Sosharu | Clerkenwell Restaurant
NOTE: Sosharu has now closed, and is hoping to relocate later in the year. We’ll be back with then full scoop when it does…
Jason Atherton might be a socialist.
After all, his growing restaurant empire includes Social Wine and Tapas, City Social, Pollen Street Social, Little Social, Social Eating House…
…and now Sosharu.
Which, in Japanese, means “social”.
We’re pretty sure that constitutes proof. Or, at the very least, clear evidence that Atherton likes it when friends enjoy each other’s company over good food and wine. It’s definitely one or the other.
His latest spot is located in Clerkenwell; it’s modelled after an izakaya (which Atherton describes as “a Japanese gastropub”); and it’s divided up into three distinct areas….
THE RESTAURANT…
…which is typically gorgeous, having been based on a traditional Japanese minka house design (with an abstract timber structure framing the room). The menu’s typically delicious too, serving up a wide variety of Japanese edibles, from smoked octopus scorched on a flat grill and ribeye with garlic crisps flame-kissed on a charcoal hibachi grill, to crumbed pork and cherry blossom-cured salmon.
THE CHEF’S TABLE…
…which is called Kisetsu (meaning “seasonal”), and is something of a restaurant-within-a-restaurant, with its own separate kitchen and dedicated chef. There isn’t a menu really, because here you’ll only find omakase-style countertop dining – an idea ported over from sushi restaurants – in which the chef will simply ask you if there’s anything you don’t want, before serving up dish after dish, until you call uncle.
THE COCKTAIL BAR…
…which sits beneath everything, and is named Seven Tales. And inside it they’re serving quite a few ‘tails indeed, with numbers including the Turnmills Rice Wine (made with rice-washed gin & sesame) and the Champagne Papi, which comes with bubbly, umeshu, lactic sugar, and a token for the vending machine… where you can grab a few extra ingredients.
いただきます。
NOTE: Sosharu has now closed, and is hoping to relocate later in the year. We’ll be back with then full scoop when it does…. you can check out their website HERE.
Sosharu | 64 Turnmill Street, Clerkenwell, London EC1M 5RR
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