Chef Daisuke Shimoyama’s new restaurant delivers beautiful food cooked exactingly over flames, venerating the depth of bluefin tuna
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Hiraeth, a Welsh word, has no direct translation in English.
It’s used to express a deep longing for a home or place that’s become idealised in the mind – a kind of yearning nostalgia tinged with melancholy. It expresses connection.
Last year I was lucky enough to travel to Japan and experience just a few of its wonders.
The trip included a visit to an area riddled with hot volcanic springs – onsen – that the locals bathe in and use to gently boil eggs.
These are left bobbing in specially built pools by the side of the path with passers-by welcome to take one and pay via an honesty box system.
The memory was just one of a heap of glittering jewels from that trip, but one that rose to the surface sat in a recently opened restaurant in Stratford upon seeing the words “onsen tamago” as part of the accompaniment to its wagyu beef.
The trip to Japan was taken in the wake of my mother’s death and in grief we look for signs.
The flash of hiraeth came both from the recall of place but also that the meat’s place of origin – Miyazaki – is the surname of the director who made one of her favourite animations, the joyful My Neighbour Totoro.
While these are deeply personal coincidences, I mention them because the dishes of chef Daisuke Shimoyama at Kokin are so beautifully put together, so finely honed in fire that they are more than capable of living up to the kind of perfection hiraeth expects.
simply perfect
On the plate – a piece of fine white porcelain softly glistening with a pattern based on ice crystals – the wagyu is simply perfect.
A delicate huddle of flesh and vegetables bathing gracefully and butter-soft on the tongue, it’s deep, rich and savoury.
This really is cooking of the very highest quality and, like any restaurant at that end of the scale, Kokin has the power to dance with emotions – and dance it does.
Our meal actually begins not with beef but with extraordinary joy – quite probably the prettiest platter of starters available in east London (or perhaps the whole city).
This tray of wonders includes oysters snuggling under a blanket of apple and jelly, single bites of steaming tofu, grilled tuna with egg yolk curry sauce, smoked mackerel sushi and chawanmushi – a wonderful savoury custard.
The tastes and flavours are as bright as the garland of flowers decorating the tray.
It’s a thrill of a platter, each little bowl revealing new dimensions to the world, different textures and colours.
Daisuke is a subtle chef.
His dishes are simple on paper, beautiful to look at but astonishingly complex on the tongue.
While the presentation may appear chaotic at times, there’s little doubt that every ingredient, each little ferny leaf of garnish, is present intentionally and is part of the palette in a wider painting.
celebrating the tuna
Wild bluefin tuna from Portugal is the star of the show.
We eat it as sashimi, on the bone in a dish of the fish’s collar and in Temae – a make-your-own sushi course with three cuts blended in a kind of salad with the orange pearls of salmon roe.
Time and again we’re transported as plates arrive.
Flavours and smells evoke memories and stir feelings of fun and excitement that confound the expectation of straight-laced fine dining.
Wood-fired ice cream bamboozles the senses in a lake of fermented raspberries.
A tray of “chef’s desserts” land somewhere between afternoon tea and jelly for a kid’s party.
Throughout, the staff are faultless, rapid and smooth delivering these culinary wonders with accuracy and dedication.
Kokin is not cheap, but it is exceptional value, so worth saving up for.
Set lunch menus start at £26, but with cooking of this quality it’s worth setting aside a budget and really going for it.
With an open heart, you won’t be disappointed.
5/5 *****
key details: Kokin
Kokin is located on the seventh floor of The Stratford hotel in east London and is open from noon-2pm for lunch and from 5pm for dinner every day except Mondays.
Find out more about the restaurant here
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