; the former being artlessly compressed out of leftovers, and the latter being simple and bland.



The trouble began even before we ordered. Having been given a bar table the size of a large envelope by the door, where even extrance and egress would smack me unsuspectingly from behind and let in an arctic draft, our drink order was taken and forgotten. The waitress - a smiling bowing woman possibly with special needs - helpfully ignored us until we started doing aerobic exercises in our corner. Enquring as to what the sushi set and sashimi sets might comprise of, we were told:

"7 fish".
What might those be?
"I'll ask chef... chef is too busy, it's a mixture of different fish".
Thank you, but we would like to know what the fish are.
"I'll go ask"....

Bringing back a different waitress, someone perhaps more senior but no more competent, we were given the 'mixture of different fish' routine all over again. Finally being promised mackeral, salmon, snapper, squid, prawn and seabass nigiri with tuna maki, and a selection of octopus, salmon, tuna, mackeral and snapper as sashimi, we ordered and contented ourselves with a small meal and the promise to leave as soon as reasonably possible. Having already settled in with a caraf of sake, we didn't want to leave without eating. In hindsight, we really should have simply walked out.



Beautiful presentation.



The sashimi platter looked great. Pity the fish was mealy, bland, and anaemic. Slices were thin, and stingy.



Mackeral, salmon, snapper, squid, prawn and seabass nigiri with tuna maki made up our mixed sushi platter. We asked for cucumber rolls to be replaced with tuna, at an extra cost. We should have stuck with cucumber, as the tuna was bland, and rice inedible.



What was incredible was that this 'sushi' restaurant could make mushy, gooey rice, and then have the audacity to serve it, and for such a high price.

The damage: a large sake, sashimi set and sushi set came to £36.50. Definitely not worth the price, or the time wasted.