Brynymor Road, Swansea. 017 9265 3222 / www.nishimura.co.uk
Food **** Atmosphere ***
I love sushi. My girlfriend thinks I’m a fraud because I don’t love sashimi like true sushi lovers, but it’s just the combination of fish, rice and seaweed that I adore. Mixing the wasabi into the soy, throwing in some pickled ginger to bring all the flavours out. I love it. It’s fresh, healthy and you don’t walk away from the table bloated and weighed down like you do with some other cuisines. That being said, there aren’t that many places that offer good sushi in Swansea. But if you’re looking for somewhere, I recommend Nishimura.
There’s not a lot of room in the restaurant itself – it’s tiny, actually. With one long singular table that fills up the place, it’s a bit awkward getting in and out of the way for the other guests. But the staff couldn’t be politer and everything is on the menu reasonably priced – apart from the salads – a fiver for a bit of sad looking lettuce and cucumber (they have a picture menu).
We ordered a few different things from the menu to try. They serve the dishes as they are ready, so I went ahead and dived into the chef’s special when it arrived – cooked salmon belly and avocado uramaki. It was divine. So much so that when I was in town a few days later I called ahead and ordered some to take away. Definitely the best sushi dish I’ve had, the flavours were so delicate, light, and beautiful, while the spicy tuna rolls were a close second. The ebi tempura was cooked to perfection – light and piping hot and the katsu curry was faultless, full of flavour and beautifully crispy. The only thing that let the place down was the noodles. We ordered curry yaki soba and ended up sending them back. The chicken was for lack of a better word – weird. It wasn’t great quality and the noodles were overcooked and mushy.
I’ve been to a couple of sushi places where the fish isn’t always the freshest, and worse, sometimes too warm. But the sashimi, as my girlfriend said, was “fresh as f*ck.”
words RUTH SEAVERS