How do you feel about the idea of banana in your sushi roll? Surprisingly, the way they do it at this Japanese-Brazilian fusion restaurant is rather delicious. For the ‘rio bananal’ at Temakinho, they take a thick slice of banana, plus warm salmon, ripe avocado, sushi rice and cream cheese, wrap it all up in nori and serve it as a luxurious, full-to-bursting hand roll. It was rich, strange and without doubt the most intriguing item on the menu. Which – divided into four sprawling sections – was almost too big to handle, to be honest.
Here’s the long and short of it: other than that banana roll, everything else was a disappointment. A breaded prawn and avocado roll was almost good, just too greasy. A dish of scallops wrapped in little bird’s nests of kataifi pastry and drizzled in passionfruit was OTT, and the mixed ceviche was terrible. Then there’s the decor: a two-storey space in Soho, the ceiling was strung with bizarre model monkeys, and the walls and floors were covered in headache-inducing patterns and colours. Also, Temakinho ain’t cheap. That banana roll is worth a trip if they’re doing it, but just get it to take away.