Sushi Kanesaka

Summary

“Fantastic sushi is delivered with epic flair and care… but the cost is mind-blowing and straying from value for money” at this Dorchester Collection yearling, which opened in July 2023 to easy headlines for offering the UK’s most expensive menu (£420 per person… before the 15% service charge). It’s a spin-off from Shinji Kanesaka’s original in Tokyo with two Michelin stars and head chef Hirotaka Wada quickly won a star from the tyre men in the UK 2024 awards. Whether that justifies taking one of the nine seats at the counter (a single piece of 300-year-old cedar wood – there are also four in a private room) almost certainly depends on how deep your pockets are. Rice and Kobe beef imported from Japan, together with fish and seafood from Cornwall, Canada and beyond all help to create an 18-course omakase experience that all feedback suggests is true to the website’s claim of a ‘true embodiment of Japanese fine dining’; and one that ranks favourably alongside London’s other top Japanese counters. Whether your allotted two hours in a not-particularly-vibey room for such an experience is a worthwhile investment is down to whether you have the necessary disposable and that’s your ‘bag’.