Dozo, a Soho stalwart since 2013, is the sister restaurant to Dozo South Kensington. To cut straight to the point about what this place is all about, let me mouth some words to you: sushi, unagi don, donburi, maki, yakitori, teriyaki. Yum. Yum. It’s a two-floored affair with low-slung, sunken-into-the-ground-style seating – almost as if the tables were sculpted into the carpeted floor. You’ll need to be semi-acrobatic to slide into these carved-out booths. Being an OCD freak, I found myself trying not to touch the trodden carpet that surrounds them – which, frankly, is unavoidable. People walk in off the streets of Soho, after all. Dozo’s USP is combining traditional Japanese aesthetics with a touch modernity. Alongside your classic nigiri and sashimi, you’ll find signature plates like black cod miso, wagyu aburi, volcano rolls, truffle gyoza, and the ever-popular soft-shell crab maki.
Unagi don £14.80 is eel that’s expertly deboned and cooked with soy, sugar, mirin, and sake until it becomes meltingly tender and sticky. It’s served on a bed of sticky rice and generously dusted with black and white sesame seeds. Every bite seems to dissolve obligingly on the tongue, leaving a deep savouriness with just the right amount of seductive sweetness on the palate – making you want to go back for more.
With most donburi dishes there comes a cockle-warming cup of miso soup.
Negi toro maki £7.80 are carnation-pink fatty tuna rolls punched up with fragrant spring onions. Make sure you take a sliver of ginger before diving into your next dish to cleanse the palate. Get this if you have a penchant for tuna maki.
With the Eel Supreme £18.80, you get more of that melting eel on a reverse maki roll layered with sweet crab meat, avocado, and a glossy drizzle of sticky eel sauce. If you share my profound fondness for eel, don’t miss this dish.
I assume dragon maki £18.80 is called this as the dish resembles a dragon? It’s advertised as being a jumbo prawn, you’ll definitely get the head of one; the shell is slightly prised from the body giving it an illusion of size – dragons are big after all, it’s then lightly battered and fried enough to a crisp that demands maximum nibblige. The rest of the body, they use a normal sized prawn, I assume size matters for presentation, with avocado, asparagus, flying fish roe, kewpie mayonnaise, the crunchy batter bits and more of that eel sauce.
My second visit
Wakame salad £6.50 has serious allure. The translucent slithers of seaweed, marinated in soy, mirin, sesame oil, and rice vinegar, have a satisfying crunch at their core. It’s a bowl of green that sings and I order it every time I see it on a menu
Soft-shell crab harumaki £10.80 is a Viet-Nippon-Korean mash-up: rice paper–wrapped, double-crunch soft-shell crab with salad pepped up by yuzu, vinegar, and sesame oil. For good measure, there’s gochujang and Kewpie too, if that’s not a flavour mish-mash, I don’t know what is. I liked it, but probably wouldn’t order it again. The flavours were all fighting for attention and butted heads a bit too much.”
Yes the batter could have been lacier or crisper for the ‘tempura no moriwase” £12.80 but there were perfectly edible fried things from bass, purple sweet potato, lotus root, prawns and aubergine. The tensuyu dip had a good amount of soy, dashi, mirin and grated daikon.
Of course I ordered the unagi don again £14.80
You can’t come here and not order the spider maki, it’s a measure on how good a modern sushi kitchen is, what you get is a riot of crunch from soft-shell crab, tempura batter and tobiko. Soft-shell crab is easily one of my death-row food items – I get along famously with this kind of food.
I dove into the Dragon Maki £18.80 again and don’t sleep on the crispy head that comes with it. Snack attack guaranteed.
The Eel Supreme, though just about finishable, lacked the flair of the previous cook. The eel was a bit cold, teetering on rubbery – a flaw that’s easily fixable
Verdict
When did I go? March 2019, Aug 2020
The damage: Expect to pay £50/70 per head with drinks
The good: Come here for the expertly crafted rolls; the spider maki and dragon roll is unmissable as is the eternally delectable, melt in the mouth unagi don. And that mouth puckering, perfectly judged wakame salad – all served in a stark-styled space with quirky tetami seating and a spirited Soho atmosphere. My Kensington branch review can be seen here.
The bad: I hope they clean the carpets!
Rating: 4/5
Would I go again? If they keep making food this good then yeah
Address: 32 Old Compton St, Soho, London W1D 4TP
Web: http://www.dozosushi.co.uk
Leave a Reply