Brilliant Corners

Japanese Restaurant & Bar with live DJ

470 Kingsland Rd, Dalston, E8 4AE

££

Brilliant Corners is a Japanese restaurant and music venue in Dalston. I’ve been wanting to try it for ages, but was put off by reviews of tiny portions for extortionate prices. This is no surprise as Sushi is pricey everywhere, especially in the capital. However, with places as cheap as Eat Tokyo in the centre of town, you would expect something equally as reasonable up in Dalston. I decided to give it a go after one of my friends went recently, saying that she had a £30 set menu and loved it. I like the idea of a set menu as it gives you time to fully focus on your company, rather than getting distracted by choice (probably not an issue for most but I really do like to study a menu). It also means that the chef has probably picked out these specific dishes as the best, and we wouldn’t get anywhere if we didn’t trust the chef.

image not my own

So we booked for a Thursday night, arriving at around 7pm as the later slots were fully booked. I was a little surprised at how empty it was when we arrived, and it didn’t seem to fill up completely by the time we left an hour an a half later either. The venue itself is very clean-cut and chic: dark wooden interiors, black walls and a selection of natural wine behind the bar. We were sat in the back room, and there was a DJ spinning tracks in the far corner. The sound system was great, but the fact that there was a DJ playing to an empty room aside from the 6 of us was a little weird. I must admit, the venue as a whole comes across a little cold, probably either from the lack of character in the décor or the too cool for school staff.

We avoided the (pretty pricey) natural wine list, instead option for some bottled beer. There are options for either a vegan set menu or a fish and meat set menu, and although the vegan menu does have one extra dish, I couldn’t help thinking it was a little bit of a rip off. Pays to be a good person these days, I guess. A lot of our portions came on one plate, for sharing – fine, but this wasn’t told to us at first and with the three fish and meat eaters spread across two tables it wasn’t the easiest. For a set menu I would have way rather we be given individual plates, but I understand that this is a washing up nightmare and probably not that environmentally friendly.

Highlights included the Sashimi and the Chicken Karaage. The Sashimi, for being presented beautifully in a large black platter on ice, the Chicken Karaage for being cooked wonderfully and for the amount we were given. For the Vegan menu the Teriyaki Aubergine was a definite favourite – I had a nibble and admittedly it was good, however, the portion could have been a bit bigger for 3 people to share. The normal menu had 6 courses and the Vegan menu had 7, which was a nice amount to feel comfortably full. The courses were brought out a good pace after one another – not too rushed but without a long wait in between. Overall, value for money I think was mostly there – at around £5 per course you could do a lot worse considering we had both sashimi and sushi courses. I assume that this set menu means that you do overall get more for your money than ordering off the menu usually as I didn’t see a problem with the price.

image not my own

What was missing was a small sweet course which would have been very welcomed. I think if there’s a set/tasting menu, where you have no choice in the matter – you expect there to be a bit of everything. Even if there was an option to add desert once the meal had finished, but there wasn’t. Overall, I thought that the food at Brilliant Corners was really nice. I liked the set menu and the service, although not particularly friendly, was efficient. Whilst I can see the place being a late night drinking spot, I must admit that dancing in here would feel a little weird, but don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. Are there better sushi spots in London? Most definitely, but if you want something a little different out of town, this isn’t a bad spot to try at all.

P.S. excuse the shite pictures on this one - I was too busy scoffing and it was too dark to get anything decent anyway. You'll have to take my word for it.

OVERALL RATING: ****

https://brilliantcornerslondon.co.uk/