LONDON, Japanese Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: “Good value” sushi, sashimi and other Japanese dishes trundle past your seat at these two ‘kaiten’ (conveyor-belt) operations in the City, tempting you to help yourself. It makes a fun, fast and efficient way to grab lunch. The chain also has takeaway and delivery options for evenings.

“Love the original Koya, sitting at the long counter with a bowl of udon – even if you do have to queue”, say fans of this Soho noodle bar. Top Tip – the “definitive zen breakfast” is well liked, too, both here and also at the Bloomberg Arcade and Hackney spin-offs.

Zooming up to the 38th floor of the Heron Tower in one of Europe’s fastest lifts… looking out with a cocktail on an open terrace overlooking the scrapers of the City, it’s easy to get swept up by the glamour of the original, “buzzy” branch of this US-based chain. And its popular WC2 spin-off is also “always a pleasure to visit”: looking out onto the back of the Royal Opera House from the huge terrace on the top of Covent Garden Market. Fans say the luxe, Japanese/South American fusion cuisine in both locations – taquitos, sushi, steaks, samba rolls, black cod from the robata – is “delicious and remarkably inventive” too. But ratings for it have sunk post-Covid, and while pricing here has always been toppy, there is a growing gripe that “food which is average at best is accompanied by a bill that’s distinctly not average!”

“The ramen is excellent” at this West End-based group from the Japan Centre’s Tak Tokumine – although “the rest of the menu is not as good” and the venues tend to be “too cramped and/or noisy to be ideal”. A drive to expand via franchise operations has apparently stalled since the summer 2022 opening of a branch in Kensington High Street – a possible sign that “we may have passed peak noodle”.

Neither its prime City location – overlooking Broadgate Circle – nor its experienced heritage (the Hong Kong-based Aqua group, with their Aqua-branded operations in the Shard and on Oxford Street) have helped garner huge attention for this glossy December 2022 newcomer: a minimalist Japanese, where chef Ken Miyake offers ‘crystal sushi’ (draping sushi rolls in coloured jelly slices with kimchi, ponzu or mint and sake favouring) plus robata-grilled meats and noodles. The exception is a January 2023 review from the Independent’s Lucy Thackray, who said the “dizzying” selection of dishes “hit the mark, when it comes to the trifecta [of] presentation, flavour, quality”. She also noted, though, that portions are “petite”; and that it’s “easy to rack up quite a bill”.