Japanese

When we heard that the family who own the London and New York branches of Le Relais de Venise l’Entrecôte were opening a new restaurant in London, you can be sure we sat up and took notice. Romeo San sees the Elghanayan family branching out into Japanese food, with a temaki bar in Marylebone.

"Our handrolls are made with the finest ingredients," says founder Yasmine Elghanayan. "The dining experience is

Japanese omakase restaurants (which roughly translates as "leaving the menu up to the chef") are a big thing in London. Long tasting menus, often sushi-led, are delivered in some of London's most beautiful dining rooms. Here's our pick of the best in the city, along with a guide to the restaurants where you can get the experience on a (slightly) smaller budget.  

The arrival of an affordable omakase experience in Soho is to be celebrated. We grabbed a seat at the counter to see what Sushi Kyu is serving up.

10/1/24 - Updated with the opening date

For the last two years, chefs Tamas Naszai and Tomoko Hasegawa have been running omakase restaurant Roji in Mayfair (which we thought was excellent). Now Roji is (temporarily) shut while the chefs launch a brand new restaurant in Carnaby.

Taking

Arriving with impeccable timing to cater to the crush that is going to be Oxford Street over the coming weeks, Japanese baking folk Happy Sky Bakery unveiled their brand new bakery over the weekend. This, their second place, is on Hanway Street which is, as they handily explain "a quiet little street tucked just behind the big Primark near Tottenham Court Road station."

"I can’t promise everything will be

The Pantechnicon building fairly recently started out as a Nordic-Japanese dining and shopping hot spot that opened in late 2020 but for the last few months it's been undergoing a major refurbishment. Brace yourselves

Lawyers and other city folk working in and around Holborn are about to have an interesting new place landing on their doorstep. Hotori is a slick-looking yakitori restaurant on New Fetter Lane that's going to be all about the 'beak to tail' experience. Owners Mike Zheng and Kuangyi Wei have loved their trips to yakitori spots in Japan, but couldn't understand why there weren't more options here in London, particularly

If you've ever been to Japan and seen the superb food replica dishes they have in front of restaurants there, you'll know just how amazingly realistic they can be. Now Londoners are going to get a chance to see this kind of artistry up close in a new exhibition opening at Japan House in Kensington.

Looks Delicious! features 47 specially commissioned food replicas, one from each of Japan's

To celebrate their 90th anniversary, Nikka whisky are holding a series of events and experiences in London. Here's our guide to 90 Days of Nikka.

Covent Garden gets a very useful little sushi spot with the opening of Japanese hand roll bar Ukiyo in The Yards.

There's no question that Dorian is one of London's hottest restaurants - getting a table at a decent time in the dining room is a near-impossible task if you don't plan your dinners months ahead. Now the owner behind that, Chris D'Sylva, is getting ready to open a second restaurant in nearby Holland Park.

Urchin is going to be a Japanese bistro. As D'Sylva explained in an interview with trade title Caterer it

It's already one of the buzziest new openings in the City. We took the lift up to the rooftop at Los Mochis City to check out the scene for ourselves. 

It's been three years since London's first dedicated Japanese hand roll restaurant (Temaki, in case you're wondering) opened in Brixton. Now we've got a new one to try, this time in Covent Garden. Ukiyo is a counter dining spot in The Yards development in Covent Garden that's serving up temaki and sashmi. The chef behind it definitely knows what he's doing - Konstantin Tskhay used to be head chef at

Kioku by Endo has opened at the top of the spectacular building that's The OWO in Whitehall. We went up to the rooftop to see if Endo Kazutoshi is the one to open the hit that The OWO really needs.  

Chef Endo Kazutoshi is behind the new Japanese home cooked dishes at this Mayfair restaurant. We went to see how the change of direction is working for Nijū.