Japanese
Handyman Sushi is a supper club, which mostly takes place in Pedro’s flat in London Fields. BYOB and six seats only, it’s closer to being asked round to a friend’s for dinner than to a night out at a restaurant. Pedro is Brazilian and a self-taught sushi slayer who’s been obsessed with sushi for more than a decade. The menu is shaped by what’s good that week and the season, plus whatever Pedro’s into at the time, and dishes shift mid-service depending on the room or the drinks going round. Expect three to five small plates, a soup course, twelve to sixteen pieces of sushi, a hand roll and dessert. On our visit that meant house-made miso, grilled eel, several cuts of tuna and sea bass belly among others. It’s a long, slow meal and the execution is excellent right the way through. If sushi is one half of the experience, the other is music. As a DJ (yes he wears many hats) Pedro’s record collection is serious stuff. He builds each soundtrack himself, playing full albums rather than a playlist on shuffle.
Thesleff Group (which already operates Los Mochis, LUNA Omakase, Juno Omakase, and Sale e Pepe) has opened a new Japanese restaurant in Mayfair. Inspired by the idea that every ingredient carries an invisible power, the 156-cover MA/NA celebrates the craft of Japanese food. Executive Chef Leo Tayang’s menu includes dishes like tiger shrimp tempura with wasabi; robata-seared avocado with asparagus, mushrooms and spicy mayo baked in a flaming shell; and M5 Wagyu seared on a Himalayan salt stone with garlic-soy, ponzu and mixed Asian leaves. MA/NA also has a cocktail bar, with resident DJs, that references rare spirits and 1970s Tokyo soul.
Taro is affordable Japanese spot that originally opened on Brewer Street in 1999 and now boasts locations all over London. We still love the OG though for its menu of ramen, udon noodles, bento boxes, sushi, miso soup, rice dishes and gyoza. As for drinks, choose from the list of hot and cold sake, Japanese whiskey and shochu, wines, Japanese beer and soft drinks.
IVAN RAMEN
Thanks to a little show called Chef’s Table, Ivan Ramen has become one of the most famous ramen restaurants in the world. After opening ramen joints in Tokyo and NYC, Ivan Orkin has come to London with a relaxed and casual spot in Farringdon. It’s a tight menu of small plates and ramen bowls and it really is all killer, no filler. Ivan’s karaage is rightly getting all the plaudits but don’t sleep on the pickles either. As you’d hope for a restaurant and a chef with such a stellar reputation, the ramen absolutely delivers; deep, rich broths and bouncy noodles that retain their texture. The tori paitan is a celebration of chicken with a creamy chicken broth (with an egg yolk to mix in for more body), minced chicken and crispy togarashi chicken for extra crunch. The spicy miso red chilli ramen, dashi and chicken broth layered with chillies, miso, savoury pork, togarashi and pickled garlic, is a hot and complex bowl. If you have more than a passing interest in ramen, you’ll have heard Ivan Orkin’s name before and his food lives up to the hype. It’s a touch more expensive than other ramen in the city but it’s worth the extra few quid.
The team behind The Prince Arthur in Belgravia have already launched their next place – Arthur’s Market in Chelsea. Located way down the King’s Road (opposite The Cadogan Arms), the space houses a deli, grocery store, butchers, fishmongers, and two restaurant concepts – ASA Izakaya and Salvador. The store is very nice and very Chelsea – there are lobsters the size of your arm and high-grade produce everywhere you look, from caviar and champagne to more unusual things like shiso leaves and Japanese wines. ASA Izakaya is a pretty outstanding omakase experience, led by chef Shaulan Steenson who has trained extensively in Japan and was also part of the opening team for Endo at the Rotunda. Particular highlights are the lean tuna nigiri and the fatty tuna temaki; the saba bozushi (box sushi), a type of pressed sushi from Osaka which you don’t see too often in London; the carabineros temaki; and the Chirashizushi (scattered sushi), a big bowl layered with vinegared rice and topped with prawns, tuna, scallops and caviar.
MAD Restaurants, which is also made up of Executive Chef Andy Cook, Head of Beverage Dino Koletsas, and Group Operations Director Giulia Cappuccio, landed in London with MOI, a Japanese-inspired spot in Soho. The two-floor space has room for 150 covers plus a private dining room, an omakase sushi bar, and a listening room, which runs a programme of music-led events. The MOI menu features a mix of small plates, skewers, sushi, sashimi and larger grills to share, featuring both British ingredients and house ferments. Expect the likes of chicken & blood sausage tsukune; silken tofu with toasted buckwheat; pressed mackerel roll with pickled myoga; lobster tail with clam dashi; brill with kombu butter sauce; bluefin tuna onigiri; and beef ribeye with toasted sesame and tomato hollandaise. Dino Koletsas has curated the drinks programme, putting together a low-intervention wine and sake list, and cocktails that draw on Japanese techniques.
