Mayfair, Japanese Restaurant Guide

Opened 20 years ago as London’s first exponent of Kyoto-style kaiseki dining (Japan’s most refined cuisine), this low-key Mayfair fixture remains a key foodie destination under Ryo Kakatsu, who joined 10 years ago and was appointed executive chef in 2020. It also has one of the most extensive sake lists in Europe. While the occasional reporter flinches at the “incredibly expense and very small portions”, nobody complains about the quality of the food.

A short walk from the Japanese Embassy, this veteran family-run operation in a Mayfair backstreet offers “immaculately prepared food” and “superb service” in a “calm and grown-up atmosphere”. It opened in 1978, well before Japanese cuisine became fashionable.

Thin feedback this year on this glossy Eurotrash playground in Mayfair – London outpost of Arkady Novikov’s large restaurant empire (fun fact – according to Forbes in Nov 2022, this includes what used to be the Krispy Kreme Russian franchise, rebranded post-sanctions as ‘Krunchy Dream’). Its sushi, seared seafood and other luxe Pan-Asian bites remain well-rated, if at prices designed for oligarchs. (There’s also an imposing, ambitious dining room with an Italian menu to the rear that no-one mentions much).

This ‘Franco-Japanese fusion’ – a two-year-old Mayfair spin-off from TV chef Cyril Lignac’s Paris restaurant St Germain des Prés – excites contradictory responses (and relatively little feedback overall). For fans, “the fusion of Japanese food with French expertise has resulted in an excellent dining experience”. For the odd critic, though, it’s nothing more than a “flash, cramped and noisy Euro place with prices that reflect the name of the celebrity French chef and the fancy crowd”.

Since its founding in 2015, this ambitious Japanese – created with investment from Zen-Noh (Japan’s agricultural cooperative) has struggled to make waves. Although Zen-Noh remains involved, ownership was taken over a couple of years ago by London food importers Atariya, whose sound restaurants elsewhere should underpin a decent level of performance here. Feedback in our annual diners’ poll is still too thin for a proper rating, but we do receive the odd very favourable report.

After half a century, this high-quality Mayfair veteran is “still one of the best Japanese restaurants in London”, with particularly “good fish” – although it has a lower profile than many newer and more flashy rivals. “Having the kitchen open to the dining area adds some theatre to aid the digestion”.

“The vegan sushi is a work of art” at this outlet in the basement of Fenwick’s department store in Mayfair from Alexis Gauthier (the French fine-dining-chef-turned-evangelist for plant-based eating). He has raided global cuisines for his concoctions – “the vegan burgers are gorgeous” – but it’s the Japanese specials which elicit the most feedback, including “all-you-can-eat sushi” (in two hours).

The “absolute dogs for real Japanese dining” – this “authentic” duo in Mayfair (the original – “a welcome oasis from Oxford Street”) and Knightsbridge (in posh Beauchamp Place) offer “exemplary sushi and cooked dishes” backed up by “a wide sake list”. “As is always the case with this cuisine, it’s never cheap, but great for a treat”.

Samyukta Nair and family’s ‘contemporary izakaya’ in Mayfair provides an evolved menu of sushi, tempura and robata dishes in a westernised style not dissimilar to that of Nobu or Roka, overseen by NZ-born chef Rhys Cattermoul. No-one has a bad word to say about the cooking, but there is the odd gripe about the size of the bill…

Japanese chef Takuya Watanabe transfers his high-end skills from Paris (where he spent 10 years at restaurant Jin) to Mayfair, for this November 2022 debut. A visit is an investment – lunch is £130 per head, dinner £280 per head, or £380 for the ‘prestige’ offering. We have had limited but outstanding feedback to date in our annual diners’ poll; Michelin rushed to award it an early star after less than six months in operation; and veteran blogger Andy Hayler – who knows his way around a chopstick – declared it “definitely some of the best sushi to be found in the capital” after an April 2023 visit.

An “amazing newcomer” on the former Mayfair site of Wild Honey (RIP), where chef Miller Prada (who worked with Endo Kazutoshi at Endo at The Rotunda) infuses Japanese flavours into his dishes at a four-metre wood grill (using no electricity or gas in the cooking process). It’s “a very cool setting” with “notably good” service and the culinary invention of the technique means “every dish has a wow factor”. (However, both Giles Coren of The Times and William Sitwell of The Telegraph have found the experience “great… but pretentious”; “sublime… [but] somewhat self-satisfied”).

2023 Review: Esteemed Tokyo steakhouse, Aragawa (est 1967, and actually predated by its Kobe branch) is set to open in late 2022 on the Mayfair site that for over 20 years as Miyama (long RIP) was an exemplar of traditional Japanese cuisine. Tokyo diners may pay over £400 per head for the best cuts… and that’s before you go wild with the list of Premiers Grands Crus on the wine list.

One of London’s top omakase-style experiences is provided by husband and wife chef team, Tamas Naszi and Tomoko Hasegawa, at this small 10-seater counter experience, in a yard just off Mayfair’s pedestrianised South Molton Street. Feedback in its first year of operation has been limited, so our rating is a conservative one.