26b Albemarle Street, London W1 (020 7495 5999)
Lunch for two, including drink and service, £60
A friend of mine, who lives in New York and has somehow managed to con the world into making him a multi-millionaire through various internet ventures, told me once that he was looking for ways in which to spend an obscene amount of money in one night. I suggested he take 10 friends to Masa, a Manhattan sushi restaurant where the omikase tasting menu is $350 a head. My friend shrugged. That wouldn't do it. You see, he might be wealthy, but he has no taste. He attached no value to slices of raw fish on expertly constructed mattresses of rice. It was just raw fish. And rice. And what's the point of that? I dropped my head into my hands.
Still, it's hard to ignore the point. Most expensive restaurant experiences cost because of the number of people required to process the ingredients. Other than the blade, really good sushi requires no processing at all. The aesthetic is based almost entirely on simplicity. In my experience, the wealthy do not dig simplicity. I am intrigued that Moscow's moneyed classes, famous for their willingness to display their own achievements, love sushi.
Still, I am pleased they do, for it has gifted us Sumosan in London's Mayfair, which is owned by a family of skilled Muskovite restaurateurs who have a restaurant of the same name in the Russian capital. Sumosan, a calm, relaxed spot with clean modern lines in shades of caramel, is not new but I had always assumed it to be too expensive for my purposes. And if you hit the main menu hard, you could indeed easily work up a telephone-number bill. But they also do a lunch deal and, having tried it I can say it is that very rare thing in Mayfair: a bargain.
For £22.50 each you get to make seven choices which construct a substantial lunch, with all the grace and subtlety that we have come to expect from high-end Japanese food. It starts with soup. Dobinmushi is a clear but intensely savoury broth, mined with delicate pieces of seafood. You pour it from a teapot into a tiny ceramic bowl, the edge of which has been smeared with lime juice. A perfect palette cleanser. Another soup, nabe udon, is a rich sweet liquor with a few thick, slurpable noodles and a generous piece of prawn tempura. Next, three pieces of sushi, as pretty as jewels: there was salmon, prawn and sea bream, on rice, both just warm and just vinegared, with an agreeable definition between each grain. It was simplicity on a plate. Sashimi brought, among other things, slices of perfectly cut tuna and salmon.
The next four dishes each arrived on one plate, like Christmas presents waiting to be opened. The highlights included a small tranche of sticky black cod in sweet miso, each pearly flake slipping easily from the next, and a crisp breaded lamb chop served on a punchy, mustardy vinaigrette sauce. There was a seaweed salad, both slippery and crunchy, with a rich nutty dressing, and a selection of greaseless vegetable tempura. At the end there was an aromatic green tea ice-cream or, best of all, a perfectly crafted dark chocolate fondant leaking a centre of white chocolate. And after all this came a bill which made me very happy, and would have severely disappointed my multi-millionaire friend. Take that as a recommendation.
