Japan’s influence on the way we drink cannot be overstated. An entrenched culture of artisanship and craft combined with a love of the good life has made Japan a force to be reckoned with in the noble field of boozing. As a fellow island nation with a similar appreciation for the hard stuff, we Brits have taken a serious interest in how our Japanese cousins get their drink on. In London today, traditional fare like sake and shochu, as well as finely honed interpretations of single malt and gin, feature prominently on our cocktails lists. There’s never been a better time to drink Japanese-style in the city and these are some of the best places to do it.
The Aubrey – Knightsbridge
After a hard couple of years, the London bar scene is starting to feel optimistic once again. The first weeks of 2022 have seen a string of openings around the city – ambitious projects backed by serious investors. One of the most promising of this new wave of bars is the self-styled ‘eccentric Japanese Izakaya’ that opened in late-January under the Mandarin Oriental. The space was lately occupied by Bar Boloud, which turned out bistro classics and foie gras capped beef burgers until the pandemic diverted its clientele of well-heeled visitors. New resident Maximal Concepts – a Hong Kong-based group with bars and restaurants across the globe – is offering is something a touch more contemporary and frankly much more fun.
A warren of rooms lined with paintings and filled with comfortable chairs branch off from a very nicely appointed central bar. The adjoining kitchen supplies guests with a selection of fancified Japanese bar food – including some seriously good nigiri and tempura – but the real focus here is the cocktails. The list is bang-on-trend with all the house made sodas and clarified this-or-that you need to open a bar these days, as well as traditional Japanese ingredients like umeshu and several varieties of shochu. A good place to stary is with the extravagantly named ‘Death of the Lion’ – it’s a slightly bitter, aperitif-y number with Ki No Bi gin, yuzu, and tonic reduction served over one of those big ice cubes so clear that it seems barely to exist. You’re also encouraged to order ‘omakase’ – a convention in Japanese dining in which you slide the menu to one side and let the chef serve you what’s best. Leaving your bartender to tailor the cocktails is a great way to explore the backbar and get the best out of your visit. Not to be missed.
Kanpai Sake Brewery & Taproom – Peckham
It’s not uncommon to hear sake described as ‘rice wine’ or ‘a type of beer’ but both descriptions fail to sum up how unique a drink it really is. The complex production process in which rice is milled and polished, then inoculated with kōji mold to facilitate fermentation, produces an astonishing range of flavours. Among the bottles at a sake shop will be fresh, light styles that taste of melon and apple alongside umami-rich brews reminiscent of mushrooms and dry Sherry. It’s an incredibly diverse brewing tradition that has been practice in Japan since about the 3rd century and South London since 2016.
Kanpai is the point at which sake and craft beer meet. Husband and wife team Tom and Lucy Wilson began brewing sake after a trip to Japan and never looked back. They moved into their base of operations in an industrial unit in Peckham’s Copeland Park in 2018. Grab a bench among the brewing equipment and you can enjoy an ever-evolving selection of sake, dumplings and noodles courtesy of Brixton village favourite Okan, and Asahi on draft. It’s a far cry from the West London cocktail spots that populate the rest of this list but no worse for it.
While the selection of sake arriving in London from Japan is better than ever, this homespun brewery offers something you won’t get without a long-haul flight to Kobe. In addition to flights showcasing the various styles produced at Kanpai, you’ll have the chance to drink fresh sake straight out of the tank. The un-filtered sake is cloudy, creamy and fizzing with life – totally unlike anything else served in the city and worth getting the overground for.
Sexy Fish – Mayfair
That’s right, the one on Berkley Square with the waterfall in the wall and the Damien Hirst Mermaids. The restaurant menu is enormous and as ostentatious as you’d expect – all caviar, on wagyu, on truffle, on the black card. It’s the sort of food that works its charms on you or it doesn’t. However, if you pull up a stool at the bar, you’ll find the offering there undeniably impressive. The cocktails are good, the staff is fantastic, and the list of Japanese whiskies is the most comprehensive you’ll find in the UK.
