Kintan

Japanese Barbeque

21 Great Castle St, London W1G 0HY

££

One of my best mates has been banging on about Kintan for years. A Japanese BBQ restaurant where you cook your own meal over a hot grill in the middle of the table. I’ve always been a little sceptical – surely if you’re paying to eat out you want your food cooked for you? However, as a birthday present this year me and another bestie decided to treat him there for a birthday dinner.

Kintan is a mix of metal and dark wood – it looks effortlessly sleek, but also quite purpose driven – reminiscent of the Hawker Stalls you find in Singapore. The upstairs of the restaurant doesn’t look like much, brightly lit with a couple of empty tables, however when you get downstairs things get much more exciting. A large number of booths (probably for 4 seater max) are encased in a smoky meaty brilliance which comes off every tables individual hot grill. I would usually find a basement restaurant with no windows claustrophobic, but the blasting air con, spacious setting and low lighting help to create a really calm and pleasant atmosphere.

For drinks, we decided to start with some cocktails – I went for the Okinawa Colada (£10) and the other two a Lychee-Tini (£8). In all honesty, this wasn’t a very good take on a pina colada, it tasted watery, and the coconut separated almost instantly from the rest of the cocktail. The others said that their cocktail wasn’t amazing either, so to follow this we stuck to what we knew best and got a Pitcher of Asahi instead (£22). For food we went for the Meat Lovers Course which is for two people and £58 per person. This includes Spicy Tofu, Umami Salad, Garlic Fried Rice, Kalbi Short Rib with Sweet Soy, Toro Beef Shio, Harami Skirt Steak with Miso, Pork Belly Shio, Duck Breast with Yuzu, Chicken Teriyaki, Butter Corn and Garlic Spinach. As there were three of us instead of two, we also added some Steamed Chilli Gyoza (£6), Squid (£6) and Beef Tongue (£8).

First to arrive was the Tofu, which is notoriously bland and uninspiring usually – however, Kintan managed to dollop it with different herbs spices and oils which completely transformed it. Not only did it look beautiful, it tasted good too. The chicken gyoza arrived next, which in all honesty I’ve only just realised weren’t what we actually ordered as they were brilliantly crisp and certainly not the steamed ones we’d asked for. Along came the salad and rice, which went far beyond side dishes and were beautifully flavoured in their own right. Then the meat started coming – starting with 3 plates, we were given small strips of lovely looking pink meat. A highlight for me was most definitely the Toro Beef – thin strips of fatty meat marinaded in a sweet soy sauce which when cooked almost caramelised on the grill, whilst the fat got a slight crunch. Delicious. Other highlights were the Duck Breast and Harami Skirt steak, both beautifully rich and flavoursome pieces of meat which we tried to keep a little rare (due to the thin slicing of the meat, it is difficult to cook it to your typical preferences, however everything remained lovely and tender even if it was cooked a little longer).

Everything we got to put on the barbie was great, honestly – really, really great. I’ve never been to a place like Kintan before and I finally get it: even though you’re cooking your own meat, you’re paying a really decent price for quality cuts. Plus, I wasn’t even cooking it anyway, we left that to Matty (birthday boy) as he knew the lay of the land. Despite there being so many plates and them all looking pretty similar, it was still possible to distinguish the flavours and cuts from one another. This proves that Kintan does really think through it’s dishes, even though they are not cooked and presented by a chef per sey, it teaches you the art of marinading your meat well. Even the vegetable dishes of the butter corn and the spinach were a taste sensation. To finish, we were given two ice creams – one vanilla and one matcha. Luckily, the other two weren’t that fussed so I got to have most of these and whilst they weren’t show-stopping, it was nice to have something sweet offered at the end of the meal.

We did have to remind our waitress 3 times to bring us the extra Beef Tongue we ordered, in which time lots of different staff were trying to turn off our grill. The fire alarm did end up going off a couple of times, which was easily forgiven, given the fact you’re sitting in a basement with at least 8 open grills. All of the staff were very sweet but seemed a little disorientated, maybe it was some of their first nights – either way, I’d take friendly and a bit slow over rude and quick any day. When we came to pay, the bill was a very reasonable £69.75 each (bearing in mind we were paying for Matty’s meal – originally it would be £46.5 for a cocktail, two pints, and lots of food. The waiter did comment that he came with his friends and found the portion sizes weren’t enough when I thanked him for how good it was – a slightly weird thing to say I thought, and not true (just make sure you add a few sides if you’re more than two people). All in all though, these were minor blips to an overall surprising, original and quality meal. Thank you Kintan, for settling my doubts! I hope it’s not too long before we meet again.

OVERALL RATING: ****

https://kintan.uk/