The Marylebone restaurant’s latest menus take inspiration from Momijigari, Japan’s answer to cherry blossom season.
Cherry blossom season may get most of the international attention, but Japan’s autumn leaves are every bit as worthy of celebration. This year, Marylebone restaurant Roketsu is marking Momijigari with two richly seasonal new tasting menus.
Meaning “autumn leaf hunting”, Momijigari is the Japanese tradition of travelling to scenic spots to admire leaves as they turn from green to vivid shades of orange, gold and red. At Roketsu, that appreciation of the changing seasons takes edible form across two five-course menus, available from 1 September.
The Autumn Classic Kappo Tasting Menu, priced at £150 per person, brings together some of the restaurant’s best-loved dishes with ingredients suited to the cooler months. Dinner begins with a fine wild mushroom clear soup, finished with tofu mousse and truffle, followed by appetisers including Japanese red sea bream, foie gras miso monaka and Cornish crab chawanmushi.
King prawn and mushroom tempura provides a crisp interlude before a choice of main dishes, including lamb chop and Iberico pork. Nigiri, maki and soup follow, with a warming pumpkin pudding bringing the menu to an appropriately autumnal close.
For those looking to push the boat out, the £200 Autumn Prime Kappo Tasting Menu adds premium ingredients including Wagyu beef and an expanded chef-selected sushi course. Available at dinner, it is pitched squarely at anniversaries, milestones and suitably extravagant celebrations.
Kappo-style dining traditionally places the chef at the centre of the experience, with dishes prepared using a range of techniques rather than following the stricter format of a conventional tasting menu. At Roketsu, courses move between raw seafood, tempura, sushi and meat cooked over binchō charcoal, allowing the character of each seasonal ingredient to lead.
The new menus offer a taste of autumn in Japan without requiring a flight – although, at £150 or £200 before drinks, this particular leaf-viewing expedition is still very much a special-occasion affair.
Roketsu
12 New Quebec Street, London W1H 7RW
Autumn Classic Kappo Tasting Menu, £150 per person
Autumn Prime Kappo Tasting Menu, £200 per person
roketsu.co.uk