Toot Baldon, Japanese - Restaurant Guide

“The kind of restaurant you are happy to find!” – an Oxford legend run by Meiko & Peter Galpin for almost three decades now, and whose “convincing cuisine” focuses on Japanese home-style cooking. “There’s a small menu that changes regularly and a special sushi menu on Thursday evening” – add in a “relaxing environment with friendly staff” and “reasonable prices” and it’s “top-notch all round”… do, however, be prepared for the fact that “it’s really busy all the time and you can’t book, so have to queue outside”.

“Sometimes it just has to be ramen”, and this group from Japan Centre owner Tak Tokumine provides noodles and broth that are “consistent, quick”, “high-quality and very reasonably priced” – “service isn’t amazing but the food makes up for it”. The 12-hour tonkotsu pork broth is a speciality of Hakata, Tak’s home district of Fukuoka city on the island of Kyushu.

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.