Mayfair, Japanese Restaurant Guide

“So incredibly reliable for some of the most sophisticated Japanese food in London” – this sleek venue chicly tucked away in a cute Mayfair mews behind a Star Trek-style sliding door has remained incredibly consistent since 2004, surviving the collapse of founder Marlon Abela’s restaurant group six years ago. Chef Ryo Kamatsu joined ten years ago and has been executive chef since 2020 and – although there is an extensive à la carte menu – the signature offering has always been a Kyoto kaiseki experience (currently for £260 per person): a form of eating which the restaurant can claim to have introduced to the Capital when it first opened. “The service team tends to anticipate every need before you can think of it with such flair” which – together with the svelte backdrop of the interior – creates a supremely cosetting overall experience. Not a cheap meal of course, but newer competitors means it no longer stands out pricewise as once it did.

“Top-quality Japanese” food including “wonderfully fresh sushi” is served by “charming staff” at this veteran venue in a quiet Mayfair sidestreet – “recently taken over by second-generation owner-managers”, almost 50 years on from its opening (and claiming to be London’s oldest family run Japanese restaurant). “Good-value lunches” in particular help make it popular with staff from the Japanese Embassy nearby.

In December 2023, Tom Cruise apparently romanced Russian MP’s daughter Elsina Khayrova at this Mayfair eurotrash magnet, owned by ‘Blini Baron’, Arkady Novokov. There are two sections – the more popular pan-Asian haunt serving a huge variety of bites (sushi, sashimi, robata, dim sum, steaks, salads and wok dishes); and the more gracious and ornate Italian section majoring in wood-grilled steak and fish. Perhaps our readers are just not in the oligarch mindset – the odd one says it’s exceptional all-round but largely they rate the whole experience as “underwhelming for the price”… or just plain “bad”.

“Terrific Japanese and Asian-influenced food” (pan-Asian crudo, sushi, sashimi and primarily seafood-based luxury bites) “in a French restaurant, and with French desserts” inspires high ratings for Gallic star-chef, Cyril Lignac’s Mayfair outpost, whose Parisian-style elegance also helps make it “a great place to spend time in too”. After four years in London, he’s not yet as famous as in France, but in May 2025, Le Figaro voted his Saint Germain original (on which the London branch is modelled) as one of ‘Les restaurants les plus (délicieusement) snobs de Paris’, with ‘Bar des Près’ being ‘Le plus Mondialisé’ (or ‘the most globalised’).

“The vegan sushi is wonderful, fresh and inventive” at this Mayfair outlet, which is a spin-off brand for plant-based evangelist chef Alex Gauthier, who runs the celebrated Gauthier (see also) in Soho. Following the closure of Fenwick’s department store – he has moved it to the tucked-away nearby site vacated by Native at Browns (which itself has moved out of London, to Worcestershire). 123V’s menu used to be wider than just sushi, but has narrowed its focus to the Japanese-inspired plates that were everybody’s fave – even among omnivores. Top Tip – the new site has a gorgeous courtyard, which comes into its own in the summer months.

2024 Review: After half a century, this high-quality Mayfair veteran is “still one of the best Japanese restaurants in London”, with particularly “good fish” – although it has a lower profile than many newer and more flashy rivals. “Having the kitchen open to the dining area adds some theatre to aid the digestion”.

For impressively competent sushi and other Japanese delights in a “no-fuss oasis of calm”, these understated but upmarket fixtures in Knightsbridge and Mayfair “do everything right without charging a fortune” – “if you want Japanese, Chisou is top of the list”, agree fans who reckon it’s a “‘go-to’ Japanese when in London, whether for lunch or dinner” as “you know what to expect and it’s never a let down”. “Ambience and decor could do with an uplift” – but for most that’s a small price to pay.

Its predecessor 20 Berkeley (RIP) didn’t last long – although Niji does mean ‘20’ in Japanese, and is under the same ownership – so The Creative Restaurant Group drafted in one of the star chefs in their portfolio, Endo Kazutoshi, to zhoosh up the offering at this Mayfair property. Now focused on ‘Katei Ryori’ (home-cooked Japanese food) and sushi, the end-result inspires deeply mixed feelings in our annual diners’ poll. To fans it’s “all-round outstanding”, in particular the “incredible sushi”. But, given its pedigree, expectations are very high, and a significant proportion say it’s “nice but not amazing…”; “disappointed, having experienced Endo’s food at the Rotunda…”; “everything was fine but it’s not exciting and extremely expensive”.

A shake-up in mid 2024 – splitting Samyukta Nair’s two-floor Asian between ‘Koyn Japanese’ and ‘Koyn Thai’ in the refurbished basement – has done nothing for this Mayfair eatery in our annual diners’ poll. Some reports – particularly of the upstairs Japanese – say it’s “excellent all-round” but there is also the opinion that “while it won’t disappoint, it won’t impress either”. And when it comes to the new Thai format, a couple of reporters feel the departure falls short, sometimes badly so (“if that is Thai food then my dog is Brad Pitt”).

Near the front of the vanguard of London’s top sushi experiences: Takuya Watanabe’s Mayfair three-year-old opened in November 2022, bolstered by the lofty reputation of its elder sibling ‘Jin’ in Paris. Here, head chef Long Ng presides over a 22-course ‘Signature Omakase’ for £380 with the option of a £320 wine pairing (or there is a cheaper lunchtime option with 17 courses for £180). With 16 seats at the counter of what is a sleek if narrow chamber, with a moodily patterned slate backdrop, it is not a party scene but – boosted by welcoming staff – relatively upbeat for this genre of classic Japanese temple of gastronomy. Given the sharp hitch in prices this year, however (25%), and somewhat reduced – if still “exceptional” – feedback, our rating is fractionally more cautious than that of last year (when we rated it one of the UK’s Top 100 Best Restaurants).

“Très chic lounge bar” in Mayfair where “all the food is either cured or smoked or grilled over wood” on a 4-metre purpose-built grill (“they gave me not only the variety – silver birch – but also the postcode for the wood they were burning, which takes provenance to a new level!”). It is all “exquisitely done”, with influences from both Japan and Latin America – and has survived the departure of Colombian founding chef Miller Prada in early 2025; Scot Robbie Jameson, part of the launch team, has taken up the reins.

2023 Review: Esteemed Tokyo steakhouse, Aragawa (est 1967, and actually predated by its Kobe branch) is set to open in late 2022 on the Mayfair site that for over 20 years as Miyama (long RIP) was an exemplar of traditional Japanese cuisine. Tokyo diners may pay over £400 per head for the best cuts… and that’s before you go wild with the list of Premiers Grands Crus on the wine list.

2024 Review: One of London’s top omakase-style experiences is provided by husband and wife chef team, Tamas Naszi and Tomoko Hasegawa, at this small 10-seater counter experience, in a yard just off Mayfair’s pedestrianised South Molton Street. Feedback in its first year of operation has been limited, so our rating is a conservative one.