KAJI
Ian Jones, Food and Drink Editor
KAJI is the pet project of respected chef Steven Smith, a towering figure in the Northern food scene. Best known for his 15 years heading up The Freemasons in Wiswell, he’s been lured away from Blackburn to showcase his skills on Bridge Street.
KAJI is well known for its new-wave Japanese cuisine, thanks to one of the best sushi selections in the city, and Smith has done a fine job of merging his Ribble Valley nous with East Asian flavours.
His latest menu deftly combines those concepts and ideas, connecting the dots between the exceptional produce available in both regions. There’s a raw and sushi section, naturally, and the rest of the menu is split into Earth, Land and Sea, with a prominent section dedicated to snacks.
From the snacks, ‘My Signature Cheese Hotdog 2.0’ pops off the page. It’s a pair of very photo-friendly little beauties – a remake of the classic diner snack, heavy on the cheese (Lancashire Bomb, to be exact), truffle and kimchi. Biting into it feels like chomping into some kind of delicious party decoration, with lighter-than-air cheese fluff bursting all around.
From Earth, the Jersey royal potato is a great example of the direction KAJI is heading in: rich and rustic, with Japanese flourishes. Like the world’s best baked potatoes, this chunky Jersey royal is cooked in the embers of the grill, giving a faint smokey, charred aroma, before a dazzling array of toppings are added: yuzu sour cream, miso and seaweed butter. And what self-respecting potato doesn’t sport an imperial caviar hat? It’s big, bold and beautiful, all very dramatic in both looks and taste.
The drunken rice is a smart – and rather rich – take on risotto, made with aged sake and white miso, smoked and pickled daikon, topped off with dramatic slashes of black truffle.
Other highlights include the Koji-aged Herdwick lamb. Smith has long been famed for his lamb, and this lives up, and then some. Cooked on the charcoal grill, it’s a BBQ rack of chunky-but-dainty lamb chops, matched with a tomato ponzu-based meaty jus and spring greens. It’s like a rustic Sunday lunch, Tokyo-style.
Desserts are a colourful assortment of patterns and bright, sweet ingredients. The chocolate option (dark bitter chocolate mousse, with chocolate soil) is a light way to end the meal, while the strawberry dessert is a wonderful Lego-style creation. It’s a tactile, almost ASMR-style treat, all crunching layers and fresh, zingy fruit.
It’s a meal that connects the dots between Japan and springtime Britain, demonstrating parallels you wouldn’t have realised existed. This means plenty of gasp-out-loud moments, not to mention hefty flavours and delicate plating.
