Japanese restaurants in London
40 places
Akira at Japan House
£££Inside Japan House, sourcing directly from Japan where it can - the bento and donburi use produce that otherwise never reaches a London menu.
Angelina
£££A fixed menu that runs Japanese technique through Italian dishes without treating either as a novelty - the only kitchen in London doing it seriously.
AUN
£££A small independent in Stoke Newington working to wakon yosai - Japanese spirit, Western technique - as a tasting menu rather than a sushi counter.
Bamboo Mat
£££Nikkei cooking - the Japanese-Peruvian tradition - which is a genuinely unexpected thing to find in Stratford and the reason to skip the chains.
Bone Daddies
££Ramen with a deliberate Western slant and a soundtrack to match - the bowl that made ramen a night out in London rather than a quick lunch.
Chisou
£££Open since 2002 and seconds from Oxford Circus - the most central serious Japanese room in London, which is most of the point of it.
Cocoro
££Open since 2006 and the sort of place Japanese office groups and families actually eat - sushi, sukiyaki and a tonkotsu ramen that punches above the room.
Dinings SW3
££££The most-cited Japanese room in London across these sources - izakaya-scale plates done at sushi-counter precision, with a courtyard that most guides forget to mention.
Eat Tokyo
££Enormous portions, Japanese chefs and prices that have barely moved - the volume option that Japanese Londoners actually use.
Engawa
££££Built around certified Kobe beef, which very few London kitchens are licensed to serve - the sushi is good but the beef is the reason to book.
Hakata Ramen + Bar
££Named for the Fukuoka district the style comes from, doing Kyushu tonkotsu on Bermondsey Street with enough room to actually sit down.
Himi
£££The first solo restaurant from the team behind Roji, opened in January 2025 on Newburgh Street.
Jin Kichi
£££A small family-run izakaya on Heath Street doing charcoal yakitori at prices that have never caught up with the postcode.
Kanada-Ya
££The broth recipe was worked out in Fukuoka before the first London site opened, and the queue outside the St Giles branch has become part of the experience.
No bookings. The queue is shortest before noon and after 2pm.
Koya
££Udon made by hand at their own noodle workshop, served from breakfast onwards - the Frith Street counter has been doing it since 2010.
Opens for a Japanese breakfast service that almost nothing else in Soho offers.
Koya Ko
££The Broadway Market outpost, opened in 2021 - the same handmade udon without the Soho queue.
Kurisu Omakase
££££Eighteen courses in Brixton, where chef Chris Restrepo runs Japanese technique through his Thai-Colombian background - the least likely omakase address in London and one of the best.
Los Mochis Notting Hill
££££Sashimi and maki on the same menu as ceviche, tiradito and tacos - the pairing sounds like a gimmick and is served like neither cuisine is being humoured.
Monohon Ramen
££A single-site ramen bar on Old Street that takes no reservations and has outlasted most of the chains that opened around it.
No reservations - walk in and wait.
Nobu Old Park Lane
££££The original London Nobu, and the room that put miso black cod on menus worldwide. Co-founded by Nobu Matsuhisa with Robert De Niro, which makes it the celebrity-owned restaurant in London that is actually about the food.
Nobu Portman Square
££££The newer of the two London Nobus and the calmer one - a hotel dining room rather than the Old Park Lane scene.
Ramo Ramen
££Ramen run through Filipino cooking rather than beside it - the oxtail kare kare bowl is the dish the whole place is built around.
Roka
££££The robata grill sits in the middle of the room and everything comes off it - open since 2003 and still the reference point for the format in London.
Shoryu Ramen
££Hakata-style tonkotsu across a spread of central sites, which makes it the ramen you can actually get into when the single-site places have queues out the door.
Sticks'n'Sushi
£££A Danish-Japanese format that puts sushi and skewers on the same menu - reliable rather than remarkable, and useful when a table cannot agree.
Sushi Atelier
£££Repeatedly named the best-value serious omakase in central London - the same counter discipline as the Mayfair rooms at a fraction of the outlay.
Sushi Kanesaka
££££Thirteen covers inside 45 Park Lane - nine at the counter, four in a private room - doing omakase only, from the Tokyo original.
Omakase only, no a la carte. Opened July 2023.
Sushi Tetsu
££££Seven seats at a pale hinoki counter in a Clerkenwell alley, run by Toru Takahashi and his wife Harumi - and only them, which is why it is the hardest table in London to get.
Seven seats and a two-person operation. Booking opens in windows and goes almost immediately.
SUSHISAMBA
££££An orange tree growing through an open-air terrace on the 39th floor - the highest outdoor dining in the City, with the lift ride as part of the experience.
SUSHISAMBA
££££An orange tree growing through an open-air terrace on the 39th floor - the highest outdoor dining in the City, with the lift ride as part of the experience.
Tanakatsu
££A kitchen built around the cutlet - generous katsu sets near Angel station at prices that make it a regular rather than an occasion.
Temaki Mayfair
£££The handroll bar that started in Brixton in 2021 and moved central - temaki made to order, plus crispy rice, wagyu sliders and sandos.
The Araki
££££A no-choice menu at around £310, built on rare ingredients and served in two sittings a night to a handful of people.
Tuesday to Saturday only, two sittings. Closed Sunday and Monday.
The Aubrey
££££A maximalist take on a Ginza night out inside the Mandarin Oriental - closer to a bar with exceptional food than a hotel dining room.
TOKii
£££The dining room of a Japanese-run Marylebone hotel, which shows in the detail - and it serves a proper Japanese breakfast, which almost no London hotel does.
Tokyo Sukiyaki-Tei
£££A wagyu specialist doing sukiyaki and shabu-shabu - hotpot cooked at the table, which almost nowhere else in London offers properly.
Umu
££££Kaiseki in the Kyoto tradition - a fixed seasonal progression rather than a sushi counter, which makes it the odd one out among Mayfair's Japanese rooms.
Zuma
££££Opened in 2002 and effectively invented the London template for informal, izakaya-inspired Japanese dining - since exported to 27 sites across four continents.
If everything else is full
Reliable rather than remarkable. These are chains — worth knowing about when you need somewhere open, not worth a journey.
Marugame Udon
£A canteen where you walk the line past the open kitchen watching the noodles rolled, cut and boiled - the cheapest proper udon in London and the most fun to queue for.
Tonkotsu
££Launched in Soho in 2012 by Ken Yamada and Emma Reynolds, making its own noodles - and now the ramen you are never more than a short walk from.