I like my Japanese restaurants izakaya-style: small spaces with even smaller menus comprised of omakase or chef’s selection of dishes, speciality dishes or (more commonly) a combination of the two. I like the bar counter or small table before me to have dishes rotated in and out through the course of the meal: something grilled, something stewed, with no shortage of tofu and vegetables, and a bevvy of sauces: sweet, sour, umami, and the ever-present sticky rice.

Sometimes I just want a plate of comfort food: oyakodon – chicken thighs simmered in a lightly umami sauce with egg and spring onion served over a bowl of rice, unadon – eel grilled in a sweet sauce also served over rice, or tonjiru – a miso-based stew with pork belly and root vegetables. I always want chilled sake and short glasses of ice-cold Sapporo or Asahi.

From family-run to Michelin-starred, pork katsu to yakiniku, these are my favourite (and some of the best) Japanese restaurants in London.

Jin Kichi

With a small space to dine on yakiniku and sushi while sipping Sapporo and shochu highballs, Jin Kichi is centred around a rectangular wooden bar, its ceiling decorated with sake bottles, and within which stands a boxy grill for yakiniku (grilled skewered meats). Its menu is a little too big for a traditional izakaya, but the preparation, presentation, and taste of the dishes are where the izakaya evocation becomes a reality.

This family-run izakaya-style restaurant is tucked away on Heath Street in Hampstead and is worth the fare to North London if you don’t already live there. I order a selection of grilled skewers – grilled shisho leaf and pork roll, chicken liver, crispy chicken skin, with a side of saba shio (grilled mackerel), atsuage (fried tofu with ginger and spring onion), and horen tamago (a simmered stew in a fish stock, with egg, spinach, and shiitake mushroom). In winter, I order the buta kakuni (a pork stew), or sometimes ebi furai (breadcrumbed and deep-fried prawns), and all are accompanied by chilled sake and even colder Sapporo.

I like the smallness, I like that it's family-run, and I especially like Jin Kichi for its authentic Japanese flavours in every dish.

Hampstead, NW3 | jinkichi.com

Humble Chicken

I didn’t even know Humble Chicken was a Michelin-starred restaurant when I dined here. I didn’t even have a reservation but nabbed a seat outside on a golden Thursday evening, two cocktails-deep with a hankering for something umami over rice. I was sad not to sit at the L-shaped bar to watch the chefs prepare dishes, but my mood was quickly restored with sake and grilled mackerel accompanied by delightfully zingy umeboshi and cucumber.

Simple ingredients cleverly paired, creating flavours and textures that could only have ever been conceived by a chef’s mind. I couldn’t decide what I liked best, scallop, tuna, or shokupan (fluffy-as-you-like Japanese bread). Why did I need to choose? Humble Chicken was the gift that kept on giving, with my eyes closing and feet tapping in delight with every bite.

I prefer the chaos and messiness of street food eating over a Michelin-serviced affair, but sitting outside Humble Chicken, people-watching Soho’s Frith Street gave me the best of both worlds: chaos and refinement in one experience I was more than happy to dish out for.

Soho, W1D | humblechickenuk.com

Cocoro

I can’t vouch for any Cocoro location other than the original Marylebone one, but if the other three are as good, then you’ll be in safe hands. From the outside, it doesn’t look like much, but I knew from doing my research that it was a firm favourite with Japanese expats. Besides, not looking like much is a tell-tale sign that a restaurant doesn't rely on heavy decoration to woo customers; the food is enough (most of the time).

The presentation and flavours of the dishes remind me of an elevated version of a Japanese family restaurant (as the name implies, Japanese restaurant chains that are aimed towards families and young people), offering the ultimate comfort eats authentically served:

Tonkatsu – pork cutlet fried in panko breadcrumb, served with cabbage, tonkatsu sauce (a Worcestershire-type sauce) and mustard; grilled eel in unagi sauce over a bed of rice with miso soup on the side; a properly eggy katsudon; whole grilled mackerel served with a wedge of lemon and radish; and Cocoro (the Japanese word for ‘heart’) won my heart with its offering of nabe or Japanese stews, my favourite being buta kimchi nabe (with pork and kimchi), followed by the motsu nabe made with pork offal.

