Zuma Review

This post will be about one of my favourite restaurants in London– Zuma. Zuma is situated in Knightsbridge on a Mercedes saloon lined back street, frequented by the upper-echelon of society…and me, biannually when my family have extraordinary events to celebrate.

Atmosphere & Service :

The atmosphere in Zuma can only really be summed up by one colloquial term:

Boujie

[adj]

• A person/thing who embodies an attitude or state of mind of superior taste, inclination toward posh and luxurious goods

The restaurant itself just exudes opulence, luxury and decadence. The moody lighting gives the place a certain… je ne sais quoi. You get welcomed by hosts who diligently take your coat and show you to your seat. Then the most knowledgeable waiter you’ll ever meet in your life, will introduce themselves to you, give you a warm damp towel for your hands and in general make you feel like you matter. The staff are clearly trained to know the menu, which isn’t short mind you, inside out and this is of a massive help when trying to figure out what to order. Not only are the staff masters of the menu, they are also masters of conversation. As I mentioned earlier, your waiter will make you feel how you felt when you received a participation certificate after a shoddy performance on the football pitch at 5 – special. They ask how your day is, genuinely caring about the response and can sustain conversation on multiple topics.

In regard to timeliness of food and drink, I cannot complain. Having gotten an eight course set menu, I can say that the space provided between each is nicely spaced, avoiding the feeling of chaos and Armageddon which can ensue when being confronted by too many courses at once. With every course, you are reminded of what element has arrived, which I find extremely helpful. It may not seem like an important detail but in some other restaurants you aren’t reminded of the dishes so you’re in a state of confusion for a bit.

Overall atmosphere is an 8.3/10 and service is a 9.6/10

Food:

The food is sublime. I typically use excessively flowery, or what my mum calls dramatic, language to describe pretty much everything, so you may be immune to it now. However, my mild exaggerations aside, Zuma’s food is some of the best I have ever tried. Some of the highlights from the past few times I’ve visited have been the steak tartare and the sashimi. Full disclosure, I don’t even like sashimi, in fact, I’d go as far as to say I don’t understand the hype around sushi. That being said, when I gingerly placed a slice of the sashimi in my mouth, my life changed. The salmon was melt-in-the-mouth tender and the accompanying dishes were great too.

My family and I always get one of the set menus, but as Zuma say on their website, you can order however you like as everything is apparently designed to be shared and also eaten individually so this does add some flexibility with how you order. I would recommend people experiment when they go to Zuma because it really is an opportunity to try things you likely haven’t seen before and to expand your culinary experience.

Overall food gets a 9.9/10

So is it worth it?

If there is any restaurant to fall behind on your rent for, Zuma is it. Between the service, atmosphere and the food, Zuma can be likened to an experience outside your usual restaurant visit. In short, yes, yes it is worth it.