“You can’t get good mid-price sushi in London. It’s either Endo or you’re at fucking Itsu,” says Chris D’Sylva, owner of Notting Hill’s new sushi diner Eel Sushi. It’s a situation D’Sylva is keen to change with Eel Sushi, a 12-seater across the road from his Michelin-starred bistro Dorian.
In a space resembling what D’Sylva calls a “sushi sauna”, chefs mould nigiri and delicately slice sashimi to order for eager crowds waiting for a table at the walk-in-only eatery. The wood-lined room mixes the idea of a log cabin with the philosophy and clean lines of Japanese design. The textural, warm pine was made to spec in Verbier, Switzerland.
D’Sylva is the man behind a cluster of Notting Hill food favourites including Michelin-starred Dorian and the sceney Supermarket of Dreams, with its Japanese residency Urchin, Tuna Fight Club – a social media spectacle where an enormous bluefin tin is butchered on the spot.
He also owns Notting Hill Fish Shop. “The best way to advertise the fish shop was to make sushi,” he says. “That just lays the product naked.” So Eel Sushi was born.
Head chef Jiaxiong “Nicky Noodle” Xie and his team theatrically prepare the sushi on a slightly raised plinth behind the counter, giving diners a direct eyeline to their work. But behind the scenes is where much of the effort takes place.
In the basement is what D’Sylva calls “the single biggest walk-in fish dry ager in London”, where 200 kilograms of salmon and 1000 kilograms of bluefin tuna are aged each week.
But the fish is only half the story. “If you know sushi, it’s equal parts the quality of fish – the way it’s cut, the understanding of it and the way it’s treated,” says D’Sylva. “The other half is actually the process of making the rice: the respect, skill and mastery.”
To ensure its rice is top-tier, Eel has a dedicated rice room where the rice is washed multiple times, then steamed, seasoned and served at a precise temperature. “We’re trying to get the rice somewhere between a window of 34 to 38°C,” says D’Sylva. The sushi is brushed with double-fermented 10-year soy and served alongside horseradish grown by The Wasabi Company in former watercress beds in Hampshire.
While several glasses and carafes of wine are on the pour at Eel, diners also have access to the entire Dorian list, curated by sommelier Jeri Kimber-Ndiaye (ex-Noble Rot), from across the road. Bottles and glasses are ferried across the street upon ordering.
“All of our brands are playful and irreverent,” says D’Sylva. “But [that’s] because we have a superior quality promise that affords us the opportunity to fucking have a little bit of swagger.”
Eel Sushi
118 Talbot Road, London W11 1JR
Hours:
Mon to Sun midday–10pm
