Kino Review: A Food Writer Shares What To Order With Photos

It seems like everyone and their mother claims sushi as their favourite food, and, to be completely honest, it has never once been the first thing that springs to mind when that fateful question pops up in my day-to-day life (my loyalty lies with sandwiches and dumplings). It’s not that I don’t enjoy sushi, that would be taking it too far, it’s that I don’t seek it out, don’t think about it all that much. But I can tell you one thing for certain, today I am thinking about it.

Ever since I stumbled onto the sunny South Kensington pavement out of a modern Japanese restaurant, Kino, after a lot of sushi and sake, I have been thinking about it. I am thinking about sushi.

With no website, just an OpenTable portal and a low-following Instagram account, I was more than intrigued given their outstanding real estate on Draycott Avenue
Mallory, Food & Lifestyle Writer/Creator

What sets it apart

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Kino has just soft-launched, and, as we are on the page of honesty, I haven’t really heard about it all too much — haven’t heard whispers or chatter or grumbles or groans, but, to me at least, it looked worth a try. With (at the time of booking) no website, just an OpenTable portal and a low-following Instagram account, I was more than intrigued given their outstanding real estate on Draycott Avenue. I also love a good sake list, off I trot.

The dining room is almost like a ballroom, especially from a bird’s eye view as you descend the stairs from the first floor to the ground floor. The table shapes are obscure, modern, but with an honest (here we go again) reminiscence of a Japanese setting, plus yet another open-kitchen-counter layout. No complaints, I love dinner and a show.

This is unlike anything I’ve had before… a journey from beginning to end.

View from the first floor

Sho Chiku Bai, Niguri Sake: Highly recommend, especially with spicy foods

What we ordered

Padrón pepper with yuzu sesame seeds, Kino Tsukemono (selection of homemade pickles), edamame, and a side of a tapioca fried seaweed (we think)

Where to begin. If you’ve read any of my reviews, you’ll know I am a huge advocate for either letting the staff direct your order or letting them do the ordering altogether. For some reason, it makes it so that their passions shine brighter, their knowledge and your education flourish. At the end of the day, they know what’s good far better than you will ever be able to guess for yourself. So the passionate, outgoing, all-too-knowledgeable manager crafted our order.

We began with picky bits of padron peppers with yuzu and sesame seeds alongside edamame and kino tsukemono, or homemade pickles of cucumbers, daikon, carrots, kimchi… the works. These stayed on the table for the entirety of the meal, working hard as palate cleansers.

We continued with the truffle scallop. To preface, I am absolutely of the camp that truffle does not belong on everything; there is a time and a place and a kitchen’s habit to just chuck it on whatever and then call it a day is, on all accounts, lazy. That being said, this scallop is an exception. It is soft, avoiding the occasional grittiness of the standalone shellfish, melting in with a hint of the smoky flavour imparted by the woodland jewel. A thousand times, yes.

It was a roll that made you think while you ate, not one to scarf nor one to pop in your mouth passively as you moved through the courses, but one that made you sit with its delicious oddity.

Alongside our little bite of scallop, we had tapioca marshmallows. Your guess is as good as mine, but boy, did these explosive little pillows blow their partners out of the water in terms of texture. This is unlike anything I’ve had before, an affair between the famed crispy rice and the even more infamous croquette — a journey from beginning to end.

Seasonal hand-dived scallops with truffle butter and chives; tapioca marshmallow with shio konbu, ocopa cream, and furikake; miso soup with tofu, wakame, and spring onion

Taste testing the tapioca marshmallow

The winner at Kino, though, lies with its raw fish — which you’d hope would be the case in a Japanese restaurant — and was particularly refreshing and apt for the first truly sunny day of the year (may this be no fool’s spring). The Ikura roll, although not my overall favourite, was similar to the above marshmallow but in contrasting ways. It was a changing landscape of textures in the span of a bite, the never-ending bite, the softness of rice amicably met the bursting salmon eggs, but were held together in their suitability by a perfect seaweed wrapping. It was a roll that made you think while you ate, not one to scarf nor one to pop in your mouth passively as you moved through the courses, but one that made you sit with its delicious oddity.

Meanwhile, the fatty tuna, the yellowtail, and the turbot (crowd favourite), which had been caught, delivered and prepared the day before, were simple spectacles of freshness, of effortlessness, of stories of the sea.

Ikura nigiri (centre), with wild king salmon roe

Left: Hamachi nigiri (yellowtail); bottom: Turbot; right: Yasai roll of cucumber and avocado; top: Otoro sashimi (extra fatty tuna); centre: Ikura nigiri

Meanwhile, the fatty tuna, the yellowtail, and the turbot (crowd favourite), which had been caught, delivered and prepared the day before, were simple spectacles of freshness, of effortlessness, of stories of the sea. The lambchop, for some reason, was also phenomenal. Unsure of what its place was, maybe, but a welcome black sheep on my table.

Lumina lamb with kimchi and tomato miso

Verdict

The food at Kino is a reminder of why people maybe should consider sushi and Japanese to be amongst their choices for favourite foods. This is because it is not overwhelming, nor is it overcompensating. The food at Kino is innovative — crossing boundaries which push the meaning of what modern Japanese food is — but, when you get down to the bones of it, especially in the raw and the salty, it proves that good sourcing, good preparation, and simple bites make for a greater respect of the elements that go into cooking, specifically Japanese cooking. It was a pleasure to be reminded of why sushi and Japanese food are so greatly loved in London; perhaps I might hop on that wagon for a little while.