Hampstead, Japanese Restaurant Guide

This “top-value Japanese for its quality, now happily doubled in size”, has drawn aficionados from across London to its Hampstead premises for decades, to sample sushi, yakitori and other delicacies. Guests can perch at sushi or grill bars where “you can watch the genuine article being prepared under your nose” – or sit at tables where “we were allowed to drink tea all afternoon when lunch just wasn’t long enough”.

“A great new japanese restaurant in Hampstead” from the team behind Taku Mayfair, where patron Takuya Watanabe has installed his protégé Law Kwok Meng as head chef (‘Iné’ is Japanese for rice). “Let’s hope it survives in this notoriously difficult suburb” – all reports say the food is “very good” and “service is particularly attentive” – you either eat à la carte (prepared by chef Andrew Lim), or go for the full blow-out of a 17-course omakase served personally by chef Meng. However the “high culinary ambitions here have prices to match” and even some fans “can’t help feeling it may be overpriced for NW3”. (You can also now just drop in for a drink here too, at their newly opened ‘Upstairs at INÉ’, serving specialty sakes and showcasing emerging artists).