33 – Review: Sushi Samba

Sushi Samba, to go or not to go?

Sushi Samba is located on the 38th floor of the Heron Tower. The highlight of this restaurant is of course the fantastic 360° view and a great outdoor terrace. The terrace has a fire place which is one of my favorite things about the restaurant, they even provide blankets when it gets colder, so cozy!

It is maybe worth mentioning that the view of Duck and Waffle is nicer, simply because it’s not surrounded by a terrace like Sushi Samba, so make sure you ask for a window seat when making a reservation.

The decor is modern and chic with a black and orange color scheme.

I was excited to visit Sushi Samba as it had been on my to-food list for a while. Anything food and fish especially makes me happy.Having visited this place for drinks many times before, I had already decided that my favorite drink is Peruvian Swizzle Pisco wirh pineapple, tarragon syrup and yuzu churned (whatever that is?). The drink is so sweet and strong, you will be tipsy before you know it, that’s my kind of drink.

The menu was created with the intention of sharing and we ordered a few dishes from different sections of the menu. The food rolls in whenever it’s ready, which is fine, just keep on eating. I lost track of what was ordered and was pleasantly surprised each time a new dish arrived. The service was surprisingly good. I say this having experienced not so friendly service at Sushi Samba previously.

Here is what we had – Turbot with a small piece of brioche covered in ponzu and truffle oil. It was very fresh and the truffle oil was an excellent addition.

I will never go to a sushi restaurant without having yellowtail sashimi. It tasted exactly how it should, delicious!  It was covered in a jalapeño sauce, again, this was a great addition to the flavor.

Taquitos yellowtail with avocado. I really liked this dish due to it’s presentation, crispiness and spicy sauce.

Shrimp tempura with snap peas, spicy mayo and black truffle oil. The portion of this dish was surprisingly large for tempura. Usually I imagine just a few pieces but this was generous and tasty, the touch of truffle made a big difference.

The lamb chop with red miso and lime was very nice but I’m sorry, it still doesn’t beat Roka.

The black cod anticuchos came as two big skewers. The fish was perfectly cooked and was bathed in a delicious honey glaze.

El topo is their signature roll which they have copyright on. This sushi consisted of salmon, jalapeño and shiso leaf,  covered with  melted mozzarella and crispy onion. When I think of sushi I picture something healthy and the taste of this particular dish was a bit too fatty for my liking. It’s the only dish I can say that I didn’t like, I wouldn’t want to copy it anyway.

Tiger Maki with takuan sauce, wasabi roe, crab meat, tempura prawn, tiger prawn, wasabi mayo, beetroot yogurt and sushi sauce. This was my favorite out of the rolls we tried, obviously due to all of the wonderful fresh fish.

For my 2nd drink I tried Watermelon Baja – a long mix of Aperol and cachaça with fresh watermelon and grapefruit juice. The drink was refreshing and nice but the taste of the alcohol overtook the taste of the melon.

I don’t know how we fit desserts in after all of the food but we did, barely. I had the Passion fruit cake with green tea and white chocolate ganache, raspberry sorbet, coconut tuile, fresh raspberries and passion fruit. This was OK, not as flavorsome as it looked, the ganache was delicious though.

My friend had the With Love From Rio dessert with dark chocolate ganache, coffee mousse, tonka bean ice cream and caramelized macadamia. That is what I call a chocolate dessert! It was lovely.

Moving on from the food, I really liked the music that was playing as I was dining, I wish I could have remembered what songs they were playing though. Where was Shazam when I needed it?

Overall Sushi Samba is a lovely restaurant, the food and ambiance was great and so was the service (this time). Due to it’s expensive price tag, I’d say it’s more of a nice place to visit for a special occasion. One thing I will be back for however is the Pisco, count on that.

SushiSamba
Heron Tower,
110 Bishopgate,
London,
EC2N 4AY,
UK