Restaurant columns don’t usually start within the women’ bathroom for a number of causes, however in actual life they typically do – or at the very least they do for me. A while after the primary plates of starters at a brand new opening, corresponding to at Kibou in Battersea final week, I typically discover myself staring into a rest room mirror – a freshly put in toilet mirror, thoughts – and the phrases are already effervescent, as a result of when , you already know.
Kibou’s new south London department is the third in a series of fantastically staged, Japanese-inspired eating places with a loyal following in Cheltenham and Bristol. The Battersea department has two huge, fluttery lashed, mascara-laden eyes painted on to its Hague Blue frontage. These eyes are made prettier nonetheless by fake Japanese rose blossom. Kibou is actually, from the surface and at night time, the loveliest, quirkiest-looking new opening London has seen shortly. Inside, huge murals of Tokyo metropolitan life brighten the partitions. The perfect seats in the home are the cubicles on the again, bedecked with much more fake blossom. Romantic as heck. However it’s much less so if you happen to’re seated close to the entrance door on one of many tiny, draughty, uncovered tables.
However then this restaurant could be very a lot a spot of contradictions. Kibou markets itself as a non-serious place – ultimate for teams, they are saying – that’s lethal critical about sushi, in addition to, effectively, many, many different issues. So many dishes. Kibou’s sushi providing alone is plentiful, with a dozen kinds of nigiri, alongside hosomaki and futomaki rolls, gunkan, temaki and, after all, sashimi, with plates coming in across the £8 to £13 mark, and bigger sharing rolls, such because the 10-piece “Volcano” – salmon, avocado and tobiko dipped in tempura – at about £18.
If Kibou have been solely a sushi restaurant, it may very well be a nice sufficient place to seize a plate of the completely nice hamachi nigiri or scallop sashimi, whereas accepting that it's going to arrive virtually immediately and be served by somebody who seems to know completely nothing concerning the menu, however is at the very least smiling. The menu is huge, nevertheless, and presents dozens of the crowd-pleasing, Asian-inspired dishes you see in chains corresponding to Wagamama, Tonkotsu and Yo! Sushi. Kibou does bao buns, hen karaage with sriracha mayo and baked aubergine nasu dengaku alongside gyoza, eel yakitori skewers and agadashi tofu, and that’s earlier than you even get to the ramen, donburi bowls and yaki udon sections.
Clearly, there’s lots occurring right here, and a variety of covers to cater for, which is formidable, and issues corresponding to agadashi tofu – which is supposed to be crisp, fried comfortable tofu perched in an umami broth – are straightforward to get very flawed. At Kibou, it got here in flabby lumps, thinly battered in potato starch, topped with chopped spring onion (slightly than bonito) and sitting in a barely nameless puddle. Seconds later, teeth-chatteringly candy, soggy aubergine nasu dengaku arrived, accompanied by a openly inedible “seasonal mushroom tempura” bao that sounded scrumptious on the menu, however turned out to be an virtually uncooked, breadcrumbed portobello mushroom sandwiched in a really non-pillowy bao bun. Subsequent, some overcooked hen karaage arrived, just lately refreshed in a deep-fat frier, with an unobtrusive pink mayo that was rumoured to have as soon as met sriracha. Pale, wobbly prawn gyoza “pot stickers” arrived with out even the merest of sears.
It was at this level that I excused myself to go to the women’ room, the place the towel on the old school curler dispenser on the wall had been pulled out and trailed alongside the ground, to have a protracted take into consideration my life decisions and, extra particularly, about how the likes of Tonkotsu can bang out good hen karaage on a mass scale, deftly and precisely at any hour of the day, and the way my favorite small Korean chain Yori can supply heavenly kimchi jeon pancakes each time, no matter who made them and when. And but different eating places, as soon as they develop, have a tricky time nailing their widespread dishes.
Even so, it's undoubted that Kibou, in its outside-London types, at the very least, evokes a variety of buyer love. Nearly all the things we ordered got here within the area of 5 minutes, together with these lukewarm eel yakitori skewers drizzled in yuzu. Recent sea bream sashimi, served with a hostile and, for that cause, superior wasabi, was the best factor on the desk. I’d additionally ordered the yaki udon, however thankfully they forgot to carry it, as a result of, at £92 down already and with out alcohol, it felt time to move for the door.
Kibou in Battersea has a variety of room for enchancment earlier than it would encourage the kind of adoration and dependability that it will get in its different places, however if you happen to’re up for a celebration environment, cocktails, good pictures of faux flowers and a spot to take teams who gained’t quibble over the small print, then, in its present type, you’ll be effectively suited.
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