The allure of the rooftop restaurant can be overplayed. Everyone likes dinner with a view, but said view is often far superior to the food, acting as a blessed Mary Poppins-esque distraction from the limp asparagus that sits, embarrassed, on your plate. Either that, or your top bins eatery is hemmed in by too-close 1970s tower blocks and direct sightlines into identikit offices.
Kioku however triumphs at both food and views, because of course it does. The latest opening from Endo Kazutoshi comes with the primest of positions, perched on the Swiss Army Knife of a building that is Whitehall’s lushly revamped Old War Office.
Chashu pork ramen ravioli is a one bowl ballet of creamy meat packed into tiny pockets of pasta
Although the superstar chef is taking a brief hiatus from Michelin sushi spot Endo at the Rotunda, he’s currently commandeering the capital with a string of other high-end foodie powerhouses. There’s the recently opened Niju, Humo (which scored a star just over a year after opening), Notting Hill’s Sumi and brand new Colombian chef’s table Abajo. Endo isn’t in these kitchens fulltime, but rather acts as ‘culinary director’ – a Martin Scorsese of the menu, if you will.
At Kioku that translates into Japanese technique filtered through all the lovely trips Endo’s been on in the Mediterranean. ‘Kioku’ means memories in Japanese, and to hammer the point home, entering this whopping Edwardian pile is something you’re unlikely to forget. ‘Ooh’ as you’re swept past ground floor sake den Kioku Bar in a blaze of walnut panelling, then ‘ahh’ as you’re buzzed up to the sixth floor in an unashamedly steampunk glass elevator.
Kioku itself is a pretty demure low-ceilinged room plastered in pine. The ‘blimey’ factor comes from the floor to ceiling windows teasing a 55-cover terrace and tummy-tingling views of Nelson’s Column, Horse Guards Parade and the London Eye. Get a load of the most impressive PDR in the capital too; an eight seater turret perfect for a Bond villain celebrating a big birthday or the naming ceremony for a new global crime syndicate.
Before we eat, it’s cocktail time, with drinks splitting Spanish and Japanese flavour down the middle. Padron & Shiso was a zingy, marg-esque coupe of mezcal, vodka and green gooseberries, while Sherry & Nori, made for an ultra butch old fashioned, boosted by roasted coffee distillate and roasted seaweed.
When it comes to dinner, the bar is set unnervingly high by a giddy starter of smoked yellowtail, with crisp batons of apple, aged caviar and crunchy buckwheat sobacha guanciale, dotted with perfect purple flowers. Fleshy scallops with grilled radicchio and smoked lemon ponzu, were almost as good, the slivered scallops bringing to mind passionately tonguing a wet fish – but you know, fun.
There is impressive sashimi, naturally, but more intriguing is Kioku’s standout dish, a chashu pork ramen ravioli, a one bowl ballet of creamy meat packed into tiny pockets of pasta, which is almost fast food-esque in its boldness. A beefy, umami-heavy lobster fregola with shiso oil and sancho pepper too has a depth of flavour beyond anything you’re likely to find at your nearest high street trattoria.
Our reverie is broken by an evidently very talented, but also quite loud, violin and piano duo who launch into Coldplay bangers c. 2008 mere inches from our table. Two wedges of duck breast with sticky fermented chilli, barley miso and a hunk of hearty hispi cabbage make up for it, though kombu-steamed sea bass with mussel ragu is perhaps a little too mushier than we’d like it, a bit like Coldplay themselves. But we’re back on track with dessert, a deadly double whammy of airy, drunken miso rum baba and indecently salty twig tea crème brûlée smouldering under a dollop of cream cheese ice cream.
Kioku; great views, brilliant booze and utterly sublime food. Endo Kazutoshi has only gone and done it again.
The vibe Top drawer, top floor dining from the Endo Kazutoshi stable.
The food Japanese-leaning cuisine with inspo from Spain, Italy and the rest of the Med.
The drink Savoury, experimental cocktails as well as a whopping great wine list.
Time Out tip If it’s a sunny day, insist on a roof terrace table.