The problem with my visit to Sushinho tonight was that I was expecting a restaurant which delivered a meal as spectacular as the one that I’d had at Sushi Samba in New York. Basically the two restaurants have the same premise – the fusion of Brazilian and Japanese cuisine but where Sushi Samba really delivered on presentation and content I felt Sushinho was a little flat. But that’s not to say it was overall a terrible experience because some of the food, the tempura especially, was quite nice.

For starters we all ordered some sushi, whether it was a sushi special or the platter. We were expecting the dishes to come out served individually but for some reason rather than present the dishes separately, to emphasise the ingredients, they piled everything on to one plate. I understand that they were trying to encourage shared eating but when I compared it with the flamboyance of Sushi Samba it kind of paled in comparison. My sushi special was the samba roll (eel and papaya, tobiko, lime dressing, 6pcs) as I can never resist eel. Taste-wise it wasn’t terribly exciting – the eel flavour wasn’t strong and even the lime dressing didn’t even cut through.

Things improved when it came to my seafood tempura. I have to hold my hand up and say that it was quite possibly the best tempura I’ve ever had. The batter was perfectly light and crispy and the dish somehow managed to stay quite warm. It was delicious through and through.

The hot mains (or the sushinho specials and grills as they are called on the menu) are served as is (that is with no accompaniment) so bear that in mind when ordering as you’ll likely need a side of rice or something to bulk up the dish a bit. My dish was actually quite attractive – red snapper fillet with gnocchi (about five pieces) cooked in squid ink, cucumber and fennel salad and black sesame sauce. It was an odd combination but actually worked quite well. At £22 I felt it was slightly over-priced but I guess this is what you get when dining on King’s Road!

We didn’t get to try any of the desserts which was both a curse (cause I love dessert!) and a blessing (saved myself a bit of money!) as Lana had brought her own dessert! We were actually at Sushinho to celebrate Lana’s 30th birthday so she had planned ahead and bought a dozen beautiful cupcakes from Lola’s at Selfridges! How nice of her! The cupcakes were delicious but after a big meal we all got to take a “doggy-bag” cupcake away. Heh heh. I was impressed that the staff didn’t say anything about us having the cupcakes there but to be honest tonight the service was fairly relaxed anyway!

Overall I’d say Sushinho was a nice, though pricey experience. It’s a pleasant atmosphere (room is quite dark and minimalist so quite intimate) and I imagine on a busier night they might even have some funky South American music going on (I didn’t really notice if any was playing tonight as we were to busy chatting!) Not quite as brilliant as Sushi Samba but from the reviews I’ve read it has certainly improved since it opened just over a year ago. I’d really like to see them innovate on their sushi a bit more and work on presentation.