After reading the Guardian’s scathing review of a new Kent restaurant that describes itself as a “world of opulence” promising a “gastronomic journey” we thought we ought to try it out ourselves.

Despite being desperate to say how wrong esteemed food critic Grace Dent was and to champion a local business, I regret to report that the experience at Sekkoya in Canterbury’s Riverside was sadly underwhelming.

Ms Dent described her visit to the city in a Guardian story published on Friday.

The food critic went to the Cathedral and enjoyed a walk through our pretty historical streets before deciding to stop for lunch at pan-Asian eatery, Sekkoya.

Before even stepping foot inside, the gourmand had issues. Regarding the city council’s Riverside leisure complex, she said “only a non-sentient being” could describe it as a “vibrant new lifestyle district”, when it’s just an “elevated patch of concrete.”

She went on to praise the decor but labelled the salad “underdressed”, the gyoza sauce “sticky snot” and said her main course tasted of “precisely nothing”.

In a final blow, Ms Dent summed up the experience as “the sort of Asian food that was invented for British people and that you’d get at a Cantonese restaurant in Braintree in 1994”.

With this in mind, I can’t say I was filled with excitement when I made my booking for that evening.

Arriving at Sekkoya I was impressed by the decor - dazzled by gleaming marble, dark wood and rich green velvet.

But as I was shown to a table by lovely waitress Kim - who was, for sure, the best part of my visit - the novelty of the environment began to wear off.

I accept that it was a Monday evening but the ambience of the almost completely empty restaurant was not ideal and the monkey lamp dangling above my head didn’t help.

Still, I was feeling optimistic about the food - hoping that while it couldn’t live up to Grace Dent’s refined palate, I would be much easier to please.

Perusing the menu I noticed Sekkoya’s “gastronomic journey throughout Asia” tended towards East Asia with very little look in for South Asian cuisine. Oddly, there was a sprinkling of Italian too, with seemingly more pasta dishes on the menu than noodles.

Friendly Kim quickly popped over to let us know it was Happy Hour (although it didn’t feel hugely cheery) and successfully talked us into ordering two alcohol-free cocktails.

Named Root and Branch (I sensed a tree theme) the drinks arrived dramatically.

My ginger-infused Root came in such a tall rocketship-esque glass that I actually had trouble reaching the straw to take a sip - and when I let out a little huff of frustration, the mountain of powdered sugar sprinkled on top was dusted across the table.

The Branch was a more convenient sip but it failed to live up to the wasabi zing that the menu promised.

We ordered our food at the same time: miso aubergine bao, tenderstem broccoli, a rice hot pot and the “drunken” pork belly. Again the best part of the visit was the service as Kim delivered the food hot and extremely promptly.

Perhaps the speed of the service was thanks to the barren state of the restaurant but it was appreciated regardless.

The first thing we tried was the miso aubergine bao buns which Ms Dent described as “such poor quality” she feared she was being secretly filmed by TikTok pranksters.

While we didn’t face the disintegration issue she described, the flavours were bland and the runny sauce resulted in a rather soggy shebang.

The tenderstem broccoli was tasty and nicely charred but I think perhaps this just reflects my general enjoyment of the vegetable.

Executive chef Jay Morjaria has a history of success, with two wins on the BBC’s ‘Million Pound Menu’, one of which garnered an investment offer of £500,000 from Lydia Forte of the five-star Rocco Forte Hotel group.

Accomplished in the culinary world, Jay has run his own vegetarian culinary school and worked in restaurants as far-flung as Korea.

Despite Sekkoya’s recent dressing down in the Guardian, the chef’s previously been praised in the publication by critic Jay Rayner when he was working at a Korean spot called JAE at Untitled in 2020.

But sadly at the Canterbury venue the dishes kept disappointing. Our rice hot pot resembled a risotto and the pork belly was limp and lacking.

While I did think it was perhaps a little unfair of Grace Dent to order steamed rice and then complain it was unseasoned, I found I had the opposite issue.

The rice hot pot, which was flavoured with wild mushrooms and truffle, was somehow wet and stodgy and the truffle flavour was total overkill.

Next I thought, how can pork belly disappoint? But unfortunately I had recently been to Marleys in Folkestone where I was served perhaps the best pork belly of my life at half the price of Sekkoya’s lifeless offering.

On my first reading of the Guardian review, my biggest takeaway was why they chose to cover Sekkoya in the first place.

Having been myself, I do feel a sense of pity for the business which seems to have been plucked from obscurity for an unnecessary beating which could have been predicted.

Truly I wish them luck and hope they can find a menu that works and an audience that appreciates them.

Ratings out of five:

Food: Bland, boring and disturbingly wet ★ ★

Drink: The tastiest part of the experience but ultimately just a nice glass of lime cordial ★ ★

Decor: Plenty of pizzazz but let down by the gloomy atmosphere ★ ★ ★

Staff: The service was excellent and our waitress was extremely friendly and personable - no complaints ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Price: We paid £57.38. We got one main to split between the two of us and didn’t order any alcohol so I might go as far as horrendously overpriced ★