Matsuri

We are from Australia and I wish I had read the reviews about this restaurant here first… before we went to Matsuri St James for dinner on saturday night, unfortuneately we also found it verrry disappointing as other reviewers and so not what I was hoping for to celebrate a friends special birthday.

I just so wish I had chosen from other recommendations for the evening, as nothing would have been more disappointing than this was…

It does not live up to it's reputation if it is considered a top London restaurant and the website makes it appear a million times more appealing and new than it actually is. ( as they do!! )

When we arrived we were asked if we would like to have a drink in the bar first while waiting for our friends to arrive.
We were taken to a small bar area just near the entrance… OMG it was not even a working bar, is not attended by a barperson, they bring the drinks from the bar downstairs. So while sitting at this bar waiting for our drinks we could see how filthy dirty the sink was and the glass shelves with alchohol bottles looked like they hadn't been cleaned or dusted in months, so our first impressions were not good. There was absolutely no atmosphere other than a feeling of disgust. We complained and decided to go to our table to wait instead.

The food was not good quality at all and can only be described as verrry average. The service was also lacking as we waited ages for our second drinks to come. I am used to all selections at a tepanyaki table being served in individual portions, Matsuri did that with some of the meat selections but vegetable selections were served on two plates to share between six – including sauces. Two bowls of steamed rice were served at the end when we had finished so not sure what it was meant to go with. Therefore my conclusion is the service of the meal is very inconsistant and not delivered in an orderly fashion.

Not what we would expect for a Japanese Tepanyaki London restaurant. Adelaide's Shiki Japanese restaurant in the Hyatt Regency is world class in food quality and service and a thousand times better than Matsuri any day.

I have advised our hotel concierge to scratch it off their recommendation list, they obviously haven't had any feedback about it for some time or been there themselves to experience it first hand. I'm sure it was not just a bad night, it is so run down and tired and the food being so average does not make up for this.

Really don't waste your time and money as there are so many better restaurants to out there to try.

truly awful, we arrived at nine oclock, as a group of 6 people, we were shown to our table, sat at the table for 10 minutes without any service before our waitress told us we had to move as there was no chef?? we refused to move. We went for £56 menu, sashami was awful, very poor quality, quite chewey. i picked seafood for our chef to cook at our table , salmon and tuna fillets were totaly vaporised and served on cold plates so was luke warm within 1 minute. by 10 pm the place was deserted. The place had no atmoshere at all. bill came to 550 quid for 6 of us, would rather have paid 100 quid more and gone to zuma. very dissapointing . will never go back to this restuarant or any other like it. Food is cooked on a huge grill and then just dumped on your plate.

Atmosphere scores low because teh dining area is in the basement, so not a great lunch time venue. Not to mention the main dining area is tepanyaki tables, where food smells are a bit distracting and there is a lack of privacy. The sushi bar is a bit cramped when it is full too. However despite this poor atmosphere I do keep returning (I call it my rainy day lunch place!). The lunch box is really a treat and provides really good traditional Japanese dishes. Some of special lunch menu items I find make poor combinations, such as mixing fried food and sushi, but the soba is excellent. Tepanyaki is not my thing, but if you want to entertain the kids, it is fun whilst ofering a better standard than Benehana (spelling?).
The suhi bar offers excellent standard sushi / sashimi etc. It is pretty expensive, but the quality of ingreients and preparation justifies the price. Desert looks lovely, but I have not yet had spce to try.

I visited Matsuri 10 years ago and vowed never to go again. When I discovered yesterday evening I was to return, I only hoped things had improved. I'm sorry to say nothing has changed, this still remains one of the worst Japanese restaurants outside of Japan. The food is slightly above average, although the Sashimi certainly was not particulraly fresh, I've seen better in high street supermarkets. The Tepanyaki steak, whilst cooked to perfection, was as tough as a Sumo wrestlers thong. The service, whilst prettily packaged Japanese, lacks any real character and true Japanese quality. The main issue I have with the restaurant is the stench of fatty food which lingers as soon as you enter. They really need to upgrade the extractor fans above the Tepenyaki tables, assuming they turned them on. I've no problem with paying for great Japanese food, but this place is high priced for extremely average food and poor service. One to avoid for the next 10 years.

The food here is simply divine. I's not a cheap night out, but definitely one for special occassions.