Aqua Kyoto

Managment and staff are rude, obnoxious and you wait hours to get served.

I keep going back hoping that it would improve but it just seems to get worse.

If you like japanees then go to Zuma 100 times better and staff are very pleasent and helpful.

The only plus is the roof terrace.
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Katherine
5 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 7
Thursday, April 21, 2011

The top Japanese restaurants in London have set a very high standard and clearly Aqua Kyoto has ambitions to be elevated into that exhaulted company.

If I were to judge this restaurant by those standards I would say it fails. However Aqua Kyoto is still quite enjoyble The setting is great, 5th floor of a building overlooking Regents Street, modern minimalist interior, the atmosphere has a great buzz. The food is good but from a dinner that included sashimi, soup, black cod, tempura to say that the highlight for me was the twice baked pork belly seems a bit odd for a Japanese restaurant.

This restaurant huffs and puffs but didnt quite deliver the knock-out blow!
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Deji - View all reviews by this user
8 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 6
Saturday, March 19, 2011

The service is not to my liking, constantly moving your cutlery and invading the space of a conversation.

Good quality food but you pay through the nose and they pour the wine so quickly that, with out you knowing, you're drunk by the main.
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Nadine Talalla
4 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 0
Monday, January 24, 2011

This is one of the worst places in London. Positioning themselves as a luxury restaurant the girls check your booking 3 times at different places before letting you to your table.

then we were told to ait 20 mins for our PREBOOKED table and NO APOLOGIES!!!! they didnt even care! the main restaurant area is vey small, not like on the picture at the website, some cheap-looking bar with hundreds of noisy drunk people.

omg, never never go there if you are used to pay big money for GOOD service cuz this isnt the place to have a good evening at. staff is rude and dumb and everything is incredibly disorganised. Imagine you take a girl for a date and then you are told : wait 20 mins for PREBOOKED table, how would you feel?...

another WANNA BE POSH retaurant with WANNA BE posh people.. ha ha
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Vanessa
1 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Don't waste your time there. Rude door staff (probably think they're bouncers at some Mayfair club) and food is not that great. Go if you're an attention-seeker.
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A.b.
0 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, November 02, 2010

I've eaten at Aqua Kyoto three times now. The first couple of occasions were for lunch with the girls. We all ordered the Bento box, some opting for the chicken teryaki, while I went for the beef with Japanese mustard sauce. Both were delicious! I think my favourite thing about the Bento boxes was the mixed veg and shrimp tempura, which were so more'ish. There was so much to choose from in each box. We all thought they were great value for money at around £16 per person. The only negative I can think of was the miniature cup of what can only be described as savoury jelly, which we tried. We all decided it was an acquired taste, and something the menu could probably do without.

My third time at Aqua was for a friend's birthday celebration in September. I suggested the venue and when I rang to reserve a table, the lovely receptionist informed me Aqua could provide a birthday cake at £6.50 per person, which I ordered. We started the evening with cocktails on one of the fantastic terraces because it was such a beautiful day, before moving inside for dinner. We opted for lots of different dishes, which is a great way to eat at a restaurant like Aqua because your whole table gets to sample various things from the menu. The service was great, with our waitress explaining all the dishes to us with care. The sushi and sashimi were very fresh and got a resounding 'thumbs up' from everyone. My stand out favourite dish from that night was the crab wrapped in nori with crab miso. At the end of the dinner our waitress brought out the sumptuous cake, to the surprise of the birthday girl! It was made of light and dark chocolate, and more than enough for the six of us. In fact they very kindly put the leftover cake into a box for my friend to take home.

I highly recommend Aqua Kyoto, and all my friends who have eaten there feel the same. I'm looking forward to my next visit!
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Gloria Greedy-Guts
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Thursday, October 14, 2010

I went to Aqua for lunch and had the Bento Box, and I have to say it was absolutely delicious. There was just enough there to fill me up without making me feel bloated, the sushi was so light and tender, full of flavour, and with the Box there was a really decent variety of things to choose from. Plus, some of my party wanted a bit from one Box and a bit from the other and the staff were more than happy to arrange that. We were totally looked after, the staff were very friendly but also left you alone to get on with your meal, only checking on every now and again which I really appreciated - I can't stand it when waiters hover! But when you needed something, there was always someone there to help you out. Overall a really enjoyable, relaxed and tasty lunch, I'd definitely go back for more :)
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Kat
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Having read many of the reviews here, I am wondering whether I needed glasses and a new set of ears or whether I was at the wrong restaurant for what I am my party experienced was not far off pretty damn good.

We were greeted firstly by some very charming girl who was running the door downstairs, very polite and helpful and were led to a lift that took us to the restaurant which is situated on the top floor. One of my party had been to the restaurant in Hong Kong and said there were similarities, only difference - we were travelling up some 6 floors as opposed to 36. The girl at the the other end of the lift was warm, helpful and welcomed us to the restaurant.

We were seated immediately and soon after out drinks order was taken. The place is set out nicely, plenty of room and comfortable. Having arrived to a reception that was more or less pitch black we expected much of the same at the restaurant but it wasn't, all very good on the eye. Our waiter seemed well informed and for someone like myself who has a somewhat fussy palette, quickly aided me as to what I would enjoy.

The food was great, tasty and I filling, which I hadn't expected knowing the dishes are usually small at such restaurants.

Being a smoker it was a real bonus that the terrace at Aqua accommodates this. Roomy, great views of London and clean.

If there are any negatives to Aqua, neither I or my friends experienced them on our visit. Well worth the experience and one we'll be doing again.
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James Richards
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, October 12, 2010

I would never recommend Aqua-London bar to anyone. First of all the manager cannot speak proper english. Secondly the blonde sitting next to the door looks very confused and is completely unhelpful! I stood at door for an hour - but they didn't let me in! Very discriminative place! Go somewhere else, you'll enjoy anywhere else more and it'll also be better quality and cheaper! Trust me - this place is not worth it. Don't waste your time even trying it!
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Dhruv Shah
1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Sunday, October 03, 2010

I came here, I had fun, but the food was poor. The sushi and sashimi just didn't taste fresh, fatty & creamy as I would expect. After seeing the comparisons with Nobu here I had high hopes, but I have actually had better sashimi from a box at Itsu....sad.

We also had some tempura, which was good, nothing special. The black cod was very good, I must admit. We also had some noodles with black bean & mushroom which were pretty good.

We had a slightly peculiar waiter, very keen to be helpful, but with a knack for somehow making everything more confusing than it needed to be.

Also - there was a lot of confusion about what could & couldn't be booked in terms of a table- you CAN book a table in Aqua Kyoto, but you CAN'T book a space around the central sushi bar thing where you watch the not very nice sushi being prepared.

One thing that did please me was the wine list, we tried two very acceptable bottles of red. The list as a whole was fairly highly priced, but a Cotes du Rhone and a Malbec in the £40 bracket were both very acceptable choices at the lower end of the scale.

It's true that this won't cost you as much as Nobu or Zuma, but it's still not cheap, and I'd probably rather fork out the extra £50 a head and be wowed than save the money and be decidedly underwhelmed, as at Aqua Kyoto.
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Fiona
6 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 5
Friday, October 01, 2010