Food Review: West End Inn, Melksham

SUSHI can often be divisive, you either love it or you hate it.

But while there might be some people out there who don’t like raw fish, it is at the top of my list of treats to have when out and about.

The choice, price and taste of sushi at the West End Inn in Melksham did not disappoint.

Although the menu is slightly confusing because of the amount of choice and variety of food options, the service was prompt and met all our high hopes of finding a local Japanese restaurant.

The trickling water feature in the background and calming music made me feel like I was about to have a massage, rather than a feast of seafood, and the whole restaurant had a very chilled out atmosphere.

Unsure of what to order and how many, we picked a broad selection of different options and hoped for the best that what would come out looked something like a meal.

What arrived was a colourful and appetising array of sushi, presented in such a pretty way that it seemed rude to eat the neatly packed rolls.

It didn’t stop us for long, however, and we happily polished the lot off, alongside copious amounts of soy sauce, ginger and wasabi.

While some larger sushi were charged per piece, such as Scallop Sushi (£5.60), Ikura Sushi (£2.80) and Inari Sushi (£2), we also enjoyed six pieces of California Maki for £7.50 and four pieces of Flower Rolls for £7.50.

When we go again we decided that we would order a mixture of both, instead of one order of the special items and one round of more standard pieces.

After two rounds of sushi, we decided to move on to some different dishes. We chose Gyoza dumplings (£6) which were freshly steamed and stuffed full of meat and vegetables, with a fresh soy and honey dipping sauce that had chopped spring onion in.

Moving on to the larger dishes, we then tried a chicken Katsu curry (£9.50), which was tender chicken deep fried in batter and with rice and a Katsu sauce. We also ordered a Kai San Udon (£8.90) dish which was seafood, vegetables and Udon noodles. The portions were plentiful.

The restaurant itself was quite quiet, despite it being a Saturday night. However, the staff were attentive and we made the most of having a great selection of sushi without anyone judging the quantities being ordered at our table.

We will definitely be returning to eat at this restaurant again.

We had a Tsing Tao Beer and a glass of wine for £7.60

The bill was £52.75 not including drinks.

julia corbett