Ashtead, Japanese Restaurant Guide

The high-end Japanese-style dining at this splendiferous country-house hotel is “a special treat from start to finish: every visit fulfils your salivating expectations and appetite” – innovative Polish-born chef Wojciech Popow combining Nordic influences with his sushi-master skills in dishes like red bream nigiri with Cornish ants; or rice with young pine shoots foraged from the estate. There’s also the slightly bonkers option of eating a Japanese yakiniku barbecue in your own hot-air balloon – not flying, but tethered in the Italian Garden. It’s all “great fun and great food, but be prepared to sell a kidney to cover the cost”.

2024 Review: This “relaxed local Japanese” in Raynes Park “opened recently on the site of (confusingly similarly named) Hashi”. Reports suggest “the quality of the food is better”, with “authentic, skillfully prepared dishes” including “good fresh sushi”.

With “clever”, “good-quality Japanese food” – in particular the “excellent, if relatively expensive, sushi” – and “busy, competent service”, these “fun, stylish and friendly” Scandi-minimal venues are “always buzzing”. Founded in Copenhagen by a pair of Danish-Japanese brothers more than 30 years ago, the company came under new ownership in 2024 with big expansion plans, and unveiled two times F1 champion Fernando Alonso as a major shareholder in April 2025. Recent London openings include a “huge new site” in Islington and Battersea Power Station.

“Consistently great omakase” cuisine that’s “incredible value for money” has attracted an adoring fan club over the past decade for this “exceptional” Japanese spot in a suburban shopping parade, near South Wimbledon tube. Ex-Nobu chef Taka and his wife Yuko guarantee a “serene experience”, and “the neutral decor creates a Zen-like calmness which somehow enhances the food”. “It’s worth taking the Northern Line to SW19 just to eat there!”. (In putting together our prices for this year, though, we note a big jump in its formula price from previous editions – the offering here seems to be becoming more ambitious but priced more to match other omakase experiences around town).

This Japanese favourite in a high street shopping parade is “exactly what a local restaurant should be”: “the never-changing menu is always executed well”, while “Bobby on front of house is a delight and a Twickenham institution – he remembers all his regulars and treats them exceptionally”.

2022 Review: This “lovely little Japanese restaurant with a very decent range” is a “very welcome option in Richmond”. Run by a Korean family, it has provided “sterling service” for 17 years.

“Well priced” Japanese dishes make this small, no-frills 26-year-old chain a useful option, whether for a “quick pre-theatre visit” when in town or in one of the more far-flung branches (Catford or Brentwood), where “decent quality sushi is found in a local high street for the first time”. Top Tip – “the delicious honey tea”.

“Delicious ramen with rich home-made broth” draws a steady crowd to these “quick, casual” joints “with a fun classic rock soundtrack”; and whose “great noodles are very consistent across their branches” (there are now seven across the capital). Top Menu Tip – “bao bun specials are good too, and great value”.

A “great local Japanese” (from a group based in Cheltenham) that hits the spot for its regulars in Battersea’s ‘Nappy Valley’, with “swift service: in-and-out very quickly” – so it’s “very popular, and can be tricky getting a table even early in week”. Not everyone is enamoured of the food, though: “the starters are so much more interesting than the mains, so get a tableful of them” washed down by some stimulating cocktails.

“Really fresh sushi” and “authentic Japanese cooked dishes” belie the modest appearance of “this ever-buzzing local” near Turnham Green tube. It’s also “great for a takeaway”.

“This longstanding Clapham stalwart with a nightclub vibe” from a trio of ex-Nobu chefs celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, with a “broader than Nobu” menu that “works well in the most part” – and it’s “good value, too”. There’s the occasional complaint that the “noirish decor lends a bleakness to the ambience”.

This Japanese grill near Stamford Brook is a “great local aging well”: it may be “a rather spartan place, but the quality of the food is good” – and is best enjoyed at one of the “four seats at the counter, watching the skewers sizzle and smoke their way on to the plate”. Top Menu Tips – “stand-out mackerel” and “excellent sashimi”.

“A reliable option for Japanese food on a budget” – this chain’s “functional decor” “looks and feels authentic”, while the “great, light tempura is always a good indicator of quality” and the sushi and sashimi tend to be “so much better than average”. Service can be “swift”, even “rushed”, and the venues “noisy” and “crowded because of the exceptional value” – but they’re “deservedly popular to eat in or take away”. Top Menu Tip – they sometimes have sea urchin, a real delicacy.

2022 Review: “Sink your teeth in and savour!” the “bold flavours” of former MasterChef winner Tim Anderson’s take on Japanese cooking using foreign or ‘barbarian’ (Nanban) ingredients, showcased in his “fast and furious” 10-year-old pop-up-gone-permanent on the edge of Brixton Market. “Their noodle dishes became a lockdown delivery staple, packed with flavour, a wonderful smoky depth to the tea eggs, heart-warming broths”. A new Covent Garden offshoot opened in September 2021 at Kerb’s Seven Dials Market, focused on ramen dishes.

‘Rebel against the establishment and join the sushi revolution!’ – purists should steer clear of this small Brixton pitstop, where various funky meat, vegan and veggie options sit alongside more traditional Japanese sushi combos. Feedback was limited this year, but continues to rate it positively all-round. And they must be doing something right, as a new Shoreditch branch opened in June 2024.

Yasuhiro Minemo & Shinya Ikeda’s odd but “excellent” duo are over a decade old but little known, perhaps due to the “somewhat sterile” nature of the interiors: both in Kensington backstreets (“cramped seating on high stools on the bright ground floor, or in the downbeat ‘Siberia’ of the dark basement”); and in the ‘Yashin Ocean’ younger sibling in the potentially cute old Brompton Library on the fringes of South Kensington. If you like “top sushi” however, this is some of the best in town: not cheap, but without the second mortgage required at the Mayfair omakase restaurants. Top Tip – “the set lunches are top quality!”

This 15-strong London noodle chain (now with branches in Brighton, Birmingham and Bristol) is “a good stand-by” – perhaps it’s “not as good as some of its competitors”, but it is widely seen as “good value”: in particular “the lunch-time meal deal” is a winner.

With “clever”, “good-quality Japanese food” – in particular the “excellent, if relatively expensive, sushi” – and “busy, competent service”, these “fun, stylish and friendly” Scandi-minimal venues are “always buzzing”. Founded in Copenhagen by a pair of Danish-Japanese brothers more than 30 years ago, the company came under new ownership in 2024 with big expansion plans, and unveiled two times F1 champion Fernando Alonso as a major shareholder in April 2025. Recent London openings include a “huge new site” in Islington and Battersea Power Station.

2022 Review: “The food is very good” at this “typically impersonal” – but actually, by the standards of the genre, pretty “convivial” – Japanese joint near Ealing Common tube, which serves a variety of set meals at lunchtime and izakaya-style dining in the evening.