Marylebone, Japanese Restaurant Guide

An “upscale Japanese/fusion place” – “a modern take on Nipponese cuisine in a light and airy venue in the heart of Marylebone High Street”. It scores higher this year: even those who consider it “overpriced” still say the culinary results are “very good”.

They look modest, but “great value Japanese food” (for example, “delightful sushi” and “very fresh salmon and tuna”) of “consistently high quality” is served by “lovely people” at this well-established Marylebone restaurant and its more deli-style offshoots in Highgate, Bloomsbury and Bayswater.

These funky (and noisy) ‘rock ’n’ roll ramen’ bars shook up the capital’s Japanese fast-food scene when the first outlet opened in Soho 11 years ago, spawning a small group now reaching as far as Richmond. Their “super ramen” is served with 20-hour pork bone broth cooked these days at a kitchen on Bermondsey’s ‘beer mile’. But the business has not been immune to the industry’s difficulties: a Putney spin-off only lasted a year before closing, and a long-touted outlet in the old Eurostar terminal at Waterloo has yet to eventuate.

2021 Review: 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”.

2022 Review: This Marylebone veteran claims to be the longest-serving Japanese restaurant in London, and wins high ratings for its “consistent” classics, ranging from sushi to teppanyaki. Food writer and chef Simon Hopkinson was for many years a regular here, although it tends to fly under the radar these days.

Sit on the ground floor at the counter and watch the chefs in action to get the most out of this clean-lined Japanese (part of the Chisou group) near Oxford Circus. The food here is consistently well-rated: choose from modern sushi options, ceviches, fish carpaccios and other Japanese-inspired bites like wagyu sliders.

“Tasty, good-value noodles” in a “relaxed environment” make this 12-year-old London chain (14 branches, plus Brighton and Brum) “worth a visit”. The “ramen is deep and fabulous” if “limited in range (no fish-based dishes except prawn)”, and is augmented by “quite acceptable katsu curry”. Aficionados should head to the Haggerston branch to watch the noodles being made.

2023 Review: A short walk from Oxford Circus, this five-year-old izakaya is well-worth discovering. “Like with many Japanese restaurants the food rather than the ambience is the reason to visit: the sushi is exquisite, the chef is extremely accommodating and the experience is consistently good”.

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”.

Nobu Matsuhisa’s Marylebone three-year-old is higher-rated but less well-known than the original Nobu in Park Lane. Decor-wise, it’s more modern in style. Food-wise, it purveys the same, wizard Japanese-fusion cuisine for which the brand is internationally famous: most notably mesmerising sushi plus sensational signature dishes such as Black Cod. Practically all reports acknowledge the essential trade-off here: “it really cannot be beaten for deliciousness… but boy do you pay for it!”

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”.

This “completely original” two-year-old Japanese restaurant in Marylebone offers “a great and authentic kaiseki experience” with “luxury ingredients and amazing presentation” from chef-patron Daisuke Hayashi, who trained at Kyoto’s famous Kikunoi. The interior, complete with 10-seater counter, was tailor-made in the Sukiya style from 100-year-old hinoki wood in Kyoto and shipped over, which means “being in the dining room is like being transported to Japan”. A la carte dining is also available in the Bo-sen ‘wine and dining room’, where guests relax over a light meal in mid-century European armchairs, with a choice of 500 wines and sakes.

“The pan-Asian food is yummy… the black cod is exceptional” and the “buzzy” atmosphere is “stunning”, say fans of Arjun Waney and Rainer Becker’s svelte Japanese-inspired venues, where “you can either sit at the counter watching the kitchen (great if you’re just two), or at a table”; and where “a typical meal is sushi or sashimi as a starter then a robata (charcoal grill) dish for a main”. Its ratings slid this year, though. Never cheap, prices are becoming “sky high”; the cooking is “not as reliably good as it once was”; and there was the odd incident of “shocking” service.

“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).

2023 Review: With its outdoor rooftop terraces over central London near Regent Street, this Hong Kong-owned Japanese joint (a sibling of more famous Aqua Shard) makes a “romantic” location – “even a touch exotic” – to dine on “lovely food” which “looks as good as it tastes”. “The rent must be pretty steep, presumably explaining why prices are very high too”.

2023 Review: Within the first international branch of a Japan-based group of five-star luxury hotels, this dining room near Marble Arch serves a non-traditional menu, focused on sushi, sashimi, seafood and meat cooked on the robata grill. Reports are too thin for a rating, but the odd exceptional meal is reported here. Top Tip – to give it a go, look out for their extremely keenly priced set menus.

This high-street Nikkei hangout’s first Chelsea branch opened in 2021 and shut in mid 2023 in favour of a new Marylebone location. No feedback as yet on either site, which purveys a trendy fusion of sushi, tacos, ceviche and robata bites, and of course pisco sours, sakes and cocktails aplenty.

These “functional Japanese canteen-style restaurants” serve “lovely udon noodles at cheap prices” – “possibly the most reasonable in London” – along with tempura, rice bowls and “fabulous chicken katsu curry”. The Kobe-based chain has more than 1,000 branches around the world, with a dozen across the capital since arriving in 2021.

“Not quite the best sushi omakase in the now very competitive London market but nevertheless very good” – this “beautiful and serene” Japanese venture arrived in Marylebone in early 2023 and early reporters are uniformly impressed. “Service is attentive but not overwhelming and the delicious food is prepared with a lot of care”. It’s an offshoot of a Beirut original from the Nothing But Love Group. (Lucy Thackray in The Independent was also a fan: “…confident and unshowy. This isn’t theatrical “pan-Asian” dining made for Instagram… it’s understated Japanese fine dining which takes its heritage seriously, but isn’t afraid to add a twist here and there”).

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.