Lambeth, Japanese Restaurant Guide

Former UMU head chef, Daisuke Shimoyama’s “high-end kaiseki” is winning ever-greater recognition for his solo Kyoto-style venture, and his “charming” service helps offset the slightly odd location, near the London Eye, in the rear of the gigantic former HQ of the long-defunct Greater London Council. Daisuke started his career as a teenager washing pots in Kanagawa, and here serves a wide variety of options ranging in price from £45 for a five-course lunch, up to £185 for a 12-course dinner (which comes with the option of a £115 sake pairing). Having been largely ignored for its first seven years of operation, the foodie world has finally woken up to the place and the plaudits are starting to flow in: in the first half of 2024, the Financial Times’s Tim Hayward pronounced it “the best kaiseki in London” (and suggested everyone “go immediately”), a sentiment also echoed by well-known food-blogger Andy Hayler, who (while noting “it’s not a cheap outing”) visited twice in a similar period with the same conclusion.