This was the worst Japanese I have experienced in london. Surly waitress, frozen gyoza, no sign of apology, salmon nigiri was horrible-we left 2pieces which at £2 a piece is not something we normally do.. Not fresh fish and frozen dumplings. What a waste of money.

Substandard, but tasty. Was it the msg?

The starters were all deep fried, but if it was not for the semi-frozen tako-yaki (battered octopus balls), which I ate out of pure masochism, I would have said that the oil-saturated dishes were delightful, though perhaps more appropriate in a Glaswegian chippy.

My main course had so much promise. I ordered the simplest of Japanese dishes - oyakodon (chicken and onions cooked in stock on rice). Though not a spectacular failure, it had to be doused in soya sauce to taste of anything, and there was a real shortage of chicken and a surfeit of rice in the bowl.

The service was unfortunately slow, and the deadpan (possibly down-trodden?) staff seemed extremely busy with other customers. We asked for more tea a number of times, and when the poor waitress turned to fetch some, her imitation china teapot broke. She tried to hide this, but I saw her shame, which turned quickly into resignation. Eventually the tea arrived, though they were just cups scalding tap water at £1.50 a pop.

That said, the gourmand in me knows that I will be back to the pseudo-izakaya for the following reasons:

I love Japanese food, even imitations of it.

The place has some very tasty dishes (the deep fried starters all tasted suspiciously good).

Both the sushi rice and the plain rice were cooked to perfection, which is crucial to Asian cuisine.

It was relatively good value (£40 for two).

Frankly there aren't too many Japanese restaurants in the area - the closest ones are sen-nin up the road, which is even worse or Yo-Sushi down the road, whose conveyor belt food and decor are galling...

I would recommend this restaurant not as a fine dining experience, but as a fix: I needed some oriental food that was quick, cheap and dirty and I got what I asked for. My only concern is that I thought that Chinese and Indian were the quick fix Asian cuisines. Perhaps the owners of Tenshi spotted a lucrative gap in the market: fo

top night out. Great Japanese concept with fun entertainment and good food. Very reasonable and staff were friendly.

am i wrong or it's just some "Sen Nin" staff giving 5stars. it was simply "really bad" restaurant. just AVOID.

Having read the review on view london, we thought we would give it a go. It was such an entertaining experience. Really good fun. The chef who cooked at our table was simply the best. The food was cooked perfectly including the steak and salmon.
For starters we had the sushi which was fresh and those tempura prawns are simply devine!
The waiting staff were really good and the sake cocktails were enjoyed by all in our group. It is not a big restaurant but it seems that everyone has a good time. Keep on the good work! We will definately go back.

Very disappointing.

I trusted good review here ,but , it was horrible experience.

being a japanese i couldn't stand the poor quality sushi they had.obviously made by non-japanese.
teppanyaki chef(chinese) was yelling and screaming, totally destroying our dining time. really really annoying.that acrobatic teppanyaki stuff i wouldn't approve "japanese" anyhow.teppanyaki is something we have at home.

sorry to write such negative review but i can't help it because it was unbearably awful place.
there wasn't even "one" japanese staff and i realised this restaurant was run by chinese..or at least not japanese. it is upsetting when a japanese restaurant is run by other asians who look similar to us,then people here just think,"japanese, sounds good".

i think chinese,koreans and others should really lean japanese food/culture before they open up a "japanese" restaurant.
anyway i just wouldn't recommend people to go one of those restaurants cos usually they serve terrible japanese...

sorry guys but sen nin is an awful place to go

Ah-So is definitely one of the best Japanese places in London. There's quite a good selection for fans of this cuisine and I've recently started getting into it myself. Ah-So is the best one I've been to so far, so from what I know I can recommend it as a good sushi place.