Soushi,

The Old Post Office,

12 Castle Street,

Cirencester,

GL7 1QA.

Tel No: 01285 641 414

www.soushi.co.uk

Hours: Monday to Saturday noon to 3pm (kitchen closes at 2.30pm); Wednesday and Thursday 6pm to late (kitchen closes at 9.30pm); Friday and Saturday 6pm to late (kitchen closes at 10pm)

WHEN three old friends fancied Japanese food for dinner but couldn’t find a suitable restaurant in their town they didn’t sit around moaning . . . they set about planning opening one themselves.

And despite none of them having any previous experience in the food trade, that’s exactly what they have done.

Soushi – it means creation in Japanese – is the brainchild of Nina Clarkin, Christina Smail and Rosie Nock, three childhood friends who grew up in the Cotswolds.

Nina is currently the leading female polo player in the world, Christina is a qualified barrister, and Rosie has been working on a three year project in Mallorca, refurbishing old Spanish properties.

Last summer they realised that Cirencester would be a perfect location for a sushi restaurant as there was a large gap in the market.

After months of research and interviews they discovered head chef Shinichi Okawa who offers a varied menu featuring freshly made sushi as well as a selection of hot dishes.

The restaurant is situated in the heart of Cirencester in the new Post Office development which links Castle Street to Blackjack Street and The Market Place. It offers a menu that changes regularly, with fresh locally sourced vegetables and the fish which is delivered daily.

The bar has traditional Japanese drinks including plum wine, hot and chilled sake, and Asahi lager on tap. The restaurant looks onto a sunny courtyard where you can sit outside to enjoy your meal.

A selection of sushi boxes, salads, miso soup and edamame beans are available for takeaway during the day, and in the evening customers are able to order takeaway sushi from the evening menu.

On the day we visited, the stylishly decorated restaurant was bustling. We started off nibbling on edamame beans in their pods (£2.95) sprinkled with rock salt; then shared a house speciality sparkling tuna maki (£12.95) which was as tasty as it was beautifully presented, the tuna in the dish being wrapped around prawns with a crunchy coating before being rolled in rice and topped with a chilli mayonnaise. We also had a bento box (£9) – a good introduction to Japanese food, being a mixture of dishes, a couple of sushi, miso soup, rice, teriyaki chicken and seafood in batter. We also had a taster of the day’s special (£8) a noodle dish packed with fresh seafood, and rounded off with dorayaki red bean pancakes (£5.50) and a terrific yuzu sorbet of Japanese citrus fruit (£3).

We were invited guests but the paying customers around us seemed to be getting just as good food and service as we did.

And the Arsenal football fans among you might be interested to know that one of them was former England and Gunners skipper Tony Adams.