Thirty years ago, a Japanese meal in London would have looked something like the House of Blue Leaves in Kill Bill, only without the bloodshed: kimino-clad waitresses swishing through bamboo screens to wait on diners seated cross-legged on tatami mats on the floor. Then, in the late Nineties, along came Wagamama Yo! Sushi and Nobu and suddenly Japanese food was both approachable and exclusive in a different way. Japanese food was, in a word, cool.
Londoners haven’t lost their appetite for all-things Nippon — Japanese restaurants are opening at a rate of about 10-a-year — but there is now an appreciation that there is far more to the cuisine than sushi and noodles.
