Review: Bamboo Mat, East Village

Approaching its second birthday, we thought it was high time to check out East Village’s unassuming-from-the-outside sushi spot, on what we thought would be a quiet Monday night. Not so! The place was pretty much full, stuffed with lively tables of in-the-know locals gently kickstarting their week with some top-grade raw fish.

Bamboo Mat is a perfect example of the assorted tasty benefits of taking a fusion cuisine, and accompanying hospitality thinking. It specialises in the tradition of Nikkei food, where Japanese sushi meets Peruvian ceviche. It’s also run and staffed by a dedicated team of enthusiastic Moldovans, who learned their craft at specialist Nikkei kitchens at home, and in London.

What began as a small venture in Leyton that was supercharged by a rave Grace Dent review in the Guardian, has now settled into an accomplished outpost in Stratford’s increasingly international food offering.

We started with the house signature of yellowtail and yuzu truffle, a beautiful/Instagrammable sharing plate that set the scene for the meal, as did the accompanying punchy pisco sour. Nikkei cuisine is big on lime, herbs and spices, yet the delicate purity of the fish is not lost.

A subsequent plate of rosy lamb chops marinated in Anticucho sauce with coriander also skilfully managed to elevate the seriously plump meat into impossibly light, deeply juicy bites. The bitterness of a house negroni goes particularly well with this, in case you’re onto your second cocktail, as we happily were at this point.

Our platter of bountiful sashimi and nigiri was then blowtorch seared at the table, a Bamboo Mat speciality that manages to be a lot of performative successful date night fun, without tipping into the full ostentatiousness of, say, champagne with sparklers.

Peruvian arts have influenced the simple but effective decor, with fluro strands webbing the ceiling and a riot of colour if you venture to the loo. By the end of our meal we’d been thoroughly spoiled by the staff, and wobbled off as the other satisfied customers had, feeling like it was the weekend, but with the dawning reality we’d just had an exceptional and decadent first night of the week.