Written by: Felix K., London

Café Japan was another recommendation by a (Japanese!) friend. The restaurant is located close to Golders Green tube station (Northern Line) and, as life goes sometimes, has a fellow sushi competitor right next door. We stuck to our original plan though and discovered that Café Japan, like Asakusa, is a small family run restaurant with a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere rather than the fancy interior often found in central London places. The many award certificates on the wall and the professional chefs busying themselves behind the sushi bar added to the comfort. The place was busy when we arrive and although it did quieten down I would still recommend making a reservation.

We didn’t bother with starters this time and went straight for the sushi. The choice was difficult (as usual) so we started with OMAKASE-SUSHI, a chef’s selection of Nigri sushi. The plate was nicely presented with a large variety of sushi such as scallop, salmon, tuna, squid, mackerel, sea bream, eel, crab, sweet prawn, sea urchin, butter fish and god knows what else. The raw fish was fresh and the rice was soft and tasty. The problem was though that there was only one piece of each which made sharing difficult. We were generally quite impressed with the sushi but there was more to be tasted.

We went on to order a ‘spider roll’ (fried soft shell crab) which was very (!) tasty. The combination of avocado, cucumber and fried soft shell crab probably made this the best one of those I ever had.

One specific recommendation my friend gave me was to try the grilled fish and so we went off the sushi pages and ordered ‘salt grilled yellow neck’. Very good … I have to say. The neck was surprisingly meaty, although you do need to watch out for the occasional bones, and delicately cooked.

Finally, we ordered some Maki (‘squid and fermented soya bean’), which unfortunately didn’t blow us away as much as the previous three courses. But by that time we were pretty much stuffed anyway.

Summary:

The bill came to just under 50 pounds, including beers, which was good value for money. The staff was friendly and the quality of the sushi was good. The fish was fresh for London standards and the food was presented nicely (who doesn’t love those green plastic thingies between the sushi pieces).

General information:

Street address: 626 Finchley Road, London, NW11 7RR
Opening hours: 12pm to 2pm (Sat & Sun), 6pm – 9:30pm (Wed to Sun), closed on Mon & Tue
Phone number: +44 (0)20 8455 6854

How did you like Cafe Japan - Golders Green, London?

• Not at all!
• Mediocre
• Ok
• Quite good
• Delicious!

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