The London sushi situation
There is no reason that London shouldn’t have amazing sushi. New York certainly does, and it seems like London has all the same ingredients. To be a great sushi city, one needs:
A critical mass of Japanese people
A lot of rich people who want to spend money on sushi
London has these things. It has the same number of people as New York. The food blog scene is fairly fanatical. It has 30,000 Japanese people, while New York has only 20,000. And everyone knows London is swimming in international wealth. I’ll say it again: London should have amazing sushi.
Does London have amazing sushi?
Short answer, no. It massively underperforms New York. There are a few individual spots that are really good. But there is neither the density of high-end sushi bars nor the highest-end quality that you’ll find in NYC.
The most obvious way for even a sushi dilettante to spot the difference is between pieces of akami (lean tuna, usually big-eye). I’ve never had a good piece of akami in London. It has a metallic taste that isn’t there in New York, and although I’ve eaten at nearly every high-end sushi place in London, the difference exists at the highest level. The one caveat to this is, the very high level places in London do not serve akami, because they’re omakase only. But akami a la carte is very expensive at Dinings or Sumi, and tastes noticeably bad.
What is driving this difference?
For a long time, I didn’t know. Some friends tried to convince me that this was a socialized difference—that I’m used to viewing New York as somehow better for fine food, and so I made this up in my head. But I had a conversation with the chef at Sushi Tetsu that cleared everything up for me.
There are EU regulations that prevent fish from being imported from Japan. I don’t know the specifics, but every piece of fish you eat in the UK—or, I should say, nearly every piece—is from Europe, not Japan. So the tuna tends to be from Spain, and its diet is different from what it eats in Japan, which makes it taste different (even though it’s the same species of tuna).
This has a two-pronged effect. One, the very best fish (even beyond just tuna, but especially that) is Japanese. So you won’t be able to get the same quality. Two, it makes London an unattractive place for Japanese-trained sushi chefs to set up shop, because they don’t have access to the best supplies. This is especially true compared to New York, where you the same import restrictions don’t apply.
Supposedly, this is slowly changing with Brexit, and maybe even in the next couple years. But right now, that’s the state of play for London sushi.
Whatever, just tell me what’s good in London.
Since I live in London, I still eat sushi all the time, and much of it is incredible, European or not. There are three places that have classically-trained Japanese chefs. The most famous of these is Endo at Rotunda. Endo is from a famous Japanese sushi family, and I’m not actually sure why he lives in London. It’s also located in White City, which is frankly a total pain to get to from central London. The fish is incredible, no doubt about that, and Endo himself is a very down-to-Earth, congenial guy. My issue is, there’s not that many pieces of fish in his 3-hour omakase. It’s not “edomae”, and maybe this is why Endo exists in London rather than Japan. My recollection is it being roughly fifty/fifty. It’s not that I disliked the rest of the food, it’s just that I don’t like winter vegetable soup as much as I like nigiri, no matter how elite of a soup it might be.
Maru is a lot more centrally located, and serves similar food. It’s a tiny, 6-person (although this may have changed post-covid to 8 or so) bar. The atmosphere is a little more serious than Endo, with someone explaining every piece alongside the chef, and with less crosstalk between customers and the master. I think I was a little more impressed with Endo, but I found the both to be very, very similar. They’re also both very high quality food. Both exhibit a young-ish classically-trained sushi chef giving an artistic culinary performance over 3 hours, for around 200 GBP. For an occasional treat, I recommend either highly.
Sushi Tetsu is my favorite sushi in London, bar none. It is very hard to get a reservation, but well worth the effort. They offer two possible seatings—a 12-piece omakase on Saturday at 5:15, and a later full 20-piece omakase. There are six total seats in the sushi bar, and the only two people working there are Toru, the chef, and his wife. Regrettably, I’ve only managed to get into the 12-piece thus far, but both the 12-piece and the 20-piece are entirely seafood, unlike Maru and Endo. The conversation flows easily, because while Toru is concentrating, his wife keeps talking to the customers. During the Saturday 5:15 seating, it’s 4 seats total, and so the atmosphere is very convivial, like you’re having dinner at a friend’s house. However, the product is phenomenal. 12 pieces of just nigiri, then one toro handroll, and a slice of tamago. I don’t normally like the tamago—western taste buds tend to find it not sweet enough for a dessert—but at Tetsu it is light, fluffy, and sweet, almost like a pastry. Every piece of nigiri is perfect, and there wasn’t a single one I disliked. All this is accomplished without lacking innovation. He makes use of a tabletop grill to prepare my favorite piece, the grilled otoro, which was a flavor I’d never experienced before. I can’t recommend this place highly enough. The only problem is that it’s impossible to get a reservation.
What about more casual places?
The above three are London’s best omakase, all for serious fans of sushi and not something you decide to go to on a random weeknight. After that, there’s definitely a drop off in quality. My favorite of the casual places (assuming you’re only going to order nigiri and sashimi) is Sumi, which is owned by Endo. The fish is selected by Endo himself, which is why it’s so high quality. While the food isn’t prepared by sushi masters the way it is at Endo, you can taste a clearly better quality compared to many of its peers.
If you want to get a more westernized sushi experience, Dinings SW3 is my favorite of the “rolls” places. The maguro maki—a roll containing chutoro, otoro, and akami—is buttery and delicious. Their restaurant near Harrod’s is a pleasant but lively place. The nigiri is good, but not as good as Sumi, and expensive for what it is. Dinings Marylebone is a different menu. I believe the sushi master there has retired, and I would only go for rolls and hot food at this point.
I’ll give an honorable mention to Ikeda, which is solid, but even more expensive than Sumi and doesn’t have the westernized dishes that Dinings does.
A lot of casual places were underwhelming to me. Chisou, Cube, Nobu, and Kikuchi are all pretty expensive and not worth going to. For something cheaper, Kazu is okay, as is Sushi Atelier.
I’m not sure when London’s regulations will allow it to become on par with America and Asia as a sushi city. But it can’t happen soon enough.