yo sushi, southbank, london.

sushi sushi sushi. i can't get enough of it. if you love it too, i'll talk to you about it for hours. if you tell me you hate it because it's all raw fish, i'll talk to you for hours about how it's not all raw fish, or even all seafood for that matter. believe it or not, i wrote my journalism dissertation about sushi. okay maybe i am a little bit mad... so when i was invited to try out the yo! sushi at london southbank i raised my soy sauce bottle high, painted my face with wasabi and did a little dance with my chopsticks.

so why do i love sushi restaurants so much? it's full of all my favourite oriental flavours - you can be as healthy or as naughty as you want. there's so much diversity - salmon sashimi? that's fine. katsu curry? go for it. a fresh bowl of soya beans? yum. it can be as sociable as you like - chatting and reaching over each other for the different dishes or sitting on your own with a book in one hand and the sushi menu in another.

so how do you yo? basically each dish is colour coordinated on price; whether it be on the belt or something you fancy ordering off the menu. typically all the more cold sushi style rolls, maki, nigri and sashimi can be found on the belt whereas often i find myself ordering the hot noodle and rice dishes. you could also just try a bowl of ramen or maybe a limited edition yo! burger if you prefer a meal :) then still or sparkling water on tap on your table is £1 as well as an abundance of soy sauce, low salt soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger.

we began with a frozen kiran ichiban beer. yes that head is actually frozen - it was like nothing i'd tried before!

as you can see from the first picture i ordered a salmon and avocado handroll, also known as temaki. salmon and avocado is without a doubt one of the best combinations, is it not? i then enjoyed one of the beautifully cooked specials - scallop katsu, whilst my boyfriend enjoyed a katsu curry with pickled radish and a duck and hoisin iso roll. the crunchy coated scallops and their soft inside went so well with the sharp wasabi dip and peppery watercress.

we then shared (i ate 2 of the 3) a chicken and spring onion gyoza. these were so fantastically crispy on the outside i really need to learn how to make them.

since i haven't managed to get my mister into the raw, or seared, seafood at yo, i enjoyed that to myself whilst he tackled the curry. these are salmon and avocado rolls and seared sesame salmon sashimi.

if you love seafood but aren't sure about how rare this is cooked, then you might like a classic californian roll. a real western take on sushi, this one has a cooked crab or seafood stick running through the middle.