Mayfair, Japanese Restaurant Guide

“Can heaven be far away?” – “If you can afford it, Mitsuhiro Araki’s Mayfair restaurant is a unique experience” and a “world class” one that for a second year won the highest food-rating of any restaurant in the UK. “Be one of nine diners enjoying a specially prepared meal from one of Tokyo’s top chefs” that’s “as close to Japan as you can get in London”. “You feel like you are at a theatrical performance, sat in line watching the numerous chefs, and Mr Araki himself, and there are too many amazing dishes to mention”. “The price is world class too” of course but “worth every penny for what you get” (in the view of all reporters, including those who are themselves Japanese). “Clients can’t fail to be impressed… and at that price so they should be!” STOP PRESS. On October 2, Michelin finally woke up, and awarded the Araki the three stars it should have granted last year.

“Excellent, authentic Japanese food with a modern twist” inspires numerous enthusiastic reports for this year-old operation (where the sake collection is a feature) just off Regent Street, from the group behind Shoryu Ramen and the Japan Centre. Wagyu beef is made quite a highlight, but equally there’s a dedicated vegetarian menu.

The doors slide back Star Trek-style at this bijou Japanese restaurant “tucked away discreetly” in a cute Mayfair mews – one of London’s leading providers of “sublime and sophisticated” Kyoto-style kaiseki cuisine… but “ye gods, the prices!” Chef Yoshinori Ishii is “the ultimate Renaissance man – he makes the pottery, does the flowers and calligraphy, teaches fisherman how to treat the catch and takes cooking to another level!”

“Some of the best fusion fare that will pass your lips” – these “always buzzy” and “vibey” Japanese-inspired operations dazzle with their “beauteous robata dishes”, “amazing black cod”, sushi and other “superb Asian dishes”, and even if “the prices are as incredible as the food” it’s “money well spent”. That they are perennially ignored by Michelin is incomprehensible.

Hiding in a side alley, this “favourite Japanese” is an “oasis of calm of the highest quality in Piccadilly”. “The welcome is always amazing” (“I feel like a treasured friend”), and the food (which has had its ups and downs over the years) “very fresh and simple” but “artfully produced”. There’s quite a contrast in style between the ground floor counter and small upstairs space.

“Layers of flavour and umami” reveal the magic of kaiseki cuisine at renowned Japanese chef Yoshihiro Murata’s Mayfair yearling (backed by Japan’s largest agricultural co-op), which, for its disciples, delivers dishes that are “beyond fresh, and raise the pure essence of simple ingredients like yuzu and matcha to the divine”. Natch, it’s “very pricey”, which perhaps is why it still hasn’t built a huge fanbase.

2014 Review: “Purist” and “expensive”, this Mayfair veteran is known by aficionados for its very accomplished sushi; “like many long-lived Japanese operations, it feels very stiff”, and it’s interior – “stuck somewhere round 1988” – is a “let-down”.

2014 Review: A stalwart Mayfair Japanese whose “sterile” dining room is sometimes “so quiet, you feel you have to whisper”… so the fact the place has lasted so long must be testament to the splendid quality of its sushi, and other fare!

“Excellent sushi, sashimi and tempura” are the stars of the show at this “long-established and quite smart – though not unduly expensive – Mayfair Japanese” (with an offshoot near Harrods), which boasts a “great sake list, too”. The “quiet” original is “a civilised retreat from the fray of Regent Street”, and its chichily-located Knightsbridge branch is in a similar vein.

“It still has it on the fusion-food front”, and this ‘newer Nobu’ in Mayfair inspires much more feedback and is rated considerably higher nowadays than the original Park Lane branch, particularly the ambience. The criticisms it attracts haven’t changed since day one – it’s above “a pretentious bar”, some tables are “cramped” and “canteen”-like, it can seem “grossly overpriced”, and critics feel “it’s one for the tasteless ‘in’ crowd”.