The team behind Angelina in Dalston has opened a new sister restaurant called Osteria Angelina, in the Norton Folgate development down near Liverpool Street. Having found widespread praise for their Italian-Japanese fusion in Dalston, the team are looking to take that to a new City crowd with Osteria. But whereas the Dalston original is centred around a set Kaiseki menu, Osteria is more casual with a simple menu of a la carte dishes served in a lovely converted warehouse space. The menu is split into salads; crudo; fritti; pasta; grilled dishes; sides; and desserts. Must-orders from the early sections include the Hokkaido milk bread with kumquat and burnt honey butter; the Usman’s magic tomato salad; the tuna crudo with house ponzu and wasabi; and the courgette flower and miso ricotta. Pasta is a big thing here, and you can see the pasta being made fresh by chefs in the window during service – we can highly recommend the agnolotti with crab and sausage and the fazzoletti with duck ragu and lotus.
After seven years tucked away inside the County Hall building with kaiseki restaurant Hannah, chef proprietor Daisuke Shimoyama has moved to Stratford, taking over the space left by Allegra inside The Stratford Hotel. Instead of just dropping Hannah into the new space, Shimoyama has opened new concept Kokin (which means ‘past and present’ in Japanese), where he combines traditional Japanese techniques and modern methods with a big focus on wood-fired cookery. Start with a selection of small plates, like grilled tuna skewers with a rich egg curry sauce and tofu cream topped with a sweet langoustine tartare. Kokin serves Portuguese wild bluefin tuna and it’s worth trying raw as well as cooked – with the temae sushi, aka ‘sushi made by me’, you get a platter of nori, wood-fired sushi rice topped with the various types of tuna and salmon ikura, soy sauce and wasabi, for you to DIY your own handrolls. The wood-fired grilled tuna collar is also a must -the fatty cut is slow-cooked over flames for three hours and served in 8-year aged ponzu, resulting in an incredible depth of flavour unlike any tuna we’ve had before.
The husband-and-wife team behind Roji, Tamas Naszai and Tomoko Hasegawa, have opened HIMI a “Neo-Izakaya” in Carnaby Street, offering a more casual a la carte menu of sushi and snacks. Don’t miss the Kabuki-Age, Yorkshire beef tartare with celeriac and wild capers, served on a crisp rice cracker; the Shojin tofu, which is made in-house and topped with enoki mushroom and shojin dashi; the fried chicken, served two ways: as chicken wing ‘lollipops’ dusted with sansho pepper and as boned-out nuggets with kombu mayo; and the Ebichili, red shrimps cooked on the charcoal robata grill and served with a pepper and squid ink sauce, along with their crispy deep fried heads. The sushi is also fantastic -the sea bass, tuna, and fatty trout nigiri especially – and is served with housemade pickled fennel rather than ginger. HIMI is an Izakaya after all, so drinks are a big part of the experience. There’s beers from Siren brewery on draft, a good wine selection, Japanese whisky, cocktails, and a great range of sake, including a couple of exclusives that you can’t get anywhere else in the UK.
If you’re looking for authentic kaiseki dining in London, Roketsu in Marylebone is the place to do it. Kaiseki dining consists of multi-course meals (including appetisers, sashimi, soup, a grilled dish, a main dish, rice and dessert) that celebrate the seasons. Chef Daisuke Hayashi, one of the only masters of this style in the world, so you’re getting the real deal here. The menu changes regularly to reflect the ingredients at their peak seasonality, like red mullet sakura-mushi, spring vegetables with dashi jelly, and lamb sukiyaki with wild garlic leaf, appearing during the spring. The food is all presented on beautiful ceramics and served at the hinoki wood counter (the restaurant’s interior was actually built in Kyoto and shipped to London). The drinks menu has been assembled by Ryosuke Mashio, formerly the sommelier for Michelin-starred Umu, and features almost 70 types of sake and 450 wines.
Can’t decide between Korean and Japanese food? Fancy KFC as well as sushi? You can get both at Notting Hill spot Bibida. On the Korean side, you can get everything from beef bulgogi and seafood pancake to dolsot bibimbap and kimchi stew, and on the Japanese front, there”s katsu curry, agedashi tofu, ramen and range of nigiri, temaki, sashimi and uramaki to choose from, so you can mix and match to your heart’s content.
Los Mochis in Notting Hill has Juno Omakase, and now Los Mochis in the City has Luna Omakase. Where its sister in W8 only has six seats and serves a Mexican-Japanese fusion omakase menu, Luna Omakase has 12 seats, set around a wooden counter (with the City skyline forming the backdrop), and offers Sosaku-style Edomae omakase, a modern take on traditional Edomae sushi. Whereas Juno is more experimental thanks to its use of Mexican flavours, Luna leans more traditionally Japanese, with Executive Head Chef Leonard Tanyag basing the 12-course menu around the best sustainable seafood available to him at the time. That means dishes will change but you can expect plates like Spanish bluefin tuna tartare with aged wasabi, caviar, and a sushi rice cracker, presented in a bowl that looks like a smoking piece of moon rock; bream nigiri lightly torched with a glowing piece of binchotan charcoal; onigiri with hamachi tartare, serrano chilli and fresh truffle; sweet potato loaded with caviar; a seared Hokkaido scallop on a sesame truffle sauce; and a buttery A5 wagyu sando with wasabi leaves.
