Sunday 21 November 2010

Kulu Kulu: Thurloe Place (my first restaurant review!)

This marks my first restaurant review. I've been going to quite a few different restaurants these past few weeks and thought I'd post my opinions on here. Unlike successful food bloggers I don't have any photos or an acquired knowledge for food but I just want to give a "raw" account of my experiences in some of the places I have been to. The first on my hit list is Kulu Kulu. I actually went there today just before they closed for lunch break.

I was attracted here because of the small pickings on offer on the timeout website for places near Harrods. Somehow I managed to land onto Kulu Kulu and read a few reviews about it being an inexpensive hotspot to fill your tummy with sushi. As I wasn't keen on spending a minor fortune on sushi at Harrods I decided Kulu Kulu was the place to go.

Once entering it felt quite cosy, simple seating system along the revolving table which could accommodate about 20 people (I think, as we were seated at 1 and 2 so we couldn't see the whole place). We were left to decide what to do by ourselves, of course the first thing we did was look for SUSHI, unless you want to be laborious and include us finding our seats, hanging our jackets, sitting down, and preparing our soya sauce! Well anyway I at first went for the prawn tempura hand roll, I love hand rolls and I love Prawn Tempura so I generally order it. I was however slightly disappointed. Whilst the offering was large the nori was slightly chewy, obviously it had been left there for a while - I advice anybody else going to a small sushi chain to get there early or at least at peak times because nothing fresh is made near closing unless you order it. 

I then went for a unagi nigiri. The sushi rice stuck together even after some nudging around, which was good but the unagi tasted a bit weird. The fried chicken (kara age) was quite nice actually, though cold it was still moist and tender and the batter was crispy. I also had a tempura maki roll which was bursting at its sides. It was ok. If anyone can enlighten me I had this small dim sum like thing as well (it was on a green plate) which was fried and covered with won ton pastry - it tasted ok. 

Feeling nearly full I decided to order something else, and this was the main problem I had with this restaurant, having seen someone order a soft shell crab handroll I decided to order one after them, however the Sri Lankan sushi chef got extremely annoyed and sulky with having to prepare another one having, I guessed, cleaned up after making the first ones. He banged everything purposely on the tables and made a racquet whilst making the sushi and literally threw the sushi on the conveyor belt for us. Whilst I understand why he may be annoyed I think a professional chef should never act so unprofessionally, not only did I feel in the wrong I also felt a bit embarrassed, not something I'd want to feel if I was the customer. I also had a glass of lemonade, not knowing that there was free green tea - something the waiter/waitress should have advised us I think.

Overall it was an ok meal which cost us about £28, for two - 10 plates in total with 2 drinks. The unique selling point (USP - I just learnt this catchy acronym this week) is the size of the dishes because the sushi only tasted ok and there isn't much for people who want to eat something else. I'm not sure if I'll come here again as there are so many sushi places to chose from these days and Kulu Kulu didn't provide a lasting impression.

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