Marylebone, W1U | cocororestaurant.co.uk

HIMI

As someone who loves hole-in-the-wall restaurants and bars, and sake, it’s no surprise Himi has become one of my faovurite Japanese restaurants in London in the short time it has been open; the izakaya menu is dreamt up by a husband and wife duo, and its sake list dreamt up by sake sommelier Yuta Fujii.

Classic, seasonal izakaya dishes are created with British and European ingredients and prepared behind the bar-seating counter. I love idly watching passionate people at their work, chefs even more so, while punctuating conversation with my companions with sake-sipping and the silence that descends when the food is just too good.

Shimesaba – cured mackerel with beets and horseradish. Maguro norian-ae – bluefin tuna sashimi. Masu kasu yaki – robata grilled trout. Yaki onigiri and duck with udon. I haven’t had a dish here that wasn’t the epitome of moreish. For afters, I order more sake (dessert sake this time) and toro (fatty tuna) nigiri, because who needs sweets when there’s buttery toro?

Soho, W1F | himi.uk

Tanakatsu

No list of the best Japanese restaurants in London would be complete without Tanakatsu. The Angel restaurant specialises in katsu and teriyaki. For the katsu lover, the set is always the way to go: chicken or pork with prawn and pumpkin croquette; for the spice lover it’s always katsu curry – it’s proper, hearty, generous (I prefer chicken when I have katsu curry and tonkatsu with tonkatsu sauce, but to each their own). All the mains come with steamed sticky rice, Fukujin-zuke pickles, and cabbage salad.

However you decide to katsu – curry, no curry, or katsudon – wash it all down with ice cold Japanese lager or Hitachino Nest, an ale matured in cedar casks. If you’re around for lunchtime, Tanakatsu do one of the best tonkatsu sandos in the city. Finish with mochi. Always.

Angel, EC1V | tanakatsu.co.uk

Abeno

If this list isn’t complete without a speciality restaurant like Tanakatsu then it’s also not complete without Abeno which specialises in okonomiyaki, a savoury pancake-esque dish originating from the streets of Osaka comprised of egg, cabbage, and a light dough with different toppings depending on your mood: pork, tofu and kimchi, seafood, even noodles.

At Abeno, the grills are on the tables, and your mouth waters as the okonomiyaki or yakisoba noodles sizzle away in front of you. I ordered a classic okonomiyaki with pork and the spicy Naniwa version with kimchi and chilli flakes; both are topped with Kewpie Japanese mayo, tangy tonkatsu sauce, aonori (super fine sprinkle of seaweed), and katsuoboshi (sprinkle of razor-thin dried bonito flakes). Crunchy, savoury, salty, with the tang of the tonkatsu sauce, spice of the kimchi, and umami of the aonori – with a cold lager on the side, this is one of the simple pleasures in life that makes me feel like all is right in the world.

Bloomsbury, WC1A | abeno.co.uk

Uchi

I was wary of Uchi for being too Instagram-ready with its natural, earth-toned aesthetic evoking the principles of wabi-sabi, its clean lines and textures photographing all too well. But I like the cosiness of Uchi, taking my shoes off and wearing slippers like I’m at somebody’s home (uchi means ‘home’ after all), and I like the small, simple menu offering lovely Japanese flavours. No reinvention of the wheel, no trending fusion.

I order robata grilled mackerel, pork belly, and aubergine, miso soup, agedashi tofu (ever so lightly battered fried tofu in a dashi broth), and tsukemono (Japanese pickles). I order the honjozo sake (standard grade, the sake equivalent of table wine), but when I’m feeling flush, I dish out on the junmai gingo (higher grade sake but not as high as the daiginjo, which I’ve yet to convince myself to purchase).

There’s always afters at Uchi, which also operates as Uchi Bake, a Japanese bakery. It’s always mochi (lovely chewy rice cakes) or yuzu cheesecake for me. And if I’m feeling really flush, I cap things off with a Hibiki, neat (Japanese whiskies are so light and delicate and should be sipped with no water and definitely no ice).

Lower Clapton, E5 | Uchi Instagram

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