Sakura at Sake No Hana

We live in a city where it is often impossible to ascertain what season it is. In other cities, it might be autumn, winter, spring and summer. Here it is damp grey, cold grey, tepid grey and hot grey. Even the advent of a season like spring fails to shift the overwhelming covering of cloud, providing an all year-round of dose of mild seasonal affective disorder. Thank goodness then for Sakura at Sake No Hana, a pop-up that has taken over the bar of the high-end Sake No Hana.

Stepping inside the bar, you are immediately welcomed with a bloom of cherry blossom, the kind of spectacle that would have inspired Wordsworth if he had been amongst bonsai trees rather than daffodils. It would be a lie to say that you are immediately transported to the surroundings of a Japanese garden, given the busy traffic of St James Street only a few metres away. But it is a constant spectacle for the eyes, inspiring a real sense of relaxation as you tuck into the food, which has been specially created for this pop-up.

The stand out piece on the menu is the crystal double-layer bento box, which comes with a miso soup starter. Residing on the first layer of the box, there are seven-spice chicken kuwayaki and spring salad with sesame dressing. I normally can be quite sensitive over a sesame dressing as when it goes wrong and is sickly sweet, it ruins a perfectly good piece of chicken. But this was done with elan, with enough of a kick but lovingly delivered.

The second sushi layer selection is a mixture of salmon avocado, spicy tuna and California rolls, and chu-toro and salmon sashimi. There is great variety within this second layer with the salmon sashimi expertly served.

The dessert of cherry blossom macaroons, vanilla macarons with cherry blossom tea ganache were exquisite. There was a moment of awkwardness with my companion over what we should do over the fifth macaroon. In our heads, we were devising all kinds of services and favours that we would bestow on the other to make sure that we could get our hands on it. Eventually the wisdom of Solomon took over and it was shared between us.

The pop-up in the bar of Sake No Hana is like the cherry blossom on the trees; it is a beautiful spectacle but cannot last for ever. It is a much recommended experience as you get to sample exquisite sushi along with a sumptuous background.

Sake No Hana
23 St James’s St
Mayfair
SW1A 1HA