Tenshi

12 Nov Tenshi

As you know I am a massive fan of Japanese food. Fortunately doing this blog provides me with ample opportunities to try out new Japanese restaurants 🙂 I was recently doing some sessions at Angel Studios and remembered I’d passed Tenshi many times before. It looks quite dark from the outside so I often forget about it until it’s suddenly in front of me. From the online menu you can see they have three menus – one for sushi, hot food and sake. If I wasn’t working I would definitely check out the sake ‘flights’ which involve three 60ml tasting glasses. Delicious! Oddly they don’t have any information about their lunchtime bento boxes, but these are good value and what I chose on the day of my visit.

The lunch sushi set comes with miso soup, six nigiri, six salmon avocado rolls and edamame beans topped with a lotus crisp and a gyoza. Excellent value for £12.95 and I was full to the brim! The fish had an excellent texture, slightly firm and with no hint of odour whatsoever, completely fresh. Today’s selection of nigiri was two salmon, one octopus, a prawn, mackerel and yellowtail. The rice was great too – soft but not mushy and just the right amount. I’m not a fan of densely packed rice, surrounding the fish like a breeze block wall! There was a nice bit of crunch from the fried lotus root, basically like a potato crisp. I didn’t eat the gyoza because of glutinous reasons, but it looked golden and well filled.

I spent about half an hour in here for lunch. There was a mixture of solo diners and couples. I had Time Out London so was reading that with my meal and was perfectly chilled out (who else LOVES Word on the Street?!). It’s the ideal place if you want some space to zone out and relax. Tenshi’s menu reads similar to a Japanese pub or izakaya, so the decor suitably matches. The use of dark wood and cool lanterns make it feel cosy while traditional fish prints lend a feeling of whimsical authenticity. In front of the kitchen are wooden boards which typically display the sushi specials, however as they’re in Japanese I’ve no idea if these are real or just for show! Soft jazz plays gently which also feels very Japanese, very…pleasant. I could have stayed in here reading and drinking green tea all day but I needed to walk a little to help digest before heading back to work!

Let me know if you visit Tenshi by commenting below or tag me on Instagram! I post extra foodie photos on Instagram so follow me there to keep up to date! Please give this post a like if you enjoyed it and I’ll see you next week for more #minnsmunchtime adventures ???

STATS

Nearest venues: Angel Studios, Angel Comedy Club, King’s Head Theatre Pub, Little Angel Theatre, O2 Academy Islington, Sadlers Wells

Total receipt (1 person): £16.76

1x Green tea 1.95

1x Lunch sushi set 12.95

Service (12.5%) 1.86

Rating: 8.5/10 Zen time

Tenshi, 61 Upper Street, London N1 0NY