Review: Japanese BBQ at Kintan, Holborn
Style Points: 4/5
Price: ££
Overall: 4/5
Just around the corner from historic Gray’s Inn in Holborn tucked in between offices and shops is a little Japanese BBQ restaurant called Kintan.
Now I have to admit that my experience with various world cuisines is fairly limited. I had never had Japanese BBQ but am a fan of other types of BBQ being from the American South so when given the opportunity to try Kintan I was eager to give it a go. Kintan is self-proclaimed as London’s first Yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurant. And at Kintan its grilled meat you shall have!
Inside the restaurant in quite minimal in design. You’ll find lots of clean lines and dark wood with elegant touches of Japanese decor. On the ground level where you enter there are only a few tables and at first it appears to just be a quiet, small restaurant, but when you go downstairs you soon realise it’s actually quite large and busy! It’s not overly fancy but it’s not casual either. It would be a great place to meet for an early dinner after work one day.
Not knowing much about Japanese BBQ in general or Kintan I was surprised to discover that each table has a little grill in the middle and the diners cook the food themselves! Because of this, from what I could tell the tables were all quite small to seat around four or less - though I think that’s a good thing so you've got enough space to cook your food!
Set table
Grill within the table
Would I Want Seconds?
Kintan’s dinner menu has a lot of options and they’ve also get a few set menus too. Since we had no idea what the experience was going to be like, my husband and I had the Premium Course- so one of the set menus (priced at £44.50 per person). This way we didn’t have to worry about choosing a few dishes to make a meal. The set menu we had included a LOT of food and really was more than we probably needed! However, it gave us the opportunity to try a lot of items from the menu.
Miso Sparkling Saka
First, let me comment on the drinks. Soon after we were seated the waitress brought over some Mio Sparkling Sake (£20) which I think might be my new favourite drink ever. It’s alcoholic, but not too strong - 5%. But more importantly it’s everything I’ve ever wanted from sparking wine. It’s sweet and smooth and just so easy to drink. It might be a bit dangerous though because it doesn’t taste alcoholic at all! Hands down this is my favourite discovery of the evening, but that doesn’t mean the food was lacking in anyway.
With the Premium Course we had everything from edamame (£3) and a Kintan salad (£7) to garlic fried noodles (£7), mixed vegetables (£8), and lots of meat and fish (£7-11 per item) to grill and then finished it up with ice cream and green tea for dessert. There wasn’t anything put on our table that was bad but there are a few standout dishes that I’d like to mention.
My favourite dish of the evening was the Tuna Tartar Volcano (£7) which has just enough spice to make it interesting and was served on a fried rice base that was similar in texture to a creamy hash brown. Also I’m pretty sure it was topped with caviar so it felt pretty fancy even though the fried based satisfies a junk food craving that I often have.
Another favourite was the filet mignon (£11). It was cut into perfect bite sized cubes and once grilled was so delicious and juicy. This was the first meat that arrived on our table to grill so it got off to a great start.
Then was the premium kalbi short rib (£10) which were these thin slices of marbled meat. I was really unsure when they set it on the table because I was afraid the fat ratio was awfully high and they would just shrink to nothing on the hot grill. However although they did draw up a bit, they cooked quickly and were just melt in your mouth tender. It was so delicious and tasty. I’m not sure what kind of marinade they use - but I didn’t need any dipping sauces for these morsels of meat!
Finally, the tiger prawns (£7) were another favourite. I’ve never cooked a prawn in my life and only recently started even eating them. So was a bit unsure when these gray things were delivered to our table but after a bit on the grill they turned a beautiful reddy/pink and they were just delicious.
Edamame
Garlic Fried Noodles
Hot Oil Seared Salmon
Premium Rib Eye
Tuna Tartar Volcano
Ice cream and green tea
Could I Afford Seconds?
The set menu was definitely pricey. Priced at £44.50 per person the set menu is a lot of food but it’s not going to be a cheap night out as for two people with drinks you’ll easily spend over £100 including a tip. Essentially it seems diners are paying for the novelty of having a grill at the table and cooking the food themselves.
If we were to return, instead of the set menu we’d instead pick a few dishes to share as this would result in a more reasonably priced dinner. They also have a Happy Hour on Monday to Friday from 5-6:30pm which I would definitely recommend.
Overall:
The experience at Kintan is probably one of the most interesting dining experiences I’ve had to date. The service and ambiance were great, the food was tasty, and it was certainly filling. Unless you’re going the smaller meal route I would be a bit wary trying to go on a weekend as their reservation page says you’ll get 2 hours from the booking time on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and we easily spent over two hours there despite the fact that I’m a really fast eater. But I would recommend you try it out if you like grilled meats and a fun evening out!
