Review: Luna Omakase
Review: Luna Omakase
By Helen Down
LUNA Omakase, the one-year old intimate fusion eatery in Liverpool Street’s Broadgate, is less a restaurant and more a bucket list experience. Seating just 12 people, it serves a fixed menu of 12 courses, all inspired by the moon, Japanese cuisine and innovative international twists.
To find it, head into the very lively City hangout Los Mochis. There you have a drink in the bar until all the 12 diners have assembled and are then ushered into LUNA. It’s a stark contrast – a temple of calm with pale woods and striking artwork created by Oms Rocha, whose works mirrors each of the courses.
All 12 of us – City types, foodies, adventurers… and coeliacs, because everything is gluten-free – sat around an open kitchen, watching on as three cool-headed Japanese chefs crafted culinary sensations, explaining each as they went. Learning facts like the belly being the most flavoursome part of a fish and the delicate art of rice vinegar, dining at LUNA felt like educational theatre as much as gastronomy. And with an optional sake pairing from an incredibly well informed sommelier, it sure was an eye-opener. I never before knew, for example, that sparkling sake is up there with champagne.
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Every dish was genuinely spectacular, not a single duff note. We started with a fragrant palette opener of crudo with wasabi, yuzu and truffle before being served a lava-like bowl hosting dry ice and a rillette of blue fin tuna belly sandwiched between fresh wasabi and caviar. We were then hit with three artfully built nigiri, one of which had an intense yet smooth smokiness thanks to a sliver of seam bream being flashed over special charcoal that reaches 500-degrees C. There followed an acidic, vibrant and refreshing Japanese take on a veggie taco served in soya bean paper. Next up, a warm rice ball with a charred scallop and a giant shaving of black truffle, followed by another taco, this one jam-packed with caviar and dehydrated powdered mescal worm (non-hallucinagenic, I hasten to add) that somehow tasted like cheddar. By this point, high on flavour and sake, your intrepid reporter lost the ability to take thorough notes. But I do remember a fish carpaccio that conjured the finest Iberian jamon and the world’s fanciest wagyu sarnie. Pudding(s) came in the form of petit four, a creamy wasabi ice cream (by rights this should’ve been a horror show but was, in fact, unbelievably delicious) and a miso caramel souffle that successfully broke all the rules of miso as exclusively savoury.
Naming my favorite dish is akin to choosing a favourite child, but if forced, I’d say the rillette was up there, along with the carpaccio. Oh, and the ice cream. And the souffle. Oh, all of it. Just all of it. But LUNA is not only about the food. It’s a very special place that combines education, fun and sophistication with down and dirty hand-eating. What could be a pretentious experience was anything but. Now I need another excuse to go.
There’s also a sister restaurant opening in Mayfair on 6 May. We’re marking our diaries…
Situated in Los Mochis London City, 9th Floor, 100 Liverpool Street, London, EC2M 2AT
Price: £230/head + drinks
