Kiku - Mayfair

From the outside this spacious Mayfair Japanese looks elegantly cool, but the interior aims for minimalism with its functional contemporary features, stone floor and natural wood panels.

Up a few steps from the entrance is the sushi bar, which claims to be London's largest. Its long menu offers a vast range of nigiri such as saketoro (salmon belly), colourful kazunoko (herring roe) and miru gai (giant clams), as well as rolled 'maki' (marinated mackerel and perilla leaves, for example) and assorted combos.

In the main room, you can choose between the Japanese carte or lavish 'kaiseki' banquets. Stimulate your appetite with nameko mushrooms on shredded mooli or nasu denkaku (deep-fried aubergine with sweet miso paste). The rest of the menu highlights cooking techniques like grilled salted silver cod, lemon sole casserole, assorted tempura and sunomono salads involving octopus, jellyfish seaweed and 'others'. Saké sorbet is a fun way to finish.