A Chelsea night out - Dinner at Sushi des Artistes, drinks at Galante and dancing at Duke Box

Saturday night, and it was back to Cheslea, dahling!!

We were headed to a friend’s birthday party at Galante on Sloane Avenue but, as if we hadn’t eaten enough already, we decided to go for dinner first. Sushi des Artistes was conveniently located right next door to the bar so I booked us a table there.

The decor at Sushi des Artistes may not to appeal to everyone: stripey wallpaper, bowler hat lamps, heart shaped mirrors, but we found it more fun than gaudy. Though vastly different to the chic sushi restaurants such as Nobu and Roka, it was cheeky and playful!

The menu continued the playful theme, with fun names such as Time of Love, My Romance and Mementos. The folk at Sushi des Artistes are clearly trying to evoke a sexy and romantic atmosphere! There is also the choice of having a six or eight course Omakase menu which allows you to sample ‘the essence of Sushi des Artistes’ cuisine.We plumped for the eight course menu!

Starting with edamame beans stir-fried in chilli sauce and presented in a martini glass. Again we decided this was fun and unconventional rather than tacky and it didn’t matter anyway because they tasted great!

Next came Prawn Avenue, deep fried prawns with chilli mayo. I personally don’t think you can go wrong with a good deep-fried prawn and SDA certainly didn’t. The tempura batter was light and crispy as it should be!

Miso Soup.
‘I usually find Miso soup really bland, but this is nice!’ said Mr Silver.
Praise indeed.

Next deep fried ebi shrimp in crispy noodles with a dashi sauce. See above comment about deep fried prawns 😉 . These were even better with a gorgeous crunch.
The prawns came with two little pieces of pork belly. I’m not a fan of the fatty cut of meat but Mr Silver gobbled it all up!

Wagyu Beef with truffle was melt in the mouth perfect.

Octopus with broccoli on mashed potato. Kind of a random combination and you don’t see much mashed potato in Japanese cookery, but it just worked!!! Creamy mash potato and perfectly not-to-chewy octopus. It was actually my favourite course.

Next came a mixed sashimi selection served with fruit. Something about the presentation of this dish seemed a little retro eighties dinner party. But it did look kind of cool, and the sashimi was great. Mr Silver and I love sashimi, its so healthy and light!

Next a sushi selection.

And then we had a choice of main course. I chose the strangely named ‘My Buddy’ Black Cod with sweet Miso. Mr Silver chose ‘Any day now’ the Wagyu steak. The names of the dishes seemed very random and not really to related to the dish in anyway…weird… but never mind!

Mr Silver’s steak

My black cod. Of all the dishes that we tried tonight, this was the only one I really disliked, the miso was so sweet, it was sickly and I only had a few mouthfuls before giving up.

Rather bizarrely, our main courses were served with chips rather than rice. Well, I soon got over the inappropriateness of the side dish and ate them anyway…

Next, a gorgeous little muddle of fruit and macroons. Very nicely presented and such pretty colours! There was a little pot of dessert wine on the side.

Our waiter had been very friendly and jovial with us and at the end gave us a little free bonus dessert.

The scrumptious vanilla ice cream on crushed cookies reminded me of Haagen Daaz cookies and cream flavour. There was also a hint of truffle which really added interest to the flavour.

Mr Silver and I enjoyed the quirkiness of Sushi des Artistes, it doesn’t have the coolness factor of Nobu, Roka and Zuma, but it’s not pretending to be anything it’s not. It may be a little tacky and kind of retro but it’s most definitely a fun place to go with lovely food.

And then it was next door to South American bar, Galante.