Jidori, the Japanese yakitori and small plates restaurant have launched a new Omakase menu which will be available only in their Covent Garden restaurant.
Meaning’chef’s choice’ in Japanese, Omakase is a way of showcasing the freshest seasonal ingredients and the skills of the kitchen through a multi-course, set menu. A passion project of Jidori Head Chef Shunta Matsubara, the new Omakase menu takes you on a personal journey through memories of food from his home in Tokyo, Japan.
Designed to share between two, the Omakase menu starts with a selection of Otsumami or snacks. Delicately pickled daikon, shiitake and baby radish Tsukemono pickles made from Shunta’s Grandmother’s recipe are followed by sweet red sashimi prawns served with citrus salt and a fresh asparagus and mizuna salad.
To follow, is a selection of yakitori dishes inspired by the smokey back streets of Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. The series of skewers are made from only the highest quality chickens and cooked over a Kama-Asa Shoten Grill.
Each plate is presented individually with the whole chicken being showcased over the course of the meal: butterflied wings, succulent thighs with burnt leek, minced chicken tsukune, breast, hearts, livers and crispy skin.
Chef Shunta then serves an Ochazuke recipe which has been given a Jidori twist. Traditionally eaten as a digestive at the end of a meal, Ochazuke provides a mix of rice and seasonings topped with roasted green tea.
Not wasting any part of the chicken Jidori are serving theirs with a chicken broth, bubu arare (crispy rice crackers) shiso leaf and umeboshi (Japanese salted plums).
Dessert is a scoop of coconut water sorbet.
Jidori began life in Dalston, and opened their second site in Covent Garden at the end of February 2018.
The Omakase menu is now available for dinner at Covent Garden and costs £30 pp (food only) based on a minimum of two people.
Reservations can be made at jidori.co.uk/reservations