Unless you work nearby, or are a member (lucky you), chances are that you may not have heard of The Devonshire Club before. In a nutshell, it’s a beautifully designed private members club in a quiet and leafy square, hidden in the middle of the city – just a stone’s throw from Liverpool Street Station.
It has all the things you might expect a member’s club to have; three bustling bars, a swanky restaurant, luxurious lounges, private event rooms, a spacious gym, a pretty courtyard garden and a first floor terrace. But what people don’t seem to know about is that this exclusive club opens its doors to the public on weekends, allowing non-members to indulge in the club’s Sushi in the City offering.
The in-house Sushi Chef extraordinaire, Victor Klomu, prepares the sushi right in front of you behind the brasserie bar, each dish resembling a work of art. The Japanese sharing menu features various signature sushi (such as Kobe and foie gras maki and Hamachi carpaccio to name just two), as well as inventive Maki rolls, Deluxe rolls (expect soft-shell crab, lobster and truffle), and of course Nigiri and Sashimi of tuna, salmon, butter fish, shrimp, eel, crab, scallop, flying fish roe and Kobe – the Japanese Tajima beef.
Add to that seafood and vegetable tempura, roast pork belly and a warming chilli and coriander ramen. There’s also the Club’s signature crispy duck and pomegranate salad and a breathtaking miso-blackened cod – let’s just say you won’t be leaving hungry! Meanwhile some chilled-out Ibiza style tunes set the atmosphere for a long, lazy (and boozy!) Saturday brunch.
On arriving, the interiors were the first thing to catch my eye. Designed by the same interior-design group behind the look of the Café Royal members’ club in Piccadilly and the Arts Club in Mayfair (London-based March and White), the club’s two Grade II-listed buildings (a former 18th-century East India Company warehouse and an adjacent Georgian townhouse) ooze Fifties-inspired glamour, with mid-century style furnishings and a few Art Deco touches.
The sushi brunch is served in the Brasserie where a sweeping marble-topped Seafood Bar takes centre stage, with pretty yellow bar stools, and five sumptuous red leather curved booths lure you to the far end.
Once nestled in a squishy booth, we started with a glass of champagne and were then presented the ‘sushi and sashimi bonanza’ which came displayed on a platter of ice with dramatic smoke billowing from the middle.
Once the mist had cleared, we tucked into the fresh fish slices of sashimi, dunking them in the pot of soy.
This was quickly followed by a platter of sushi and sashimi.
Next, a snack of battered seafood and vegetable tempura…
… followed by roast pork belly, chilli and coriander ramen…
… then on to a crispy duck salad…
… and finally some miso blackened cod to close the meal.
All of that for just £50 per head! Unable to move, we spent the rest of the afternoon chatting over champagne, with no real desire to move from our little booth until we were the last ones left in the restaurant. A sign of a great brasserie, I’d say 😉
The menu is available to the public every Saturday from 11:30am until 4:30pm. Book on 02037504545 or online.