When the original Koya opened on Frith Street back in 2010 it was a very welcome addition to London’s restaurant landscape. With its minimalist interiors and short menu focused on udon noodles, it was something we hadn’t really seen before and to this day, nobody has even tried to emulate it. The udon and dashi is the restaurant’s signature – you can get hot udon in hot broth, cold udon with hot broth and cold udon with cold sauce for either dipping or pouring – but they’ve put a lot of effort into the small plates section as well. The chicken karaage, the massive prawn & veg tempura, the marinated mushrooms, and the Namayasai farm green salad with shiso, spring onion and a great sesame dressing are all excellent. And this branch of Koya also serves breakfast, so you can start the day with everything from a traditional Japanese breakfast set of grilled fish, rice, miso soup and pickles to an English breakfast udon with egg, bacon and shiitake.
Run by three Japanese guys, this Elephant & Castle spot is serving up real deal ramen. Tokoton may mean ‘thoroughly’ in Japanese but the menu is short and sweet, with Japanese classics just done really well. There’s shoyu, miso and garlic ramen, topped with either cha siu pork or tofu, to choose from, alongside a handful of donburi and sides like gyoza, karaage and miso aubergine, and over half of the menu is vegan. The owners like sake as much as they like ramen, so don’t leave without sampling from their selection.
Japanese restaurant group Kanpai Classic, which was founded in Taipei two decades ago and now has numerous sites in Taiwan and China, has opened its first UK location in Soho. Kanpai Classic is about two things; wagyu beef and yakiniku (that’s cooking bitesize pieces of food over a charcoal flame), so if you don’t eat red meat, this is one to swerve. But for carnivores, a veritable feast awaits. Company founder Soji Hiraide has made it his mission to bring the finest wagyu to his customers and showcase a wider range of cuts, so you’re getting meat here that you won’t find anywhere else in the UK. Executive chef Masatada Ogata and head chef Nicolo Bolognesi, formerly of Nobu Hotel Portman Square, launched the restaurant with a 14-course omakase menu, though there’s now both a shorter set menu and a la carte options available. If you like wagyu you’ll pretty much love everything but the beef tongue, an unbelievably buttery slice of tri-tip brushed with yakiniku sauce, rib finger brushed in spicy miso and served in a lettuce wrap, and a richly marbled A5 steak, almost half fat to meat, with rock salt and proper wasabi are particular highlights. And with exclusive sakes from Japan’s Masuizumi Brewery on offer, the drinks list is pretty spesh too.
Formerly operating as SushiHeads, this Tottenham spot run by Naomi Simpson now goes by the name Metcha Matcha, after she pivoted away from serving sushi and sashimi. Raw fish may be off the menu but food isn’t – you can now get a range of onigiri, sandwiches and baked goods, and there’s still a selection of Japanese groceries available too. Drinks-wise, there a bunch of Japanese lattes on offer, including matcha, hojicha (which has less caffeine) and kurogoma (made from black sesame paste).
Hana Sushi
Hana Sushi is a proper neighbourhood sushi spot in Holloway. The sushi selection is varied and affordable – be sure to try the Seven Sisters maki (deep-fried salmon, tuna and snapper with spicy mayo), crispy hamachi maki and salmon skin maki. With donburi, katsu curry, yaki udon, yaki soba and even bibimpab and bulgogi on the menu, there’s plenty of choice for the non-sushi lovers out there too.
Michelin-starred chef Akira Back operates 30 restaurants around the world, in cities including Bangkok, Las Vegas, Singapore, Paris, Dubai, Seoul and Istanbul, and London has been added to the list with his eponymous Akira Back restaurant inside the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair in Hanover Square. As you’d expect from a luxury hotel, the 148-cover restaurant looks the part, with a triple height sky roof and spiral marble staircase bringing the drama. The menu showcases Back’s modern Japanese food, with signatures, like the AB Tuna Pizza with umami aioli and shiso (a must-order) sitting alongside exclusive dishes for London, including Dynamite Lobster with pickled shimeji, turbot with white asparagus and sake butter, and Highland wagyu striploin with yuzu kosho jus. Don’t miss the Jeju domi sea bream, octopus crudo, the Jidori chicken with potato purée, or the moon cake dessert either. And the fun doesn’t stop once you’ve finished your meal as late night cocktail bar ABar Lounge, next to the restaurant, is shaking up inventive cocktails and has a DJ programme running on the weekends.
