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A steamy charcoal grill sits at the centre of this clean-lined Japanese restaurant in Soho. The space is large, with plenty of low, blonde-wood sharing tables dotted about, but for the best view sit at the counter. The menu is a kind of mish mash of Asian favourites, with ingredients like ‘yuzu’ defined in little picture boxes. This sounds like Japanese-food-by-numbers, but it manages, somehow, not to feel patronising.
The stand-out dish was the ‘Japanese breadcrumb fried chicken’ – chicken katsu by any other name – served with yoghurt and peanut dip. Chicken katsu with yoghurt shouldn’t work. It sounds wrong. But this dish was a revelation: most significantly, the chicken was pitch-perfect – impossibly succulent – and each dip of yoghurt gave it a fresh, sour slap.
Unholy unions are Inko Nito’s speciality: its ‘nigaki’ – described as ‘somewhere between maki and nigiri’ – was like an open sushi sandwich: the nori propped up like a rectangular rizla, topped with a smidge of rice and a juicy fried prawn. Sometimes, though, the experimentation went too far: the bonito flakes on the prawn toast tasted burnt. Mostly, though, the food was imaginative in a good way. Don’t leave the building without trying the coconut soft-serve, sprinkled with Japanese granola.
The only really sticky moment was when the waiter tried to get us to tip on top of the tip. Hopefully this was because we have kind eyes. Otherwise, Inko Nito is an interesting, reasonably priced spot.