Kintan Japanese BBQ
Enough of the Korean BBQ mayhem, it’s time for the Kintan Japanese Yakiniku BBQ experience to take over. Yakiniku means grilled meat.
Kintan Holborn
Kintan in Chancery Lane High Holborn has only been open for four months and is becoming incredibly busy. Kintan is already massively successful in Japan and has outlets in the US, Hong Kong and Jakarta.
Japanese BBQ
When I arrived I had to wait five minutes until my table was ready. The interior is very minimalistic and very spacious. Walking down the restaurant, tables are largely spread and there’s no squeezing past someone’s back to get to your seats. I noticed the majority of the diners were Japanese, as I could understand a few phrases they spoke. A good sign right?
set menu
Once my company arrived we had sparkling sake, to start off with. The drink is very sweet, with floral sweet notes. We both decided on the Kintan set menu, with assorted selections of meat, fish, vegetables and a dessert. As the server went away he turned on the smokeless table grill. For your total amusement here’s an infographic diagram on “how to be your own chef?”
Four of the items came out, the one that got me curious was the tofu looking square blocks with meat splurging out of the corners with a nest of black fish eggs and finely chopped green onions. The eyes on the prize seem liked it was the best out of the dishes. Crunchy golden-yellow coating biting into sticky rice, I failed to detect the tuna taste.
Spicy Tuna Volcano
Garlic noodles, looked like spaghetti and had tiny pieces of minced pork. Colour was added with the chopped red peppers and green onions. The seasoning and tasted light, my only problem would be I was it was hotter. Even in its iron casting plate it seemed like I was served cold noodles to eat.
The salad had a great mixture of leaves, eggs sliced in quarters and the sesame style dressing is typical for Japanese cuisine. Super thin slices gave it the added crunchy texture and sour flavours. Total addiction.
Miso soup seemed a little salty to me, I gobbled up the silken firm tofu chunks. A dish of edamame sprinkled with sea salt.
BBQ meats
Once we chowed down the appetisers we asked the server to bring out the meats. This is where the fun starts, grilling your own meat your way. Cooking the food yourself and chatting away with your friends whilst turning the meats over with the yakiniki tongs. The server was fantastic in explaining the different cuts of meat some were just plain others had a marinade.
All the meat was simply mouthfuls of flavour, even on its own without the tare dipping sauces. Beef meats weren’t over chewy and thinly sliced so you won’t end up chewing for amounts of time. The miso and yuzu flavoured meats were my favourites. Tiger prawns grilled nicely super juicy and sweet. Halloumi cheese made a strange appearance asking my company who’s from Tokyo said it was odd to have it on the menu.
To end things off we had our desserts, I just wished it were the yazu sorbet as having so much savoury food the last thing I wanted was salted caramel ice cream. To sum it up for £35 for set menu is a bargain I tell you, by the time you have the grilled meats you be rolling around in your seat saying you’re too full. With around 95% of the diners being Japanese, Kintan is already becoming popular by word of mouth.
34 – 36 High Holborn
London WC1V 6AE
{google_map}34-36 High Holborn, London WC1V 6AE{/google_map}
