MissSushi's review of Nozomi

Nozomi is one of the most embarrassing restaurants in London. To call it a japanese restaurant is an insult to japanese gastronomy. It is therefore extremely surprising to see it listed under ‘Best Japanese’ next to award winning kitchens such as Nobu, Zuma and Umu.
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. Hardened steamed rice which was at least one day old, refrigerated and then microwaved to order, was the least of our worries. 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 because it looked and smelled like food poisoning on a plate. 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 London big boys, which results in a shamefull and mortifying experience for all: the management of the restaurant and the poor patrons who have to sit through a painfull and less than mediocre dinner.