Japanese

Japanese handrolls have become a big deal in London of late. We've seen the recent arrival of Temaki in Mayfair, and next up is Kumori in Soho, an opening that has a particularly strong team behind it. You may have seen them popping up around town before (particularly in their recent Marylebone residency), and they were also at the Monaco Grand Prix. But this will be their first permanent restaurant. 

Kumori founder Marc Flekei has brought in John Randy De

6/3/26 - updated with the opening date

Japanese handroll restaurant Temaki opened in Brixton in 2021 and quickly found a dedicated following. However, all good things come to an end and they closed up in Brixton last August, and went on the hunt for a new central London location. They've now found just that, thanks to help from The Crown Estate. The new Temaki will be launching on Maddox Street in Mayfair, taking over a space right next to Maddox Gallery and a few doors down from Patara. 

Not surprisingly, Temaki focuses on the Japanese handrolls of its title,

Updated 3/3/26 with opening date

Mid last year, the Shoreditch expansion of Nobu quietly drew to a close. And what was the Nobu hotel has now become the London home of Aethos hotels. However, even though the new hotel opened back in October, they were holding back on what was going to replace the space that housed the Nobu restaurant. But now we know what's coming. 

The new restaurant will be called Mitsu, which will be a Japanese restaurant that they say will be "capturing the spirit of East Tokyo's izakayas", albeit with something of an East London approach. So

The team behind Goodman have opened a Tokyo-style izakaya right opposite their other restaurant on Old Jewry. We went down to check out the City's newest high energy sushi offering. 

It seems that everyone is on the rebrand train at the moment, with a lot of big relaunches in London. The latest is in Mayfair and sees omakase restaurant Taku being relaunched as Sushi Amamoto. 

That sees the restaurant being taken over by chef Shogo Amamoto, whose Sushi Amamoto restaurant in Taipei is a big deal with two Michelin stars, a year-long waiting list and an insane $2000 menu. Here in London he's retaining the team that was previously leading Taku, including head chef Jongho Park.

As for what to expect from the new place, it sounds like a similar affair to

Some of London's great lunchtime deals come in the form of bento boxes, or the more ornate hakozen boxes. Here's our pick of the best out there.

Just under a year ago, the popular Hackney pub The Gun announced it was closing down. Back then, its owners, who also run The Compton Arms in Islington, cited the current economic conditions saying "despite our very best efforts it has become unsustainable to continue trading". Well, where one door closes, another opens and it looks as though the pub is about to get a new lease of life.

It's been bought, according to trade title Propel, by J-Pub Holdings. That in itself doesn't sound particularly exciting until you discover that the man behind that is Kotaro Ogawa, the man behind

We'll be honest with you, we hadn't even realised that La Bodega Negra had shut down. But it definitely has because there's a new restaurant just about to take over its cavernous site on Old Compton Street.

Maki & Ramen is a mid-tier restaurant group that was first launched in Scotland by Hong Kong-born chef Teddy Lee, and the name is pretty self-explanatory. Sushi and ramen are at the heart of the menu, and they say they're trying to hit that middle point "between high-end dining and grab-and-go".

It serves up an absolutely massive menu with no fewer than 17 ramen

It still happens occasionally that a brand new restaurant opens up without us having heard so much of a whisper about it beforehand. That's the case with Wild Izakaya, a very interesting-sounding Japanese restaurant from the team behind Goodman, Pinna and Beast.

It's taken over a space in the City of London on Old Jewry Street, right opposite its sibling restaurant Goodman. They say their thing is "bringing Japan to London", and the man in charge of doing precisely that is Executive Chef Satoru Hashimoto, the former Head Chef at Koyn, who previously spent over a decade heading up

It certainly feels as though London's bakery scene is in the ascendancy at the moment, and the arrival of Kichiya in London Fields is only going to add to that. Baker Ayako Takei trained in formal French patisserie at Le Cordon Bleu over a decade ago and worked at The Wolseley and Honey & Co, but has also built up a fanbase selling cakes and pastries at street markets and via direct sales.

Now Aya is opening her first cake shop and cafe, in London Fields. Kichiya on Mentmore Terrace will serve up her classic European pastries with an authentic Japanese twist. Think matcha

Back in September 2025, a fire at the former Television Centre in White City meant that one of London's best restaurants Endo at The Rotunda was forced to close, less than a year after a major refurbishment, no less. 

But while the restaurant remains closed, Endo himself will instead be launching a new pop-up at Annabel's in Mayfair. Annabel's will be calling the restaurant "Endo, Upstairs at Annabel's" but Endo himself refers to it as "Untitled". Regardless, you

13/1/25 - updated with the opening date and menu details.

The man behind the hugely popular Korean/Japanese restaurant Dotori is getting ready to open a second place, this time in the City. Alan Tse has been running the much-loved Finsbury Park spot for the past eight years, during which time he also managed to squeeze in training at the Japan Culinary Institute in Tokyo.

Now Tse is gearing up to open The Azuki, just off Chancery Lane. He's taking over the site that used to be The Pineapple Club on Rolls Passage and is turning it into what he's describing as an

It's all change once more in Shoreditch, as the hotel that was formerly The Curtain and then The Mondrian has now transformed into 45 London. With the change in ownership comes a new restaurant (in the space that was Red Rooster followed by Bibo).

45 Curtain Road has taken two of the biggest London restaurant trends this year and brought them together under one roof. It'll be a Japanese chophouse with a menu influenced by the

Marylebone has a new sushi spot that wouldn't look out of place in the heart of Mayfair. But it turns out that Aki London is more than just a looker.

You may have been able to tell if you're a long-time follower of Hot Dinners that we're complete Japanese bakery addicts here. So when news reached us of a new opening in Canary Wharf, we had to find out more.

Cafe Seek is the project of two good friends Pinky Chan and Emily Leung, both Hong Kong expats who bonded in London over their burgeoning bakery businesses. Pinky was passionate about Japanese