Casual Japanese Dining at Koj Cheltenham

Koj is a Masterchef finalist (I remember that final really well!) When I recently discovered he had a restaurant in Cheltenham it was added to the ‘to visit’ list. Koj Cheltenham prides itself on serving innovative food from a Japanese heritage, with absolutely no sushi. Although if you’re a sashimi fan, you will find this. The menu is a grazing style menu, which I love. This means you order and share between you. The perfect way to dine in my opinion!

Drinks

Of course no birthday meal is complete without cocktails. Dr W and I go with the Kojinori, a gin based cocktail using specially made gin for Koj, as well as homemade nori syrup. This cocktail reminded me of a Collins and was wonderfully refreshing too. Dr W’s Mum goes for the Japanese Highball. This is a sake based cocktail made using a plum infused sake. This cocktail was delicious and I wish I had ordered as well. It was very much like a sour and we all know how much I love a sour. I’ll have to order next time! To go with our drinks Dr W and I order the Crispy Shiitake with Tonkatsu Mayo. I was a bit unsure about these, but they were absolutely delicious. I feared soggy mushrooms but this was not the case and the batter was perfect. The tonkastu mayo was tasty too.

Steamed Buns

For our ‘first course’ we go for Koj’s infamous steamed buns. I pick the Soft Shell Tempura Crab. This has delicious fennel and yuzu to accompany it. The flavours marry well and the acidity of the yuzu cuts through the batter. Dr W ordered the Pork Belly, which came with kimchi and apple. Dr W really enjoyed this flavour combo, the savoury and sweet went really well with the pork. The steamed buns themselves were perfect and I may have found some buns to rival those of Tiger Bites Pig!

Grazing Dishes

This is where we went a little mad. But ya know what, grazing menus are made for this. First up the Koj Fried Chicken with sesame mayo. This is more-ish and I regret ordering the nibbles as I know at this point I am not going to manage my share of the grazing dishes (luckily Dr W was there to mop up the extra – no waste here!) We also order the Shiitake Okonomiyaki, this is like bubble and squeak. It’s seriously tasty with sriracha mayo  and okonomi sauce, that are just delicious. We also order the Spicy Pork Donburi. Pork mince, tofu and pak choi accompany the rice. An absolute feast!

Overall we had a wonderful lunch and you’ll pleased to know Dr W’s Mum enjoyed it too. The service was a bit stretched, but they were down on staff members and did apologise for this. Being a small independent who also had a popup at an event on the same day, I really didn’t mind. We were there for a lazy, laid back lunch anyway. We booked in advance and I’m glad we did, there was only 1 free table during our time there, which was snapped up almost straight away. We also heard the server turn many people away for the evening service that day. So my top tip, book ahead.