Knightsbridge, Japanese Restaurant Guide

For impressively competent sushi and other Japanese delights in a “no-fuss oasis of calm”, these understated but upmarket fixtures in Knightsbridge and Mayfair “do everything right without charging a fortune” – “if you want Japanese, Chisou is top of the list”, agree fans who reckon it’s a “‘go-to’ Japanese when in London, whether for lunch or dinner” as “you know what to expect and it’s never a let down”. “Ambience and decor could do with an uplift” – but for most that’s a small price to pay.

“Exceptional food… and great cocktails too” – Masaki Sugisaki’s under-the-radar but outstanding Japanese venture occupies a small townhouse in the über-chichi environs at the Knightsbridge end of Walton Street. It offers a good variety of high-quality, well-priced dishes incorporating sushi and sashimi, charcoal grills (black cod, but also items like venison loin sourced from Berkshire or langoustine from Dingwall in Scotland), noodle dishes and other fare. (Opened in 2017, it shares its name with the older Marylebone Dinings of the same name, see also, but is no longer connected.)

“Just superb in every way”, Rainer Becker & Arjun Waney’s high-octane Knightsbridge scene has shown magnificent staying power since it opened in 2002, as well as forming the basis for a chain of permanent and pop-up restaurants across four continents in 27 locations. A pumping bar full of hedgies, oligarchs, Gulf types and other assorted Eurotrash leads onto the sleek dining room where luxurious, modernified Japanese cuisine is “crazy expensive” but on many accounts “never disappoints”.