Jimi Famurewa finds new Soho joint Inko Nito is vibier than its food

“A Nori Old Fashioned packed, in the best way, the honeyed smoothness of a liquified Halls Soother”
Soho style: New Japanese opening Inko Nito is a solid addition to Broadwick Street dining

Ambience: 4/5

Food: 3/5

I do not possess any rigorously researched data on this but Soho, to me, has always felt like the spiritual home of Excited Londoners Absolutely Losing It In Slightly Warm Weather.

It wasn’t long after 6pm on a Thursday when I cycled towards Broadwick Street for my visit to Inko Nito. But the whole street was already swarming with the kind of Reyes-filtered summer giddiness (streetwear kids in crossbody bags freely puffing joints, office workers talking in that unmistakable three-Aperols-deep register) that’s inevitable when the weather so often glitches back to a kind of grey premature autumn.

Whatever else you could say about this new LA-honed mid-priced Japanese joint, its room — a 90-cover glass-walled hall with pale wood counters and raised tables set around the licking flames of the open kitchen’s robata grill — offered a veritable feast for early summer people-watchers. It helped take the edge off the ‘challenging’ walk-in table my oldest friend Mark and I were squeezed on to thanks to a spate of bookings.

That Inko Nito was so full just two weeks after opening was perhaps testament to its covetable patch of real estate but, also, you’d wager, the fact its dishes trend towards the sort of booze-soaking, Japanese-Korean crowd-pleasers you’ll find all over the capital these days.

Soho special: Jimi Famurewa gives his verdict on Broadwick Street's new Japanese opening

There’s an obvious pedigree and slickness to the operation (relevant: Inko Nito is the brainchild of Roka and Zuma founder Rainer Becker) and that’s borne out on an unfaffy one-sheet menu split into ‘Kitchen’ and ‘Robata’ sections, a highly snappy drinks list and back-page illustrations that comprise a sort of idiot’s guide to Japanese ingredients.

We kicked off with avocado, quinoa, edamame and green beans, which arrived as a not so enticing swirl of grain-coated greens. But a zingingly bright apple wasabi dressing meant our forks kept finding their way back to the bowl. Salmon teriyaki with wasabi ponzu dressing and a clump of watercress and butter lettuce was drab. Beef cheek — a puck of meltingly soft meat served with a head-turning fan of more lettuce, spicy Korean miso and a glassy pile of pickled daikon — was punily flavoured and redolent of a carb-lite Bodean’s.

Oddly, the simpler ideas were the most lucid. Salmon fillet with grapefruit miso and sansho salt had a deep, smoky meatiness. Mark let out indecent, full-mouthed groans as he dug into a scorched whole tiger prawn with lemon sansho. And the yolk-topped kimchi rice — presented in a luxe metal spin on a takeaway tray and shaken at the table by your server — was an ugly-delicious, claggy marvel that was all miso funk, throat-prickling heat and madly addictive, walloping umami.

It was food that cried out for multiple cold drinks, so we obliged. Some Hitachino ales, a very ‘Oh look it’s still sunny’ French rosé and a Nori Old Fashioned that, in the best way, packed the honeyed smoothness of a liquified Halls Soother. These helped wash back a few more near-misses — sour ume-boshi and green chilli chicken wings lacking kick; average corn on the cob; twice-baked potato with yuzu kosho sour cream that wasn’t quite as good as it read — and cleared the way for the only pudding: a bowl-scrapingly terrific charred coconut soft serve with homemade matcha pocky, soy and incredible toasted flecks of Japanese granola.

It was a rare bit of wit and mind-expanding flavour in a meal thick with moments that were just… well, fine. We left tipsy and full, but jointly extolling the virtues of similar, superior meals we’d had elsewhere. If you want proper mouth-scrambling Japanese beer food go to Nanban in Brixton or Shack-Fuyu on Old Compton Street. If you’re after some solid dishes amid the whirl of Soho’s carousing summertime hordes then Inko Nito is more than up to the task.

Inko Nito

1 Filtered still water £1.50

1 Avocado quinoa £6.40

1 Salmon teriyaki £9.60

1 Beef cheek £19

1 Salmon fillet £13.80

1 Tiger prawns £15.50

1 Kimchi rice £6.60

1 Chicken wings £6.60

1 Corn £5.60

1 Baked potato £5.60

1 Coconut soft serve £5

2 Hitachino white ales £11

3 Glasses of rosé £24

1 Nori Old Fashioned £9

Total £139.20

55 Broadwick Street, Soho, W1, (020 3959 2650; inkonitorestaurant.com)​

Fay Maschler's 50 favourite restaurants in London

1/50