For anyone who hasn't endured the centuries old Japanese theatre experience that is "Noh" its slow paced, long and nothing much happens. To get an idea of the pace imagine a film of two bicyclists in a slow-race, neck to neck at a traffic light that's stuck on red. Now play it back frame by frame for a couple of hours and you'll be approaching the speed of Noh.
When I sat down in Oishiii the audience on the next table were obviously experiencing their own taste of Noh theatre in the form of a slow-motion sushi they ordered earlier that day that had gone missing somewhere between acts 1 and 5. Noh actors traditionally don't rehearse together, waiting until they are in the live show before they have their first interaction with the rest of the cast. The service at Oishiii had a similar feel, although to be fair this was probably to be expected given it was opening week.
To the frustration of the next table our order turned up pretty quickly and before theirs. The sashimi was well presented and tasted ok. The sushi was more baltic than Japanese. Tokyo landlords may serve their draft beer so cold it has miniature icebergs floating in the head (to hide the taste of the chemicals needed to cope with the much slower turnover times in Japan, apparently) but sushi this cold reminded me of the semi-frozen fish stuck solid on little square snowballs of iced-rice in an over-refrigerated Tesco Express. I soon had the idea that maybe I could thaw mine out by holding it against a flask of hot sake. Not that I needed an excuse to order one.
In Lost in Translation Bill Murray never gets the chance to visit a Noh theatre - he's only there for a few days and I guess he'd rather be drinking his Suntory and keeping an eye on Scarlett than watching a masked warrior move at turtle-neck speed. If they'd extended the film for a few more minutes he might have chanced it though he'd probably need a sequel to fit in a visit to Oishiii. I wouldn't write this restaurant off just yet as its only just opened but I will leave it a while until my next visit and hopefully they will have sorted out their show by then.
Oishiii - Church Street, Stoke Newington
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