Eating Out: Oko

Oct 10 2012 By Emma Smith

Oko Image 1

Address: 302 Sauchiehall Street, Telephone: 332 5200

OKO on first appearances is a very trendy sushi restaurant on one of the busiest streets in Glasgow.

I went to the Queen Street venue a few years ago and I remember loving the simple decor and the variety of different types of sushi on offer.

The Sauchiehall Street restaurant followed the formula – cafeteria-style black benches with minimal clutter (chopsticks and a menu) and the delicious smell of fresh noodles being cooked in the open kitchen.

I went with my mum who had never been to a sushi restaurant before and I could see the nervous anticipation as she scanned the menu.

She went for a flora tea (£2.95) called Flying Snow, which was really beautiful – it came in a large wine glass and after a few minutes the flower opens out as it absorbs the water.

To start with we had a half kobe platter (£10) which gave us the chance to sample salmon, tuna, eel and prawn kobe and California roll filled with crabsticks and wrapped in seaweed. My mum was brave enough to try the eel but then after a bite she decided to stick to the salmon kobe.

The sushi was really tasty and it was good to see it being freshly prepared as we waited.

For mains, I went for the yasai katsu curry (£7.25) which was sweet potato and butternut squash deep fried in Japanese bread crumbs served in a light curry sauce with Japanese rice.

The sweet potato was chopped into thin circular slices and was covered in the light sauce but I think they would have been nicer just on their own as it was a bit of a heavy dish.

My mum went for the chicken yabi soba with thin noodles (£8.25). The wok fried noodles were full of tasty peppers, onions and chillies and it was cooked in a delicious yaki sauce.

We were both full but there was no way we could leave without trying the green tea cheese cake with green tea ice-cream (£3.95) – so impressively presented it almost made us feel bad about eating it. The cheesecake was really creamy and light, the ice-cream was bursting with zesty flavours and was really refreshing with the berry sauce and the strawberries on the side. It was just the perfect amount after an interesting evening.

My mum is now a sushi convert and we will be returning to Oko soon for more flora tea and California rolls.

Click here for your chance to win dinner for four at Oko.