Traditional and authentic Japanese restaurant in the heart of Mayfair, serving sushi, tempura and Teppan-yaki style cuisine with the very best of Japanese hospitality.
Only the very best produce is carefully sourced and prepared at The Matsuri. In Teppan-yaki, fresh fish, meat and vegetables are cooked by an expert chef on an iron hot plate in front of the customers. This style of cooking draws out the natural flavours of the finest ingredients such as Black Cod and Aberdeen Angus beef, not to mention make for a fun and theatrical meal. A full selection of wines and sakes are available.
Two private rooms may be hired.
Matsuri St James's
Japanese Restaurant in St James's
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No longer at this address
Our records show that Matsuri St James's is closed.
7 / 10 from 4 reviews
Cuisine
Japanese
Japanese
Other Branches
Matsuri Restaurant Group
Matsuri Restaurant Group
Region
St James's
St James's
Restaurant Facilities
Disabled Facilities
Children Welcome
Credit Cards Accepted
Private Area
Booking Advisable
Matsuri St James's Picture Gallery
Sushi Sashimi lunch menu
All In London Review
Great food and a bit of theatre make Matsuri lots of fun
As with many Japanese restaurants there’s a fairly dense menu, so if you wanted to spare yourself hesitating backwards and forwards you could spend between £65 and £145 on a tasting menu (this is not, as you might have guessed, the place for bargains). Warm starters include deep fried tuna cutlet coated in crispy breadcrumbs, made with rich fatty tuna; shrimp tempura is great, a huge juicy prawn dipped in barely there batter. We try fresh, flavoursome salmon and tuna sashimi, while yellowtail and sea bass sushi have a pleasingly high ratio of fish to rice.
But onto the main event. You may feel that you have to order something for the chef to flambé in front of you, causing flames to rise up halfway towards the ceiling, but it’s just as entertaining to be close to the visuals and smells. A hunk of fillet steak is grilled needing nothing but a sprinkling of black pepper, alongside fleshy black cod in a sticky ginger glaze. They come together with asparagus and onions; priced at £45 this is good value. Next there’s a decadently-sized dish of foie gras, mixed mushrooms and a thick slice of delicious rich smokey duck.
Other things worthy of note are the desserts, among them the flambéed ‘fireball ice cream’ and baked yuzu cheesecake with creamy yuzu mousse, as well as a wide variety of spirits (whisky in particular), sakes and shochus.
Waitresses dressed in traditional kimonos add to an atmosphere that’s ideal for celebrations, although there are plenty of couples on the night we visit. Sleek and with polished service, you’d never guess Matsuri was a joint venture from Japan’s largest rail company and famous soy sauce manufacturers Kikkoman.
Reviewed by Leila
Published on Jun 21, 2014
Best For
The most fun you can have whilst eating in London
Chuckle as you chomp
The oversized carnival mask that hangs near the entrance of Matsuri gives away the fact that, despite its sleek appearance and Mayfair location,this teppanyaki restaurant is a lot of fun. Affable chefs grill food in front of you, in some cases with theatrical smoke billowing up to the ceiling.
Things to Try
User Reviews
Corinne Fellows
from London
from London
Apr 28, 2014
A wonderful, traditional Japanese restaurant. Service was impeccable, friendly and polite. We ate a selection of expertly made sushi rolls and nigiri - all the freshest quality as you can imagine and beautifully presented. The tempura vegetables and prawns were light and crisp, and not even slightly greasy as it can be in other places. To follow was teppan-yaki steak, cooked in front of you on the hot plate. It was really fun to watch and again, the quality of the meat shone through. The meal concluded with fireball ice cream pancakes, again cooked on the hot plate and flambeed. Wonderful!
janenicola1976
Apr 28, 2014
Fantastic authentic Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant. Food was delicious and the ambeience was perfect. We tried sushi, tempura and the steak teppanyaki followed by the Fireball ice cream. A truly enjoyable experience.
Anonymous
Jun 27, 2009
We (4 friends) visited Matsuri 06/25/2009 and unfortunately it was an unpleasant experience.
Most important: The food was way under par, ranging from a refrigerator cold starter (vegetable salad) to a completely overcooked teppan main course (lobster and seafood). The entire meal was completely without any taste whatsoever, everything was bland.
The service:
We all had the same set menu, but the waiter kept arbitrarily cleaning our "table", some were left with 2-3 empty bowls/plates in front of them as they had finished the course, but the waiter kept bringing new courses instead of clearing the table.
Value for money:
None whatsoever. we paid £100 pp and the food, service and ambiance was unfortunately worthless.
The details:
- Vegetable salad, julienne in a vinaigrette, refrigerator cold, tasteless
- Soup, served in a teapot, virtually tasteless
- Salad, mixed salad, with tasty vinaigrette (only tasty component in the entire meal)
- Sashimi, salmon, scallops, tuna. All from frozen fish, carelessly sliced, too thick, salmon not properly cleaned (the brown, unpleasant, fatty layer had not been removed). Served with wasabi and soy sauce, no ginger.
- Tempura, 4 slices of carrot, one aubergine (all tasteless) + one prawn - OK
- Teppan with asparagus, carrot, scallops, lobster, scampi and squid. All but the squid were overcooked and underseasoned.
- Fireball ice cream. Expected it to be spicy, it wasn't.
I visited the Matsuri some years ago and it was pretty good, now it has lost everything.
I apologize for any spelling mistakes as English is not my 1st language.
Most important: The food was way under par, ranging from a refrigerator cold starter (vegetable salad) to a completely overcooked teppan main course (lobster and seafood). The entire meal was completely without any taste whatsoever, everything was bland.
The service:
We all had the same set menu, but the waiter kept arbitrarily cleaning our "table", some were left with 2-3 empty bowls/plates in front of them as they had finished the course, but the waiter kept bringing new courses instead of clearing the table.
Value for money:
None whatsoever. we paid £100 pp and the food, service and ambiance was unfortunately worthless.
The details:
- Vegetable salad, julienne in a vinaigrette, refrigerator cold, tasteless
- Soup, served in a teapot, virtually tasteless
- Salad, mixed salad, with tasty vinaigrette (only tasty component in the entire meal)
- Sashimi, salmon, scallops, tuna. All from frozen fish, carelessly sliced, too thick, salmon not properly cleaned (the brown, unpleasant, fatty layer had not been removed). Served with wasabi and soy sauce, no ginger.
- Tempura, 4 slices of carrot, one aubergine (all tasteless) + one prawn - OK
- Teppan with asparagus, carrot, scallops, lobster, scampi and squid. All but the squid were overcooked and underseasoned.
- Fireball ice cream. Expected it to be spicy, it wasn't.
I visited the Matsuri some years ago and it was pretty good, now it has lost everything.
I apologize for any spelling mistakes as English is not my 1st language.