At the end of the 20th century, Japanese whisky sales were slow domestically and practically non-existent abroad. As a result, production was pared back and many distilleries closed their doors, never to re-open. Just a few years hence and the world woke up to the quality of Japanese malt, causing demand for now incredibly rare old bottles to skyrocket. Large portions of the menu at Sexy Fish were acquired from private hands, meaning there are whiskies available by the measure there that you simple won’t find elsewhere. This includes yesteryear’s limited-edition releases from big-name distilleries like Yamazaki and impossible to find single casks from indie superstar Chichibu. Anyone with even a passing interest in Japanese malt should stop by and order a large measure of the house exclusive Chichibu Chassagne-Montrachet Pinot Noir Cask. It’s a powerful whisky with fruity notes of ruby Port, blueberries, cinnamon and cedar wood.
Visitors also have the chance to try vanishingly rare drams from Japan’s ghost distilleries. These include quite possibly the only open bottle of Kagoshima single malt in the country and several expressions from Kawasaki distillery – widely considered the finest single grain whiskies ever made. You’ll pay handsomely for the privilege but it’s about right for a taste of history.
Shochu Lounge – Fitzrovia
Part of the globe-spanning Roka/Zuma restaurant empire, Shochu lounge was one of the first spots in London to showcase Japanese bartending techniques when it opened back in 2004. Show up at the right time and you can find the bartenders there portioning a monumental slab of transparent ice into cubes and bars with the aid of a saw and a square-bladed soba knife. You could quite happily spend a few hours there drinking Japan-ified Sex on the Beaches and taking selfies under the canopy of faux cherry blossoms, but scratch the surface and Shochu Lounge has lots for the drinks geek to get their teeth into.
There are jars and urns about the place filled with shochu – traditional Japanese spirit made variously from rice, sweet potato, or buckwheat – aging, infusing and being generally intriguing. Like Sexy Fish, this place also has a statement whisky list – if you have several hundred pounds burning a hole in your wallet you can throw down a shot of very nice sherried Karuizawa single malt while you’re there. But it’s also one of the few places in town where you can drink awamori, a cousin of Shochu made only in Japan’s southernmost prefecture of Okinawa. Like sake, awamori affords great opportunities for food pairing, its natural umami offering a boost to meat and seafood. Happily, the bar is catered by Roka upstairs so you can order some maki rolls and a precisely robata’d tranche of that black cod everyone talks about to keep your cocktails company.
Sakaya – Belgravia
This tiny Izakaya sits incongruously on Belgravia’s Motcomb street, tucked into a corner of dining/retail/Instagram story hot spot Pantechnicon. With just four seats lining the pale wooden counter, Sakaya is on the cosy side but if you can find three friends interested in high quality Japanese boozing it’s a great night out. The bar and bottle shop offers a neatly curated selection of whisky, beer, cocktails, and sake – the latter being overseen by Sake Samurai Nastuki Kikuya. Since arriving in London more than a decade ago, Natsuki has been a great ambassador for the category, helping to teach the people of Britain about Japan’s national drink through her work in hospitality and with the Wine & Spirits Education Trust. Apparently, the title ‘Sake Samurai’ is an honour given out by the Japanese government and not just a nickname she’s adopted, but we’ll have to take her word for that.
While there’s plenty of fun to be had booking the place out and working your way through the highball list and a few bar snacks, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on Pantechnicon’s ‘experience’ calendar. The line-up for the coming months includes Japanese whisky masterclasses and an introduction to the world of sake with Natsuki herself for two people. It’s fair to say that sake can appear a little opaque at first – in much the same way wine is intimidating to begin with – so this is the perfect way to get started.
In the event that you stop by and Sakaya is full, the bar at Sachi – the Japanese restaurant in Pantechnicon’s basement – is likewise excellent and well worth a visit. Try the house Vesper Martini made with Haku vodka and Roku gin; it’s an easy-going interpretation of the classic formula packed with soft florals and aromatic yuzu. From there it would be a shame not to order from the sushi bar, it’s one of the best in London right now.
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