Kurobuta – Scandelights

My last week in London before going on holiday was also my birthday week (and my friend Gaby’s) so it was rather busy as I also needed to pack and finish off work at the same time.

I started celebrating my birthday already on the Monday with drinks at Bar Americain followed by dinner at an old favourite; Bocca di Lupo. It was really nice and great food as always and so a real treat!

On Tuesday I mainly packed for holiday but got most of it done which was great!

Wednesday was my actual birthday and after work a few colleagues took me out for drinks before I had dinner with the girls at another old favourite; Kurobuta Chelsea.

Thursday I did errands and finished packing and Friday night I celebrated Gaby’s birthday eating tapas and gelato in Soho. The perfect start to my holiday but I wouldn’t stay out late as my flight was at 7am the next morning. My two weeks in Sweden were wonderful and I will tell you all about it soon!

The day after we tried Flesh and Buns for lunch, Caroline and I had dinner at a restaurant with similar cuisine, a pop-up restaurant in Chelsea called Kurobuta, but it will soon have a permanent spot near Marble Arch.

We shared a lot of different dishes, starting with the yellowtail tuna sashimi with kazimi wasabi salsa and yuzu soy sauce (above). Very nice and great texture.

Barbecued chicken scewers with Japanese barbecue sauce. Tender meat and very nice smoky flavour.

The pumpkin tempura was lovely and served with a delicious dip with spicy shiso.

Tea smoked cutlet of lamb with spicy Korean miso. Very nice indeed, and one of my favourites. The lamb was tender and quite rare which I like and with a thick coating of the delicious glaze.

The crispy soft shell crab roll with kimchi mayo was also very nice.

Kurobuta’s menu has a few different sections; one with snacks, one with barbecue, one with crispy food, one with sushi and one with cold and raw dishes (like sashimi). One section was called ‘Significant Others’ and sounded so boring that we didn’t try a single dish, but apart from that we sampled every section on the menu.

The food at Kurobuta is tasty and well-made and I always like to share small dishes, especially when you can have sushi and barbecued dishes at the same time. Compared to Flesh and Buns this is a lot better. It feels like Kurobuta has a clearer concept, but there is still room for improvement.

The service was very varied; we had a great waitress but a few others ran around like headless chickens and that is quite easy to fix. And hopefully the new place will have a better ventilated kitchen as half the restaurant on our visit was filled with thick smoke from the barbecue.

Kurobuta, 251 King’s Road, London SW3 5EL

Tag: Kurobuta

Birthday week!

Dinner at Kurobuta, a Chelsea pop-up restaurant