Satuma

This place is now closed and changed to a different name.

Satuma confused me, but I do like it.
When we walked past here a few weeks ago, I remembered that the sign says «satsuma-​imo,» which is a type of sweet potato grown in Kyushu in Japan. But the Japanese doesn’t match the English name (Satuma)…so it took me a while to find this place online. Oops.
The menu is a mix of Japanese and Korean dishes, so we tried a little of both.
Korean:
— Veggy Bibimbap — this was lovely! It was dolsot bibimbap and they provided us with a good dollop of chilli sauce, so I really liked it.
— They were out of kimchi, so served us a plate of ‘mixed pickles.’ These were nice, but a little strange as along with the Korean cucumber pickles, they served pickled ginger (gari) that normally comes with sushi. The flavours don’t go together, so we just left the gari.
Japanese:
— Edamame — You can’t really go wrong with edamane. They gave us a large bowl-​full
— Gyoza — The chicken gyoza were nice and REALLY hot
— Maki-​zushi — we tried the chicken-​katsu maki, and it was surprisingly good. You could tell the chef made it freshly, and he even added a little spice to the sushi. It wasn’t particularly traditional, but it tasted nice, so who cares?!
The staff were attentive and sweet, although only the chef spoke Japanese.

Kentish Town is amazing for finding tucked away, little restaurants for me to hide away during my lunch hour if a bad day is brewing. Satuma is my go to for pick-​me-​up sushi, usually the week after pay day.
The lunch time bento boxes are amazing, at an amazing price. I got a chicken terriyaki bento box for under £7, while my friend got a salmon bento box for under £8. The service was fairly prompt, and super helpful. The venue… well, it’s small. Tiny. Be prepared for this, but during lunch it wasn’t crowded and was fine.
Be careful that the take-​out bento boxes cost more… or they screwed up charging me when i got take out once. Either way, go for a schmooze in their nicely decorated restaurant and be wowed by the nice service.