Have any of you heard about this 100 Happy Days project? I hadn’t, until Scary French Lady told me about it over dinner last week – and there was me thinking French people only aspired to be terrifyingly elegant and that happiness was, well, something for Scandinavians. From what I can make out, it’s based on the premise that we are all so occupied with being busy and productive (or, more probably, just looking at Facebook) that we don’t take the time to appreciate the little things in life – to enjoy the moment. So 100 Happy Days invites you to share a photo of one happy moment every day for 100 days – and our dinner at Izakaya was one such happy moment for Scary French Lady.
That might, of course, have had something to do with the fact that Izakaya was warm, dry and quick to bring us a restorative cocktail on a night when most right-minded people would have probably stayed comfortably on their sofas. But we didn’t, and I found my napkin to be a very useful towel substitute for drying myself after a particularly drenching bike ride. The waitress graciously brought me a new napkin two minutes after I walked through the door…
But what of the food? The menu was three pages of Japanese-South American fusion, so we opted not to spend valuable catching-up time reading it and instead go for the surprise sharing menu put together by the kitchen. (Not to be confused with the chef’s tasting menu, which is made up of several courses of individual – i.e. non-sharing – plates.) Now, correct me if I’m getting a bit crotchety and middle-aged here, but in my not-very-humble opinion, if a table of three people orders a sharing menu, then the dishes that appear should be divisible by three. Wouldn’t you agree? We were a little bemused, therefore, by the sashimi that turned up (two pieces of tuna, two pieces of salmon, two pieces of sea bass) and the four cubes of crispy rice topped with tuna tartare. Not that it wasn’t delicious – it was just confusing.
The kitchen’s counting skills improved as the evening wore on, however: three pieces of wagyu beef nigiri sushi appeared (wallet-emptyingly divine) as did three scallops dressed with a yuzu-truffle sauce. All would have been well were it not for the fact that I was desperate for carbs by this point, and shoved a forkful of the “mashed potato” the scallop shells were sitting on into my mouth. Only it wasn’t mashed potato; it was wet salt. Cue frantic inelegant spitting (it’s a wonder Scary French Lady puts up with me) and my third napkin of the night… (Did I mention that I always embarrass myself in restaurants?)
Subsequent dishes included a spinach and shrimp salad (with yuzu dressing), livery gyoza dumplings, sweetcorn tempura, hibachi-cooked beef (flamed with sake, yuzu and soy), and a firm white fish with yet more yuzu. Are you noticing a pattern here? With the possible exception of the sweetcorn tempura, I can’t recall a single dish that didn’t involve yuzu. Not that I have anything against yuzu, mind you – but everything in moderation ‘n all that…
The bill came to around €90 each (so you’re talking the best part of €100 with a tip), although the size of the dent in my wallet struck me less than the length of the ticket: we’d been charged for each individual item separately, which seemed a little odd given that we’d opted for the surprise sharing menu – why not offer a fixed price? Still, kitchen idiosyncrasies and yuzu overload aside, Izakaya delivered Scary French Lady with her “happiest” moment of the day… And as for me – well, I was about as satisfied as a crotchety British restaurant critic is ever likely to be.
