15/2/18 - Updated with opening date
What: Jidori
In a nutshell: Yakitori, izakaya and karaoke in Covent Garden
Summing it all up: Sake and karaoke is a winning combination, but if you’re not feeling quite brave enough to head to Jidori’s basement karaoke booth, there’ll be plenty of yakitori and other Japanese treats to keep you entertained.
The low-down
Anyone who’s got a reasonable grip on Japanese culture (beyond knowing that you should never stick your chopsticks in your rice) should know that karaoke's a pretty big deal there. This is a fact that hasn’t passed Jidori by, who’ve opted to install a special karaoke booth in their new Covent Garden branch of their yakitori restaurant.
Those who’ve visited the original Dalston Jidori - which we're fans of - will be pleased to know that there’ll be even more choices on the menu, including sharing-style menus with yakitori made on a dedicated Kama-Asa Shoten grill from in Japan. There’ll also be rice bowls at lunch time and plenty of their other classics including Tsukune (minced chicken with egg yolk) and their quite excellent katsu curry scotch egg and ginger ice cream with miso caramel and sweet potato crisps.
As for new dishes, they include:
- Tuna belly, shiso & daikon hand roll
- Green tea noodles, yuba and kikarage
- Quail eggs, housemade kewpie & sansho pepper
- Smoked tofu tsukune (vegan)
- Grilled onion salad, red shiso & ume dressing
- Mussel tamago don
There’ll be space for 50 inside, and if you fancy belting out a few of your guiltiest pop-shaped pleasures (perhaps after several glasses of sake) then you can book the private dining karaoke room for groups up to 12.
The team behind Jidori are Brett Redman, who won a Michelin Gourmand Bib for Elliot’s, and Natalie Lee-Joe who reckons the best nights are made “with friends on a night out singing karaoke at the top of my lungs while eating and drinking well into the night.”
More about Jidori Covent Garden
Where is it? 15 Catherine Street, London WC2B 5JZ
When does it open? 27 February 2018
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Twitter @JidoriUK.
