Matsuba is amazing - I have been going there for more than five years with both my husband and the children. The service is impeccable and food delicious. Having eaten at Nobu and more recently Dining in the heart of London, I think Matsuba tops both of them in terms of the quality of the food.
The sashimi is simple amazing - the best tuna I have ever eaten. The Matsuba special rolls are divine and the tempura is so light and doesn't go soggy which you see so often in Japanese restaurants.
Having moved away from the area last year, we find ourselves finding excuses to revisit Richmond more often than we would otherwise simply to go to this wonderful restaurant!
I dined at Matsuba with a few of my friends for a birthday celebration on a Saturday evening. Made a reservation for 6 persons, and was available.
The female waiting staff showed us to our table once inside the restaurant. The interior, decor was striking, very warm, inviting, intimate, elegant and a modern Japanese Restaurant in richmond town centre. The restauarant suited the area very.
We tried the Sushi Hiroba as starters, a large platter of sushi, maki rolls and some sashimi pieces.
The sushi hiroba is fantastic as party starter or 2nd starters, the decoration was absolutely beautiful and colourful, as was the sashimi.
We then onto choose some traditional japanese cuisine from the A la Carte menu, and also noticed on the menu, there was a few korean dishes, which looked interesting and sounded delicious.
My friends ordered a mixture, so we could all share, chicken teriyaki, beef teriyaki, mixed tempura, another set of sashimi (matsuba sashimi) and i ordered the korean dish, Bi-bim Bap, a rice with vegetables and cooked meat on top and a spicy red paste which comes separately and you have to mix in to the bowl, and making sure all the rice and veg with meat are mixed together.
I have never tried korean food, as i adore Japanese sushi and sashimi so much. The kind female waitress asked me kindly and in good manner, if i would to have my bibim-bap to be mixed in wtih the red paste, as i would have made a complete fool of myself and a mess if i had taken chance in mixing on my own.
So the kind, and good english speaking waitress gave me a demonstration of how to mix it in and how its normal to eat the dish by a spoon and not by chopstick. The mixing of the spicy korean paste did really bring out a total new flavour, which was absolutely delicious. The presentation of the bibim-bap dish was beautiful, and i enjoyed it immensly. I will return with more people and recommend this place.
Nice comtemporary restaurant, and decent priced food.