Sushi Bar Tokiya - London

Okay, so I've been known to build up hype, but with Tokiya I feel I'm justified. This is a brilliant sushi place it certainly could hold its own when I compare it to places I've loved in California (the closest I've come to Japan... so for that reason, it gets five stars from me. The place is small only 10 or 11 tables and the menu is humble. But with a blackboard that lists the fresh fish of the day and a few specials, you know Tokiya offers quality over quantity. Their salmon skin roll was the best I've ever had. Ever. And based on the aforementioned fresh fish blackboard, I had a piece of yellowtail sashimi which was heaven. The wine list, again pretty small, is impressive. Decent prices all around. And a very smiley server (although one waitress for the whole place on a Saturday night means you may have to wait a little while for your food/drinks/bill . I'd gladly come back to Tokiya for sushi again bonus that it's in Clapham, as that's not too far from home!

Mediocrity. It 's not as bad as it seems when it comes to sushi in London. Just had Tokiya Sushi and have to say: why are resturants so cheap with their fish when making maki here? All I 'm asking for is equal parts fish/veggie to rice, not even more fish than rice like I 'd find in the US but this seems like a difficult enough ask. On the upside, their sushi is yum yum yummie, and pretty cheap, affordable by all who have about 10-15 quid to spend on a dinner, but maki, although good, has such a small amount of the fish you order in it, it doesn 't even make sense to order them over the sushi unless you really don 't like fish. Not so good point #2 My dinner-mate got a sushi regular which was 6 pieces of sushi and 5 pieces of maki. What they didn 't state was that maki means the cheapest thing possible which turned out to be a cucumber roll with not even a bit of fish in the roll in sight. Obviously if people are ordering a sushi plate, they aren 't vegetarians and generally will expect SOME fish in their maki! End diagnosis, would order take away from (i forgot to mention there is a 10 pound per person rule even though most of their entrees are under 10 pounds and oh yeah it DOESN 'T include drinks) especially the sushi, but don 't go by the photo here, you are lucky if the maki comes with half that much filling, albeit they are still tasty if unsatisfactory. sushi pretty good, maki order take away from Tsunami just down the other way.

We decided to stay in and order sushi, but probably should have just gone out. The women on the phone (I actually had to speak to two of them just to put in the order) kept saying my card wouldn't run because they didn't understand my address. Wen the sushi finally got to us over an hour later, it lacked any real flavor or substance. After I got a call from my bank the next day because the restaurant charged my card FIVE times, the same two women at the restaurant refused to admit that they'd done anything wrong and said that they only charged me once. After three days and a lot of back-and-forth, I finally just got my bank to dispute the charges for me, and after almost a week I got my money back.

Moving to London from Vancouver has meant that it has been harder to find the high quality authentic sushi that I've grown used to. Luckily, the Japanese husband/wife duo running Tokiya seems to offer just that! Tokiya Sushi Bar is probably the closest sushi restaurant I've found in London that seems to offer a more purist experience. Here, the emphasis is on traditional nigiri and sushi, rather than cream cheese in sushi rolls, or Americanized behemoth sized sushi. You can often judge the quality of a sushi restaurant based on the nigiri (especially the tamago), and at Tokiya, these were all easily up to par. The rice actually had the proper vinegared flavour, the fish was very fresh, and the nigiri came pre-wasabi'd! The menu is also quite extensive, with more nigiri options than your standard salmon and tuna. Here, you can order nigiri with amaebi, seabream, yellowtail, ikura, hotate, sea bass, etc. I only wish they had uni here as well. There is also 10% off when you order takeout!

Don't you hate when you get your hopes all up and then you're kind of let down. Well, after reading three rather promising reviews on this sushi place, my Swiss friend and I decided to give this place a try...alas I have to say that my dinner experience was just average: neither did it really suck but it definitely didn't blow my mind either. For appetizers we ordered the classic dishes: edamame and vegetable tempura. And usually you can't really go wrong with these, but somehow I didn't enjoy either of them: the edamame portion was rather miniscule (for £3) and the tempura was not crispy but soggy...not good! We then had several sushi rolls, which were definitely better than what we had before and kind of made up for the rather disappointing start. Yet, what I found really annoying is that there was only a tiny bit of wasabi and a small heap of pickled ginger...and...if you would want more ginger you'd actually have to purchase it at the additional expense of £1!!! That's just not right...ginger is like the Japanese version of ketchup and should come free, or not? Service was also disappointly un-Japanese: the waitress was rather cold and not as welcoming as I am used to from other Japanese places. My verdict: if I would live in this neighbourhood I might come back and give it another try, but given the fact that I live on the oppsite side of the city.,,