Playful murals, artful Japanese plates and contemporary flair, Cara visits KIBOU Battersea the restaurant group’s only London spot.

Some people say that to find a proper good pub with quality food you have to leave London, or at least go to the outskirts.

It’s not a pub I’m talking about, but I feel like the same logic applies because central London won’t have anything like this.

KIBOU‘s one and only London location is in Battersea. Don’t be fooled, it’s not in the refurbished Battersea Power Station but rather in a traditional old Clapham area.

As a former Battersea-by-the-Park resident myself, I can affirm that the postcode politics here are practically a sport. I’m still haunted by memories from my online dating era, when my geographical ambitions ran high, with Clapham suitors conveniently rebranding themselves as Battersea locals.While my Battersea neighbours glanced, ever so subtly at the Chelsea boys status.

Regardless of where you stand, unlike a first date, the odds of disappointment at KIBOU are close to zero.

And like I said before you won’t find a place like this in the city centre, so a long walk along the Northcote road is well worth it. If anything, I worked up an appetite, which is needed as the menu has it all here.

From ramen and baos, to sushi and contemporary dishes, the menu is culinary tour. Inside, it’s spacious with artful quirky interiors, Tokyo inspired floor to ceiling murals and a cherry blossom garden.

The popular fried rice is the dish to try this year, popping up in restaurants all over London. KIBOU does it a little different though, it comes as assemble your own.

The large crispy cubes with a bouncy sticky, slightly vinegary, rice middle come naked. Besides them is a plate with the beef tartar – scoop and bite as much as your heart desires. And it’s magical so our hearts desire a lot.

We also have a highly recommended prawn bao toast, a clever twist on prawns on toast, served in a bao that’s been briefly fried. Like the rice it has temptingly contrasting textures, from crisp to cloud pillow middle.

When it comes to sushi one of the signatures at KIBOU is a Volcano Roll a tempura fried sushi, it’s spicy futomaki salmon roll dipped in tempura batter.

It’s a rainbow of flavours and textures, crispy warm tempura crunch with a popping tobiko and velvety salmon inside. What’s not to like?

The sushi here come topped with many sauces, continuing the contemporary flair.

Wagyu agyu maguro gunkan is rather good. If you love wagyu this is the place to have it without breaking the bank, we sampled both of the gunkans varieties, very similar yet so different, the first pairs are tuna and wagyu tartar wrapped in nori.

It’s surf-and-turf reimagined, a curious combination of silky tuna and marbled buttery wagyu amplifying one another.

But I also can’t fault the teriyaki version, a glazed savoury. Both are well balanced with a generous meat to rice ratio, at £10.90 a bargain really.

Drinks don’t disappoint either, I am sipping on the Instagramable incredibly tall glass of KIBOU No4. The stem of the glass is so fine I’m scared to lift it, so I lean forward to the glass to drink it.

It’s a balanced rum based drink with bittersweet Amaro Averna, almondy notes of Orgeat and orange notes. For my guests it’s a bold and strong Paper Plane, but with a Japanese twist using classical yuzu.

There is also a decent wine selection ranging across all the usual suspects. Not that anyone would be having wine with Japanese food, but it’s there just in case along with plenty of sakes.

As I said before the menu is built to tick box every craving. It’s a place you can go small plates only or have the classic starter, plus main.

But if you had to choose one roll only Lantern roll would solve the indecisiveness between tuna, salmon and soft shell. It has them all, a bit like rainbow roll but better.

Because it has tempura soft shell and it’s topped with tobiko. And it comes with a fresh mint leaf inside, a surprising touch that works.

We squeeze in a light dessert, the sesame tiramisu is a cross between no bake cheesecake and a tiramisu. The sesame cream is rich and nutty, though the chef’s a little too keen with the liquor soak.

Powered up and content, we make our way back along Northcote Road.

KIBOU 175 Northcote Rd, London SW11 6QF