Dalston, Japanese Restaurant Guide

“Remarkable food combinations”, “full of delicious surprises” win high ratings for this Italo-Japanese project in Dalston, whose “innovative dishes” are paired with “excellent wines” by “well-informed and thoughtful” staff. Meals are served kaiseki-style, with 13 courses on a menu that changes every five weeks. Success here has led to a follow-up venture, pasta and grill specialist Osteria Angelina, opening in Shoreditch last spring (see also).

2024 Review: On a site that was Rotorino (RIP), this year-old music venue (named for a jazz album) is from the brothers behind Hackney’s ‘Brilliant Corners’. It has yet to generate much in the way of survey feedback, but London needs more jazz diners; and its Japanese-inspired robata cuisine received a big shout out from the Guardian’s Grace Dent in November 2022, who found it be “far grander and ornately executed than it needs to be”.