Dozo

Friday nights in Soho are always interesting. It can be fairly seedy and you have to pick your restaurants wisely. You can easily find yourself in a horridly touristy place if you’re not careful. Side step the chewy steak and pre-performance specials and pop into Dozo instead.

The atmosphere is great – a calm and relaxing oasis in the middle of Bangkok-style madness. It’s still buzzy, but in a quiet and reserved way which provides immense relief to the sensory overload outside. The set-up is quite fun too – the tables are at ground level (known in Japan as zashiki style), so it feels a bit more traditional. 

My Dad was in town for business and we were celebrating Tomasz’s birthday which meant a lovely big sushi splurge. He brought a load of lovely gifts for the birthday boy which Mum had lovingly packed from Spain. Her ability to fit so much stuff into such a small space always astounds me… we even got some little bits from their recent trip to Budapest – I’m sensing a goulash post coming up! This weird stuff that looks like cat litter is apparently something like gnocchi so I will have to experiment with that. 

Now, back to the food. We ordered a lot. It got to the point where our table was so full it was getting a bit embarrassing… oh well, it passed. 

We had chukka wakame which is an amazing seaweed salad with sesame seeds and I could eat it by the bucket load. 

We shared steamed edamame beans with sea salt, and two portions of king prawn tempura with soy sauce. Tomasz tucked into a steaming bowl of seafood soup with pieces of fresh sashimi to poach in the broth while we devoured tiger maki rolls with jumbo prawns, cucumber and avocado and the show stopping spider maki – soft shell crab in tempura batter with avocado, sesame seeds and tobiko (the bright orange fish roe). *Dribble*. 

To add to the growing mound of food, we had a couple of extra soft shell crab hand rolls with the most delicious homemade mayonnaise, lamb chops grilled and marinated with Korean chilli sauce, and butter soft wagyu beef fillet with shitake mushrooms. Naturally we had to order gyoza dumplings – which are always a firm favourite – and some sticky teriyaki chicken skewers. In short, it was epic and we were stuffed. 

While the stacks of plates were cleared Tomasz tucked into his presents and I even got a blue cushion to go with my rug when I finally get it! The staff were professional and charming, and as we had booked we didn't need to wait with the queuing masses outside. (If you go on a weekend, make sure you book a table). The only criticism I have of the evening is that we were hurried away from our table at the end of our meal for the next sitting. Not great when you want to relax and enjoy a couple of drinks. 

We meandered through hoards of people and the manically honking rickshaws to the tube, carrying our bags of goodies. We said our goodbyes to Pa who is off to Oktoberfest this week. What a globe trotter he is!