Nozomi

Nozomi is one of the most embarassing restaurants in London. To call it a japanese restaurant is an insult to japanese gastronomy.
I have been there twice and both times were a waste of time, appetite and money. Both times the service was unacceptable: waiters did not understand the menu or the ingredients and were confused by the meanings of ‘handroll’ and tobbiko (which was NOT available). In fact the service is comical: the first time the waitress needed us to point at each dish on the menu to copy what we were ordering – she still got it wrong, brought us the wrong dishes and asked what this extra wasabi was that we wanted since she could not find it on the menu. The food is a badly executed copy from much more successfull rivals. Steamed rice gets hard when it is one day old, refrigerated and then microwaved (to the previous reviewer) and ours was exactly that. Generally most fish we were served at Nozomi was of poor quality and therefore tasteless. The salmon, tuna, yellowtail & seabass sashimi were very obviously from a cheap mass farmer and scallop sashimi did not taste fresh – we left it. The black cod resembled a soup and the duck was swimming in teriyaki sauce, a common trick restaurants perform, to mask poor or expired products. The music makes your ears cry, it's not a nightclub and even if it were, it'd be a really sad one full of clowns. Overall a pathetic attempt for sushi-beginners at trying to play with the big boys (Zuma & Nobu) which results in a shamefull and embarrassing experience for all: the management of… More

A new low for restauarants in London. All the reviews below concerning the incredibly poor service are correct. Incompetent, disorganised, rude. The only thing I can add is my own “special” experience. While I was eating, someone went through the pockets of my coat which I had handed in to the cloakroom and took the money from my pocket. Not a big sum – about five pounds. But the principle is pretty shocking. And that is on top of a bill which had two phantom dishes added to it – which were removed when I pointed them out to the waiter.

I wish I had read the reviews below before choosing Nozomi. I can only hope that you read this before making your decision and are saved from this awful experience.

An absolute disaster of a place!!! In earlier days it it used to be great but now they have a new chef who does not even know how to cook a simple bowl of steamed rice. Our first portion was hard and crispy and then when we asked for another bowl it came back mushy like porridge. The chef we were told is Australian. Maybe he should stick to surfing rather than cooking.

The service was also terrible as the waiters kept bringing us dishes and champagne that we never ordered (on multiple occasions) and also taking away unfinished half full glasses of champagne. Also, they brought our starters and main courses out all at the same time! What was even worst though was the attitude of the staff, especially the French guy at the front desk who greets people and shows them to their tables. We had to hunt him down when we first arrived, and later we found out that he had a really ugly side. He was extremely rude and arrogant and walked away from me when I was still talking to him and then when I called him back to question him about the bad service he huffed and puffed with complete disregard to what I was saying and didn't bother to even look me in the eye. SHOCKING.

When we finally told him that we were not going to pay the full price of bill he had the nerve to ask us if we went around other restaurants trying not to pay. I was so upset by this comment I burst into tears. Still he never even bothered to apologise. I was totally disgusted and humiliated by him and the whole experience and will never go back there. As one other reviewer… More