Wow – if there was any other restaurant that looked the style this definitely did. And tho the food we were served wasn’t terrible exactly there wasn’t anything terribly outstanding about it either.

Can’t say I’ve ever noticed Kyashii in its current location but it has recently gone under a “regeneration” as the website refers to it. The venue is certainly very pretty with fish tanks along one side, white walls, yellow mood lighting, and shiny surfaces. I kind of wish I’d been at the restaurant before to be able to compare the food before and after.

Sandra and I were dining tonight on a tasting menu which had been discounted thanks to a groupon voucher (£25 for £70 including any drink up to £10) which objectively sounded like great value. In reality, at full price I would have felt just a little bit ripped off – especially considering you can go to a fantastic 2-Michelin starred restaurant such as the Ledbury and get a full tasting menu for £75.

Our menu started with small portions of Crispy Spicy Squid, Steamed Edamame, Kinoko salad (a mushroom salad with yuzu dressing), Honey Glazed Baby Ribs in Barbeque Sauce and Kushiyaki Skewers which included chicken and shiitake mushroom.

Oddly they decided to serve all these things up all at once!

Next up was some sushi Salmon Avocado Roll and a Garden Roll.

The our mains of Grilled Lamb Rack with Okinawa Piri-kara Sauce, Scottish Salmon Fillet with Teriyaki Sauce and Wok-fried Baby Pak-choi with Pine Nuts. Once again served in small portions.

Food was fairly average. Sure, the squid, ribs and lamb were very tender as were the yakitori and mushroom kushiyaki sticks (with these last two in particular having great smoky flavour) but it all came across a little lukewarm, even in temperature. They seemed to have rushed out what would have been a middle course (ribs and yakitori) with our starters (edamame, squid and warmed mushroom salad) which were nice and warm but as we finished these off first our “middle” courses became almost cold.

Surprisingly the tasting menu doesn’t even include dessert which gave our finish to the meal an odd feeling of incompleteness. The groupon voucher actually said it should come with a yuzu tart … so not sure why we weren’t served it tonight.

Priced at £25 (before service) I guess our meal tonight was just about the right price for what we got. I would have been happier if courses hadn’t been rushed out so quickly and also if it was delivered at more than just a bit above a cool temperature.

Oh! Beware – toilets are confusing, when you open the door to find them from the main room its all black and not very well sign-posted – I got lost going there and coming back! … on the other hand you do get to see through to the kitchen …