Fusion

The reason why I wanted to go to Uni is because the Harden’s guide said it was one of the top 10 new restaurants that opened in London in 2014. My personal view is that it could not be further from the truth. Uni is a restaurant in Victoria serving Peruvian and Japanese fusion food, another restaurant that is trying to copy the success of Sushi Samba and Nobu, which arguably introduced this fusion food to London. Uni has even hired the former Nobu chef Rolando Ongcoy to recreate this sort of food.

I have been to Modern Pantry once before for dinner, a few years ago, but I was googling best places in London for brunch and it came up so I suggested we go there with my friends Lasma and Luke for brunch.
 

When I was choosing which restaurants to visit in Tokuo, Narisawa was top of my list. Narisawa is the 20th best restaurant in the world according to the St Pellegrino awards and number 1 in Asia (2 days after we visited it the new rankings came out and it slipped to number 2 in Asia). It has 2 Michelin stars and is run by Yoshihiro Narisawa who has inspired chefs all over the world. The restaurant opened in 2003 under the name of Les Creations de Narisawa in Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo, and in 2011 it became known as just Narisawa. Narisawa serves Japanese food with influence from France where Yoshihiro Narisawa has worked for many years.
 

I describe Chotto Matte to most people as a sort of wannabe restaurant, it is a mix of Zuma, Sushi Samba and Novikov yet not as good as either of them. You sort of know what Chotto Matte is trying to do, everyone in London these days likes Japanese/ Latin fusion food (restaurants like Sushi Samba, Sushinho, a trend that was started by Nobu many years ago), as it is light and funky and tasty and Chotto Matte is trying to cater to the clientele that likes this type of food. Having said these criticisms, there were some delicious dishes at Chotto Matte that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Mango Mango is a Vietnamese fusion restaurant and a very interesting one, as I had never had Vietnamese fusion food before. Mango Mango is located on the south side of Hoi An and overlooks the Japanese Bridge, one of the things you have to see in Hoi An. The atmosphere is very funky and this restaurant could be in London, they do great cocktails, great fusion dishes but unfortunately this restaurant also does charge somewhat more western prices.

We went to Mango Mango for dinner as I had read about it in my guide book and it was quite close to our hotel and we fancied a break from the typical traditional Vietnamese food. When we arrived we were seated on the outside terrace overlooking the street, which I thought is more interesting, as you can see what is going on, although you can also be seated inside. The whole outside area was full and we took the last table, which shows that this place is quite popular.