Satori Robata, 28-30 Knightsbridge London, SW1X 7JN (Taste London)

We’ve had the Taste London card for a while now, but not used it much so decided to give it a go. For those of you who don’t know, the Taste London card can be used to get 2-for-1 meals, or 50% off food prices at participating restaurants. You have to pay to be a member and to get the card, but we managed to get it for free when they were giving it out some time ago. Although there are quite a few restaurants on there, the ones we wanted to try never seemed to feature on the listing. Anyhow, we felt like having Japanese food, and Satori Robata featured as one of the restaurants on the list, so we decided to give it a try.

The restaurant is located close to Harrod’s, which, to those in the know, usually mean higher prices. I say usually, as there are some high street stores which obviously can’t raise their prices (too much). The interior of the restaurant is really nice, and the seats are also designed to look as though you’re sitting on the floor, even though you’re not (a good thing). With that much space, you would have thought that they’d make it so that more customers could be accommodated during one sitting, but it seems they prefer using that space for decoration instead. Maybe it’s something to do with that ambience thing (the places I go to don’t usually focus much on ambience).

Squid and octopus sashimi, £3.55 a portion (a portion is 2 pieces)

Being more used to the sushi-from-the-counter type shops, which usually charge about 50p for a piece of sushi, this seemed quite expensive to me. Perhaps it’s quite reasonable to most people (the ones who shop at Harrods), but certainly not to us. For that amount, I expected the portions to be huge (or at least singing and tap-dancing their way to the table), but the pieces of squid and octopus we had were just OK, and nothing more different than other sashimi I’d had before, for that price.

Prawn tempura temaki, about £3

This was something I ordered instead of a portion of rice with my main meal. Unconventional, I know. It was again, just OK. The prawn tempura was fresh, and the batter was light and crispy. The seaweed was slightly soggy by the time it got to the table, which meant quite alot of chewing before I could actually bite a piece of the temaki off, but it tasted nice.

Beef rib eye teriyaki £16.95

Fresh, tender beef cooked very well, with lovely tasting teriyaki sauce. Would have said more about it if not for the price. Why? Because, for the price, you almost expect it to be so fantastic and so unlike anything you’d ever had before. Sure it was nice, but it wasn’t great value for money, or nicer than any other beef I’d ever had.

Pan fried venison steak with sake and garlic soy glaze £19.50

Cooked to rare perfection, just as requested, and very tender. Didn’t taste much of venison, in fact, it could have been beef as far as taste was concerned. Comment about price as before. Could it just be me who thinks this is expensive???

Jumbo prawn yaki (whole jumbo prawn flame grilled with yuzu and garlic ponzu) £14.95

‘What’re you going to have?’, I asked my friend.
‘The jumbo prawns’, she said.
‘Prawns?’, I asked. ‘I think you meant prawn.’
‘No … surely they mean the plural version of it …’

A quick check with the waitress confirmed that uh huh, it was one prawn, and one prawn only. Wooo hooo, that’s one expensive prawn! Not a lobster or anything in even similar in size. Fresh, as with the other dishes, it has to be said but very expensive, like the other dishes also.

Seafood tempura moriawase £10.90

This was perhaps the option which was best in terms of value for money. The portion was acceptable, the pieces of seafood were fresh, and there were different types of fish included in the selection. I enjoyed this very much, but it didn’t come with any rice or side dishes so this alone does not make a filling meal.

Free salad that came with the venison. Free! Something that is reasonable priced. (such a cheapskate hey)

Would I recommend this? Well, we dined here on the Taste London 50% off promotion, which made the price per person just about reasonable. Without that, we most certainly wouldn’t have had considered this as an option for dinner, because there are lots of other Japanese restaurants in London (more central) with food that is just as good in terms of quality, at more reasonable prices.

Google Maps to here!

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