The popular eaterie in the Oxo Tower has branched out to a new Soho location, but does it live up to its older sibling?

The Venue
Bincho Yakitori in the Oxo Tower has been going strong for almost a year and the new location in Soho is a perfect spot to attract a busy crowd day (local media workers, passing tourists) and night (clubbers and bar-hoppers). Unlike the views you get at the original location, the Soho Bincho is restricted to a three-person view of a small stretch of Old Compton Street - when the weather is nice enough to open up the front area, that is. However, the decor is nearly identical to the original restaurant: dark, minimalist furniture; chunky square lanterns; splashes of red from the napkins; walls decorated with elegant Japanese characters. There are two floors, but roughly two eating areas: the front, where you can sit on your own, sushi bar-style, along the wall, window or open kitchen, and everywhere else, where you can sit in Western-style groups of two, four or more.

The Atmosphere
The crowd seems to be a toss-up at Bincho Yakitori, as some days it looks nicely crowded with Soho scenesters and weekend diners whilst on other days it feels almost painfully empty. Service is friendly and smiley, interested but not overly eager. Music plays to set the tone (low-key jazz and Billie Holiday) but it burbles away in the background and doesn’t intrude on conversation.

The Food
The Oxo Tower location made yakitori a household name in London. Kind of like kebabs and kind of like tapas, yakitori is chicken skewered on sticks and barbecued, whilst other meats and vegetable skewers are called kushiyaki. Unusual dishes include chicken liver and chicken skin, with a note that additional chicken parts are available on request. Single skewers range from £1.40 to £2.60 and the most expensive dish is rib of beef steak with tamari, fried garlic and lotus root at £15.50. A lunchtime set menu of a selection of popular dishes costs £10.

From the set lunch menu, the saya salad is a large portion, with juicy avocado and fresh leaves, but the salmon is too fatty and the promised peppers are indistinguishable. White miso soup is good, however: salty, cloudy and hot, with squidgy seaweed shreds and soft cubes of tofu. The set lunch menu also comes with a spicy fried rice with Japanese vegetables (green beans, onions, sliced mushrooms), a combination of subtle and sharp flavours that works well.

The main affair, of course, is the skewers, and served laid out on a thin slate rectangle, they look lovely. Unfortunately, almost none of the choices score full marks. Negina (chicken and spring onion) is perhaps the best, with a good savoury flavour, but for some reason it’s very liquidy and drips all over the plate. Tebasaki (chicken wing) has too much salt on the skins, whilst shiitake are salty as well, with a strange, rubbery texture. Tai (sea bream) is nice and firm but tastes bland, whilst shishito (Japanese sweet pepper) is wrinkly and dry. Buta (pork belly) has a rich, sweet flavour, but like the salmon in the salad, tastes just a bit too fatty.

Dishes are served almost one on top of the other, which is great if you’re in a large group but not so easy if you’re not, and you wind up trying to eat as much as you can as quickly as possible. You’re not able to savour what you’d like to linger over, as you want to eat what you can before it goes cold.

The Drink
Like the food menu, the drink list is large and varied, with plenty of choices for Japanese favourites sake and shochu. Saki goes up to £125 a bottle, whilst shochu tips the scales at £67.50 a bottle. There are seven whites, seven reds and one rose from all over the world, and glasses range from £3.75 to £7.25 whilst bottles range from £14.50 - £85. Teas, juices and soft drinks are also available.

The Last Word
The new branch of Bincho Yakitori could be a great addition to the Soho dining scene with a bit more fine tuning in the cooking department – and a few more customers.

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