No.1 Sushi Bar

It’s a bit naughty of the No.1 Sushi Bar (Tollcross, Edinburgh) to include wasabi peas on their list of starters, when really these are not starters but bar snacks, crunchy carriers for those who like having their nostrils and upper palate tickled by wasabi, that peculiarly Japanese, mentholyptic alternative to chilli. It’s a shame – fresh peas prepared with wasabi sounded like an exciting culinary innovation, but they turned out to be Oriental supermarket snacks poured out into a bowl and priced up accordingly.

We’d popped in for a quick pre-cinema, and No.1 Sushi essentially did the business. It’s rather like a sit-down equivalent of Sushiya, with stork-print wallpaper for low-key Eastern elegance, but still with the Japanese television going, tonight showing sushi preparation aimed at English speakers. For a real starter, we had dumplings filled with vegetables and bean curd, a natural mix of textures from very mushy bean curd via the vegetably softness up to the slightly crisped dumpling dough (fried, not steamed), and which only really took on flavour fulfilment when properly dipped in the soy-based dressing they came with. Deep-fried bean curd is something that looks alien and exquisite, like squares of Spanish leche frita with shavings of Autumn-dried oak leaf, that once again has a quite simple flavour really needing the soy dressing to bring it out. Presumably without soy sauce the Orient would have been obliged to evolve a different cuisine. We didn’t try any sushi, which is rather unfair on a restaurant with this name, but N1 has at least enjoyed their dragon rolls in the past.

For a winter-filling main, we went for traditional style ramen with Udon noodles (they’re the thick, wheaty ones), one of the great Japanese staples. N1 compared it rather unfavourably with the ramen at Tang’s, where she found the meat meltingly soft. The broth certainly needed a little salt to properly bring out the complexity of flavours that make it up. Dessert – what else but green tea ice cream? This was the way it should be, not too sweet, with a powdery, crumbly texture.