Dotori, 8/10

I have written about Dotori before and we have been a few times, but this time, I finally convinced Kyle to have something other than the Katsu Curry. I was really keen to try the Japanese set menu, particularly the sushi and sashimi. This is probably not the kind of thing you should admit as a bit of a 'foodie', but I do find sushi quite intimidating. It is expensive and so difficult to just randomly pick off a list, but I do enjoy it when I have it.

The restaurant was quite full on a Sunday lunchtime and rather than share a table, we opted to sit at the bench at the window. The downside is that all your chopstick skills are on display for everyone walking past, so pressure is on not to drop anything!

The set menu started with Gyoza - hot, crunchy fried dumplings filled with chicken mince and served with a delicious soy dipping sauce.

The next course was a somewhat dramatic plate of tempura king prawns. The prawns were meaty and large enough to stand up to the crispy tempura batter. Another dipping sauce complemented this dish.

The next was the sushi and sashimi platter, beautifully presented on a traditional wooden board and comprised of 4 pieces of sashimi and a special roll. Neither of us have ever had sashimi before, so I'm glad this was good. There were two pieces of salmon, one tuna and one that we weren't sure of! The salmon and tuna were better than mystery fish and had an incredibly clean, fresh taste and a surprisingly firm pleasant texture. I really enjoyed the sashimi. The sushi was also excellent, in my opinion, although being far from an expert, I couldn't really say how it compares to others.

We had a choice for the final course between chicken teriyaki and seafood yakisoba. As the chicken teriyaki is my equivalent of Kyle's katsu curry, we went with the yakisoba. The thin noodles were coated in a delicious sweet rich sauce interspersed with plenty of big chunks of seafood, including prawns, calamari and mussels.

Unfortunately, the service was not quite up to its super-friendly standards on this day - the waiter seemed to be having an off day. Still, all of this food was excellent value at £25 (it would have included a coke or green tea as well, but we had Asahi instead, which was extra) and a brilliant way to try some different dishes from a Japanese menu. If you're a Japanese philistine like me, anyway!

Food: 9/10
Drinks: 6/10
Service: 7/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

Dotori
3 Stroud Green Road
London, N4 2DF