I can scarcely believe that, as I type this, it’s four years to the day since pubs were told to shut. An awful lot has changed since then and, thankfully, an awful lot has returned to normal but York still bears the scars of the Covid era in the form of a number of closed premises. This post-Covid world is certainly not without challenges for the hospitality industry, with spiralling costs and incomes ever more squeezed. Nevertheless, there’re still new places to keep me busy trying out. One that’s piqued my interest for some time is Sushi & Bowl which has appeared on Lendal in recent times with minimal fanfare. If my increasingly patchy memory is functioning, this was previously a clothes shop into which I never ventured, so as I approached for a solo-lunch, I really wasn’t sure what to expect.
My visit had been prompted by York Restaurant Week, which felt like an opportunity to take a punt on a couple of promising looking new places to eat, and took place on a Monday lunchtime to take full advantage of the event. The frontage of Sushi & Bowl goes toward the unassuming, not standing out too much from the other restaurants on the street, though it has some jolly graphics on the window. I hadn’t been able to find a website so didn’t have a booking but it was quiet when I made my entrance and I was seated quickly with Restaurant Week duly acknowledged. A few more diners joined the party in short order and bumped up the atmosphere a notch and I got my order in for the most expensive of the deals which came in at £30.
First up was a Kani salad of shredded crabstick dressed in Japanese mayo with ribbons of cucumber and a sesame dressing and arriving at the same time were shrimp tempura that were much more familiar to me. The tempura were well executed with crispy, light batter and an aggressively salty dipping sauce. The salad was new to me with the velvety mayo giving a soft edge to the crab. I’d certainly order this one again.
Main course was Unagi Don, an eel and rice dish with a side of kimchi and generous topping of spring onion and sesame seeds. Posting this on my social media provoked a bit of debate about the sustainability of eel so I might order an alternative in future but this was an absolute delight with all the bright and fresh flavour notes I had hoped for. The kimchi was relatively subtle but contrasted nicely with the fermentation coming through well and a nice crunch for extra texture in the dish. At this point I was absolutely stuffed and had forgotten that stuffed pancakes were coming out for dessert….I tried one for the sake of quality control then spirited the remainder into my bag for later indulgence.
Coming to this one slightly blind, I was very happy to have my expectations comfortably met here, with an extra layer of value from participation in York Restaurant Week just sweetening the deal. Sushi is something that’s generally been inconsistent in York so I’m looking forward to a return visit focussed on that, but in the meantime very glad that we have new places like this springing up to keep things interesting.
