The room at Dai Chi (or about a quarter of it). If you look through the bar, you can see where the private room is.
What can you tell us about Dai Chi?
Dai Chi is the second restaurant from the people behind Angelina in Dalston. Although they once had a bar in the same space where Dai Chi now sits (that was Golden Gai), they've now replaced that with a fully-fledged restaurant.
In Dalston, they're best known for their mix of Japanese and Italian cuisines, but here in Soho, they're trying something different. This time it's all about bringing Osaka's kushikatsu dining to Soho (although the Italian influence does pop-up too). Kushi stands for skewer and katsu for deep-fried - so yes, deep-fried skewers make a big part of the menu - but there's so much more besides that.
Where are they?
On D'Arblay Street, just a few doors up from Copita. Either Oxford Circus or Tottenham Court Road are your nearest stations.
Where should I sit?
We were quite taken with the restaurant here. The main space is split into two, with tables very comfortably spaced for Soho. Alternatively, you can grab one of the four seats by the bar or there's a spacious private room in the back too (in the pic above, it's right behind the bar).
So what's on the menu
While fried skewers do make up a large chunk of the menu, there's a lot more to the menu.
There are two ways to tackle it - go a la carte and just order the skewers you fancy (mainly between £4 and £6) or pitch for the all-in omakase menu. The latter splits the courses into snacks, vegetables, seafood and meat (and dessert too). At £38 (at the time of writing), we thought this was extremely good value for money - you really won't go hungry if you opt for the omakase.
Here's a selection of what was on that omakase menu when we visited:
Things kick off with Tuna Tobiko tacos, a chawanmushi with Ikura and sausage (you'll find the sausage buried at the bottom of this pot of savoury custard) alongside slivers of hamachi (yellowtail), truffle soy and furikake. All of this was an excellent start.
Black Iberico tomato and anchovy - an explosion of tomato, eat in one go if you can (speaking from experience).
These are Japanese green shiso leaves, stuffed with silken tofu, umeboshi (Japanese salted fermented plum) and diced cucumber. That's all deep-fried in Kushiage batter and finished with Moromi Miso (aged leftover soybeans from making soy with added sesame & kombu) and Yuzu Kosho (Japanese citrus fermented with salt and green chilli) - a really innovative vegetarian dish.
Carabineiro and lardo di colonnata - this is a fried oyster mushroom, topped with a raw sweet Sicilian prawn, ponzu, Lardo di colonnata (cured ham) & nasturtium. Hard to go wrong with this.
Katsuobushi and squid doughnuts. They tell us these are inspired by takoyaki but made using European style donut dough. made in house using fresh yeast. They're then filled with Taleggio cheese, finished with mayonnaise and tonkatsu.
Tune, tare and wasabi - something of a "but how did they fry this?" dish. That homegrown wasabi was a great addition too - mild, but still with a kick.
Ribeye and sea salt - if there's better drinking food to be had in Soho we'd like to see it.
Hokkaido milk bun and chicken karaage - like no other chicken karaage we've had.
Kabayaki - this is the last course before you hit dessert and featured fish (Hamachi Kama) cooked over binchotan Japanese coals and glazed with house tare (a sweet sticky glaze made from stock, sake, mirin, soy & sugar). The base of this dish will change regularly - it was a pork belly earlier the same week.
And finally, our meal ended with the perfectly-sized chocolate and orange pannacotta
There's even more in addition to what we've included above, more skewers and salads too, so you can get a sense of just how much you get if you opt for the set menu.
What about drinks?
Given there used to be a cocktail bar on this space, run by some of the same team, it's certainly worth checking out that list. Cocktails are £12 and we'd recommend the Shikkoku Caipirinha (amaro, dark rum, lime, brown sugar), As for wines, prices start at £6 a glass and £32 a bottle for a predominantly European list (and with a strong focus on Italy). There's also a decent selection of low/no intervention wines and a small sake list. If you're adding on a drinks pairing to the omakase, that's an extra £35 and we thought it really added another level to this experience.
Overall thoughts
We think they have a real winner on their hands with Dai Chi. The parade of skewers is uniformly excellent and we'll say again - that £38 set menu feels like crazily good value to us. But even if you just pop in for a few skewers (we'd happily have the steak skewers again and again) it's all extremely enticing. Couple all that with a really comfortable, spaced out dining room and it's something quite unique in Soho. Well worth a look.
Hot Dinners ate as guests of Dai Chi. Prices are correct at the time of writing.
More about Dai Chi
Where is it? 16A D'Arblay Street, London W1F 8EA
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Instagram @daichi.london.
Subscribe to be the first to get the news from Hot Dinners
