The best sushi in London
22 places
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.
Bar des Prés
££££Cyril Lignac's first restaurant outside France, pairing French cooking with Japanese - black cod caramelised with miso, langoustine ravioli, crispy rice with caviar.
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.
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.
Fan
££££Chef Coco Sasaki's neo-Nikkei: Peruvian and Cantonese ingredients through Japanese technique, with pachikay nigiri and a £120 tasting menu.
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 London City
£££Mexican-Japanese nine floors above Broadgate Circle, with a 3,000 sq ft rooftop terrace facing St Paul's, open until 3am Thursday to Saturday.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.