Nikkei, being a term not wildly known outside foodie circles, perhaps takes a little unpicking. It is where Japanese cuisine meets Peruvian – think salmon tataki, but with aji amarillo tiger’s milk, or maybe a plate of ornate, yellowtail kingfish maki rolls dotted with yuzu truffle soy and romano pepper. It’s raw fish meets heat and spice, with simple, clean Japanese plates sent slightly haywire by Peruvian influences such as sweet potato, chancha corn or vinegary anticucho sauce. Delicious, right?
The best known nikkei restaurant in London is the rather alarming Chotto Matte in Soho, which I have on my list of “absolutely abominable places that continue to thrive despite my hex”. In absolute fairness, I went only once, but, over the short period of time this multifloored hellscape took to whip £150 out of my purse, I concluded that it was not for me. Heavy on graffiti and flashing lights, the decor was described as “grunge”, but felt more like stage 1 of a migraine aura, while the service was so chaotic, I left convinced that the South American red titi monkeys at London zoo were handed their tea-time walnuts with more aplomb.
I did, however, like the food. Nikkei is delicate, surprising and full of huge, bolshie flavours. The sushi is wildly overstyled, and never boring: it comes wrapped in breadcrumbs, or drizzled, Jackson Pollock-style, with yuzu soy, or festooned with mango puree and served on a leaf. And now a nikkei restaurant has opened in Leyton, east London, run by chef Denis Gobjila, ex of Chotto Matte, and his business partner, Victor Rosca, formerly of Sushisamba and Lucky Cat, both also vast, noisy, pricey restaurants whose clientele show up in sashes, get leathered on espresso martinis and eat tiny mouthfuls of miso cod. But Gobjila and Rosca have opened something small, quiet and about eight miles from anywhere even resembling high glamour.
Bamboo Mat is on the way out of Leyton, and almost en route to Walthamstow. It is a sparse room, and there is nothing lovely about it, apart from the fact that Gobjila is an incredible chef serving excellent plates of Peruvian joy such as hamachi tiradito and anticucho chicken thigh, as well as noteworthy maki, nigiri and sashimi. It’s impossible not to want the place to succeed when he bounds out of the kitchen with a bowl of pale, meaty sea bass ceviche in a fruity, warm, sunset-coloured sweet potato, aji amarillo, ginger, garlic and coriander sauce with nutty, caramelised nuggets of chancha corn. His hamachi tiradito is prettily staged with slices of raw yellowtail kingfish arranged like a blossoming flower in a vibrant, yuzu truffle soy dressing and topped with a scattering of finely chopped chives.
Ordering these dishes had been something of a battle, though, because our server seemed to have already decided what we should eat and, in his opinion, three dishes from the starters section wouldn’t leave room for the “signature” mains he was determined we’d have. Nevertheless, I wantonly ordered the lightly seared salmon tataki with aji amarillo tiger’s milk and the briefest slivers of red onion; the starters also featured oysters and tempura shrimp with some sort of hot dipping mayo, but I didn’t want to push my luck.
Since leaving Bamboo Mat, I’ve tried to nail the essence of the anticucho sauce it serves with chicken, lamb chops and octopus and that clings particularly beautifully to seared, fatty, skin-on chicken thighs. Was that white-wine vinegar or sake? Yuzu, lemon juice, soy? No combinations I make at home come even close to touching it, which is, after all, the hallmark of good, simple, personal cooking. I can’t replicate it at home, so I’ll have to go back.
Bamboo Mat’s maki, meanwhile, verge on the ostentatious, with the likes of “crispy Philadelphia maki” filled with fried shrimp and cream cheese being perhaps not to everyone’s taste, while the deep-fried crispy mozzarella and salmon maki slathered in both unagi and spiced egg sauces and a layer of crisp onions, are rather heavy-going but actually rather delicious. Even so, I preferred the relative calm of the spicy tuna maki, with their delicate slices of baby gem and the heat of shichimi pepper. We also picked and scoffed our way through hot maki filled with sea bass ceviche and covered in a nicely seasoned vegetable salsa, and elaborately plated, pond-green sea eel, spring onion and avocado rolls.
There is one solitary pudding, a sort-of deconstructed raspberry cheesecake that, after all the heat, spark, pizzaz and deep-fried breadcrumbs, was in fact the perfect palate-soother. Bamboo Mat was deserted, but sedate when we visited, but it probably won’t be for long. It’s a smaller, cheaper and better Chotto Matte, without all the shouty people and art installations. What’s not to love about that?
Bamboo Mat 625 High Road Leyton, London E10, bamboo-mat.co.uk (no phone). Open Tues-Sun, noon-11pm. From about £40 a head, plus drinks and service.
The next episode in the third series of Grace’s Comfort Eating podcast is released on Tuesday 31 May. Listen to it here.
