Few dining rooms create a feeling of excitement quite like Endo at The Rotunda. As you make your way up to the restaurant via a dedicated lift, walk through the curtained door and enter the dining room, the views of London’s skyline are overshadowed by the sheer beauty of the room itself. And that’s before you even have a single bite of chef Endo Kazutoshi’s otherworldly cooking.

Opening in April 2019, Endo at The Rotunda contains just sixteen seats around a large wooden counter, made from 200-year-old Hinoki wood. Look to the ceiling and you’ll see a beautiful cloud-shaped light installation, reflecting the ‘sushi in the clouds’ tagline of the restaurant. Just outside the windows is a small roof terrace, where Endo and his team grow a small selection of Japanese herbs and vegetables to use in the menu.

There is only one menu at Endo at The Rotunda, comprised of over twenty small dishes prepared, plated and served right in front of you. This is what makes the restaurant an ‘omakase’ experience – the word roughly translates to ‘I’ll leave it up to you’ – allowing the kitchen team to focus on creating the very best menu they can. A dinner here is as much about the theatre as it is about the food – watching the chefs showcase their intricate skills up-close is fascinating to watch and highlights just how skilful they need to be to produce dishes of such high quality.

While the skill of the chefs and the surroundings are certainly important, it is the ingredients used at Endo at The Rotunda which take pride of place. Even the water used to cook the rice is sourced from Fukuoka (where the rice is also from) to ensure the perfect pH, with lesser-known Japanese herbs and spices selected from the very best suppliers in the UK and further afield.

What makes Endo’s cookery unique however is his use of British fish; working closely with fishermen to ensure their catch is kept in pristine condition from the moment it is caught means it is both of the highest quality and as fresh as possible. While he will go further afield for fresh ingredients if needed, his commitment to working with British ingredients makes his approach to omakase very special indeed. If you are after a truly brilliant meal that you will remember for life, you’d struggle to do better than an evening at Endo at The Rotunda.

Header image courtesy of FoodStoryMedia.