Willoughby's & Co

This weekend my husband spoiled me with a lunch at Willoughby’s. I say “spoiled” as Willoughby’s comes with a prerequisite of extremely high quality sushi at more than above average prices. I have been to Willoughby’s before so I knew exactly what to expect – however this time I sat there with a critical eye. This is what we experienced.

We arrived at 11.15am on a Sunday, a bit of an in-between time, we were aware; as most breakfast services were closing and lunch only just opening. We walked up to a young man with whom my husband enquired whether they were open for lunch yet. We received an unfortunate response, one which my husband and I notice a lot these days. The young man looked my husband up and down (he was dressed casually in jeans and a tracksuit top) as if to say he was not quite up to standard and then replied with a snotty “noon”.

We walked away quite irritated, however also knowing that had a manager been there to answer our request I am 90% sure he would have said that the kitchen is not open but that we would be more than welcome to sit down and have a drink in the 45 minutes that they would be ready. This kind of service should come with restaurants of this stature; you should be seen as a guest, not a customer.

Making light of the situation we arrived back at 12.00pm to a packed Willoughby’s and a que half way around the restaurant. We were fortunate enough to grab two chairs at the sushi bar. Our waitress was very attentive, and was sure to make us aware of a slight delay in service and any missing items from the menu. This is a great way to start your lunch – you are fully aware what to expect, and from there cannot be let down in any way – so kudos to her.

We ordered far too much sushi; which is very difficult not to do when you are faced with a menu that is so full of variety and splendour. We ordered the spider roll, 5 x 5, salmon California roll and a hot rock ‘n roll.

The spider roll was a new adventure for us, crispy fried soft shell crab in roll form served with ponzu sauce. Neither my husband nor I have had crab before. The spider roll was delicious as well as beautiful. Complimented by a salty, slighty spicy ponzu sauce this interesting take on a crab California roll was fantastic. The 5 x 5 is a combination of 5 rainbow reloaded rolls and 5 rock shrimp rolls. You often find when you order creamy rock shrimp rolls these days, the shrimp is tiny, and almost nonexistent. Not at Willoughby’s. The centre of the roll is filled with spicy tuna, which really compliments the natural sweetness of the rock shrimp. Add some teriyaki mayo to that and you have a taste sensation. This was definitely my favourite of the day. The rainbow reloaded is a slightly bigger version of a rainbow roll; it is also loaded with seven spice, sweet teriyaki sauce, Japanese mayo and caviar. A kind of sushi that absolutely everybody will love. The salmon California, a very common kind of sushi, but for me the best way to tell if the chefs are good at what they do. If they can nail a classic, then you must know that everything else will be excellent too. The hot rock ‘n roll was very tasty. The combination of quite a “meaty” fish like tuna with chilli mayo is not one that can go wrong.

Sitting there on Sunday I had a good look at the produce being used and can say for sure that it really is top class, super fresh and worked with in the most respectful ways.

Looking around us at an incredibly packed restaurant, the timeous service and extremely high quality food that was being executed whether from the Japanese kitchen or a la carte menu – this is a restaurant even with its slight mishaps I would recommend to anyone. It is certainly not cheap, but worth the experience.