There are a few places (a lot actually) I would like to go in London and obviously a long list of cafes, restaurants… I have started to write down everything since I’ve begun my blog and stopped relying on my brain only which is a good thing. I read everything I find regarding chefs, ingredients, and my brain can be unreliable sometimes. On my list for the next few weeks are: Polland Street Social, The Horse Hospital, José, Bumpkin and Spuntino. I am sure that by tomorrow the list will be longer but I will try to stick on those ones for now. There is one which was on my things to do for a few years, it’s Zuma. Et voilà, Zuma is done. Zuma is amazing. Working in a restaurant is very hard, stress full and (for me at least) frustrating . As someone who loves eating, it can be irritating to have beautiful dishes passing by you, tempting you, when the only meal you had is staff food. Staff food is ok where I work but still. The smells, the noises made by forks, knifes on chopping boards and the meat still sizzling on the plate is just a call to greed. After having too much frustration and stress at the end of the year I decided to go to Zuma and satisfy my huge envy to treat myself. I went with Dimitri, my friend, a pastry chef who was in the same state, tired and frustrated. Zuma, modern Japanese food, utterly perfect. The waiter is so good that he makes you drool over your menu. He probably had a training in the kitchen for months as he knows recipes by heart which is rare especially in Japanese restaurant as they use so many ingredients only for a sauce! Soups were great, prawns and vegetable tempura are real tempura, light and aerial, I fell in love with the mushrooms skewer’s sauce and the mains were a feast, especially the black cod. The black cod wrapped in banana (or maybe lotus?) leaves, black skin, pearly and melting flesh is whaou ! The cherry on the cake was desserts. Green tea and banana cake with coconut ice cream and peanut toffee sauce, just to talk about it makes me salivate! My friend’s dessert? The peak of exotism. It happened a few time in my life to have that burst of surprise when I taste a dish, it happened in Zuma with Dimitri’s dessert (which ended up being mine). Plunge your spoon in the terra cotta ramekin and you reach heaven. Fresh exotic fruits chopped so finely that they melt in the mouth and then at the bottom the coconut cream (that is exactly when you reach heaven)… not too creamy, not too sweet, for a huge fan of coconut like me, it was perfection. The atmosphere can be really busy so for a quiet dinner, go to Zuma on Sunday eve, by the sushi bar where you can admire the chef making a sushi in exactly 3 seconds, drink sake as they have their own sake sommelier. We didn’t even try any sake as the cocktails we had were so nice that we forgot about it. Around £70 per person without wine. Zuma restaurant, 5 Raphael Street, SW7 1DL London. 0207 584 1010. www.zumarestaurant.com