Cafe Japan

We ordered yesterday a combination of 10 different rolls, 4 miso soups, a salad and edameme from Cafe Japan. The service is very good. The food isn't.

a. The fish was not very good. The fatty tuna pieces were probably the worst I've ever received and was almost non-edible. The red tuna was much more pink than red. The salmon was fine.

b. The rolls looked anything but appetising. Sushi is supposed to be as pleasure to look at as it is to eat it. The rolls that we received were rolled very unprofessionally and looked, well, bad!

c. The seaweed salad was probably the worst I've ever received. It was basically pieces of old lettuce and bland tasting seaweed pieces that cost £0.50 a pack in supermarket. We threw it all out.

d. The miso soup was nothing special but we didn't expect much from it either so that was fine (£1.50 a bowl).

The price of regular rolls in Cafe Japan is reasonable but I would not describe it as cheap. For £4.60 per salmon avocado roll you can get much better sushi elsewhere.

All in all we were very disappointed and won't try this place again. There are simply better places around in West Hampstead and elsewhere, that actually care about serving fresher, better looking, appetising sushi.
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Marcos
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Sunday, August 10, 2008

Thee best Sushi and Japanese food ever! Very fun atmosphere and fantastic food!

Great friendly service and reasonable priced so you won't break the bank going to dinner.

I definitely recommend Cafe Japan!
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Crys
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Definetly best Japanese restaurant in London!

Try sashimi super-hot, eel sushi, sea urchin sushi and fried crispy tuna rolls.

Black cod main dish is really good too!

I will keep going every week as always!!!

Strongly recomended
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SUPERMAN
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Friday, March 28, 2008

This restaurant is amazing. My husband and I have been going to Cafe Japan for several years now and it's by far our favourite Japanese restaurant in London. The spicy crispy yellow tail rolls are to die for! The fish is very fresh and the service warm and friendly.
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Deepa Ramchandani
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, March 20, 2008

We read all these glowing reviews and naturally went to see and eat for ourselves. And we have to say we were disappointed, not hugely so, but noticeably. We thought the seaweed salad was fine and the miso soup also but honestly that was about as good as it got. The sushi was OK but not beautiful by any means and the sashimi likewise was fair at best. I had the grilled eel set which was an interesting experience, The eel itself was not at all bad but there was a genuinely horrid salmon item at top left which I couldn't and wouldn't eat. So that was pretty much that.
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Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 4
Saturday, November 24, 2007

We have been to Cafe Japan, oh, only a million times over the past 6 years since we discovered it. It's incredible! From the simultaneous greetings from all the staff in the restaurant when you enter and leave, to the quality of the food, this is my favourite London Sushi bar.

Pick up any Harden's, Square Meal, or other specialist Restaurant guide, and you'll find this restaurant reviewed with glowing praise.

Contrary to some ridiculous (IMHO) comments below referring to the place as unclean and the food not being fresh, I can tell you the the food most definitely IS fresh, and the place is as clean as you will find a busy kitchen usual is. (I mean it's not an operating theatre for goodness sake!). This place is packed, absolutely packed, always - that ought to be enough of an endorsement of it's level of quality food and smiley, attentive service. Considering we are takling about raw fish here,iIf it were not fresh, we would have had food poisoning at least once by now, considering the huge number of times we've frequented the place.

Favourites are the Salmon salad starter, the Crispy Fried Yellow Tail inside out roll, and the prawn tempura rolls. Their green tea, is simply superb (unlimited top ups), and their salmon sashimi is marvellous!

Though it's true to say that their menu could do with a little more variety for those of us who have already sampled everything on it!, they do regularly put on specials, what the menu lacks in inventiveness, it more than makes up for in quality.

If you want simple honest sushi and sashimi, with consistent freshness, tastiness and quality, then you'll not be disappointed. And at their prices???

You'll be converted instantly.
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Some people really seem to be mis-informed and mis-leading with their badly written, (mis-spelt) cynical reviews: this is a Japanese Kitchen, not a Japanese Restaurant! For that reason it offers excellent value, authentic Japanese cuisine, that is wide-ranging, fresh and served promptly by charming friendly waitresses. Who cares if they are from HK?, what does that matter?

From the moment you enter and you're greeted with friendly ????? ("hello") in Japanese by the many chefs behind the front kitchen, then we were treated to

a feast of various dishes from deep fried soya bean curd, pickes, sashimi, seaweed salad, chef-selection sushi of shellfish and fresh fatty tuna and deep red tuna, butterfish which melted in the mouth, and I could go on....

We paid £112 for 4 people with drinks - and we ate A LOT! The head chef waived goodbye as we left whilst tucking into his own evening nosh.

Great value. Highly recommended
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C Marks
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 10
Sunday, August 19, 2007

Worth going for the service alone. Quite a find to discover a Japanese restaurant where the staff are ALL (even the Chef, who opened the door for us as we left) obliging and quintessentially Japanese (though they might be from HK, as someone suggested here).

Great fried yellow-tail maki, and I love the traditional cafe-style setting. Worth the trip up to GG!
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TM
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 6
Monday, August 06, 2007

Not as good as Jin Kichi. It's packed and the service is mediocre. They should expand the menu to more non-sushi dishes like ramen and vegetable tempura. Limited menu, but pretty good value.
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NYCMel - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Saturday, August 04, 2007

very good place to try japanese food. I never try suchi before it was out of my brain. It,s realy good food.
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ed
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, July 11, 2007