Review of Moshi Moshi in Brighton - May 2010

Where: Moshi Moshi, Bartholomew Square, Brighton
How much?: Around £30 for the pair of us
I'd had several recommendations for Moshi Moshi, a VERY ethical sushi restaurant in Brighton (with siblings in Liverpool St and Canary Wharf).  

It's been going since 1994 and looking at their site has the smug air of a company almost more concerned with it's eco-credentials than the food it serves. That combined with the fact it was owned by a certain Heather Mills and was known as being the perfect place to take your little organic food eating, no sweets allowed, organic cotton only, home schooled, able to have an adult conversation in a restaurant despite only being five rather than running round like normal horrors little Edmunds and Alices and I was really ready to bury it.

So why were we there? Because the sushi, apparently, was to die for...
We gave them a tough enough challenge, arriving mid afternoon after a busy Saturday lunch service with the vestiges of the lunch service still being cleared, and the last Alices and Edmunds were flinging their final maki roll at doting mum and dad. 
It's a conveyor restaurant, with a central preparation area and a hot kitchen though a hatch. The restaurant itself is a copper green cube sitting squat in Bartholemew Square. Despite having just finished lunch there were still a fair and reasonable selection of dishes rolling round. The fish on the nigiri was fresh and sweet, with a nice bite to the rice. A couple of thick shards of mackerel really stood out, still gleaming on the outside, straight from the sea. 

As well as your standard conveyor belt fare they also have a large hot food menu with some exciting seasonal treats on there. As well as the expected udon noodle dishes, several gzoya, the ubiquitous terriyaki and a pork tonkatsu there's also a marinated Korean pork bulgogi served with a spicy Korean sauce and a terrific sounding Cornish catch of the day (more of that lovely mackerel) dry fried in salt and sansho pepper.
For me, there was only one call for an extra dish alongside the nigiri and sashimi and that was a whole softshell crab, sliced in two and cooked in a tempura batter. It was a great choice. A light greaseless batter coated the two halves of crab and the piquant thin chilli sauce offset the rich crab, cooked lightly enough to retain its taste of the sea. 
A perfectly reasonable, though unexceptional chocolate mousse finished us and we waddled out onto to the blustery seafront, leaving the staff the relax for a few hours before another onslaught of middle class Brighton media refugees and their offspring.