Food Review: Yokoso

REVIEW
An email arrives. Come and try our new Isle of Dogs restaurant. I crunch its name with Google. Zilch. Not a whisper. Yokoso is a ghost.

I reply in the affirmative. The day arrives.

We're an away team of Wharfers, uncertainly heading down the island. The jitters set in. We're on shaky ground, we can't even see the DLR.

At Orion Point there's no obvious sign of the restaurant.

We walk round the block the wrong way and find it tucked into the cylinder's left hand side. Relief washes. This was no hoax.

It's interior is functional, if a little pedestrian.

Printed fabrics hang in a bid to remind us this is a Japanese, beyond its off the shelf Thai Square decor.

That's where the negatives end. The chef is ex-Roka and keen to experiment.

His food is breathtakingly good. Minute attention to detail, cunning flavour combinations and expert delivery.

The presentation alone is almost worth the walk. But prettiness is not at the expense of taste.

The most memorable morsel is eel with a foie gras garnish but duck roll in tempura and butter-soft miso marinated black cod are equally pitch perfect.

Just the right side of too much. And to take the edge off, sparkling sake is superb with its bright, peach pink profile.

No question. Its website might not be all there yet but this is the most exciting restaurant in E14.

Go right away and forget the money you'll spend. Whatever the bill comes to it'll be worth it.

Yokoso, Orion Point, 7 Crews Street, London, E14 3TU, 020 7515 8633, yokoso-uk.com.