Life

There’s nothing quite like Life, with its less-is-more dining room – London brick, blond wood, one or two lucky trinkets – & an even sparser counter area on the way in. It’s a Japanophile’s delight, not only because it deals in good-quality sushi & tempura, but also because of the little shop downstairs, selling clothing, crafts & lifestyle accessories. At lunchtime, local workers stop in for set lunches of teriyaki chicken or miso-marinated mackerel; later on, when the pace slows for dinner, the menu includes a long list of inside-out sushi from soft-shell crab tempura rolls to the house special of eel, crab, avocado & smelt roe, alongside black cod in miso, Kobe beef tobanyaki, & puddings such as homemade sesame ice cream. Chilled-out, arty & definitely worth investigating.