London, Japanese Restaurant Guide

2018 Review: “Fun, buzzy local” in Clapham High Street offering a “sensibly priced Asian-fusion menu and good cocktails” – it seems to have bedded-in in its second year, with improving scores for both food and service.

“The best kimchi in London” – apparently “voted by the South Korean Embassy!” – is found at this drab-looking stalwart, near Ravenscourt Park tube. Despite the name, the place is Korean-owned and run – and it’s the “fantastic Korean dishes” that garner the plaudits this year: “sweet, savoury, spicy and with generous portions”. But the Japanese dishes are also excellent and “service is always personal”.

“The kitchen really is doing something different, sending out delicious and original dishes with a mixed Scandinavian and Japanese/Korean heritage” at this “under-the-radar restaurant, hidden away beneath a shop” in Holland Park. All reports suggest it’s “definitely worth a visit”, but there are caveats: service can be “indifferent” and even fans can find the prices over-egged.

Delectable Asian-fusion delicacies – combining dishes of both Chinese and Japanese inspiration – win nothing but bouquets for this palatial dining room in a City five-star hotel, near the Tower of London. On the downside, cynics say “it feels like a business hotel restaurant”, and one or two diners “expected more, considering the big-ticket prices”.

Between Selfridges and St Christopher’s Place – a “busy and quite noisy” haunt, where some reporters are very impressed by its Pan-Asian small plates (including sushi and dim sum dishes), but others feel that they’re “not exciting, but OK”.