ROKA – the Japanese Robatayaki restaurant from chef Rainer Becker and business partner Arjun Waney has got together with House of Suntory to celebrate London Cocktail Week

The Shochu Lounge is underneath ROKA Charlotte Street, and has new highball cocktails and an Izakaya style menu to go with it. You might call Izakaya a kind of Japanese tapas bar, a casual place serving small, shareable dishes

To celebrate London Cocktail Week, ROKA Dubai’s bar manager Kaleb Barry, a Global Finalist in the PATRÓN Perfectionists program has flown over to mark the occasion.

His new serves are light, long and refreshing and celebrate the flavours and ingredients found across Japan. We tried Apple & Barley highball (Suntory Toki whisky, barley shochu, yuzu honey, apple & sansho soda) as well as a Blueberry & Shiso highball (Suntory Roku gin, blueberry cordial, shiso shochu, jasmine liqueur, Japanese ginger flower soda). Both were delicious and I loved the massive ice cube in the highballs.

Keeping our stomach lined we sampled Kani to ebi no korokke (crab and prawn croquettes with confit garlic), some Bone marrow with Japanese bread that was incredibly delicious, Chicken Karaage perfectly charred outside and moist within, Lamb skewers with Korean spice, and beautiful Tiger Prawns with miso butter.

Make ROKA Charlotte Street one of your cocktail stops this Cocktail week

www.rokarestaurant.com