Izakaya Japan

I've been to Japanese restaurants all over London, but none of the has the food quality and atmosphere that Izakaya has. All of the waiters are patient and fluent in english, and the owner is the sweetest woman I've ever met.

Also, it's reasonably priced and every time I pass there (which is often) it seems to never be empty.

Highly recommended!!!
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The food is great, had a lovely lunch with my friends. On top of this, it wasn't expensive!
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Ann D
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Had a really great meal here - authentic food, lots of choice on the menu and excellent service. Was very friendly and pretty quick even though the place was busy. I walk past the restaurant a lot and it always seems to have a lively atmosphere and a good mix of customers. Also reasonably priced. HIghly recommended!
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Phil L - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Saturday, March 02, 2013

What happened here in the space of a couple of months?!

I live a couple of streets down from the restaurant so came to check it out when it first opened, and was very impressed by the atmosphere and the excellent service of the waitresses. My friend who I went with and I had never had Japanese food, and there were two fluent English speaking waitresses who kindly and patiently answered all our questions. We also asked what kind of sake goes with what food and they also explained all of this to us. We were pleasantly surprised when the bill came as well. And the food - absolutely no complaints whatsoever, it was just perfect. Everything we ordered was hot food (the idea of raw fish scares me still), and it was absolutely delicious.

However. I took a friend with me a couple of days ago as I wanted her to try it as I had loved it so much the first time round. I don't know where the good service has gone, but it took me forever to get the waitress to understand requests I was making. The two non-English speaking waitresses seemed to be talking amongst themselves constantly, and keeping their attention with Japanese customers, and didn't seem to care that there were other people there. I understand that it was busy but our plates seemed to pile up as our ordered dishes came out, and they didn't clear any of it up. We had to ask for the bill over and over until it actually came. We were tempted to demand to have our 12.5% service charge taken off, but goodness only knows how long that would have taken. 12.5% is an extremely high charge for such a small local restaurant. I do hope that this goes to the staff, as with such a high service charge I doubt many people leave tips.

I must make clear, though, that the quality of the food has fortunately not changed.
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Claudia
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Sunday, January 06, 2013

Great addition to the area. Food is excellent. Service a little haphazard. The chef bought over some dishes and had a chat which was nice. Sushi bar a perfect place for a quick bite.
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Simon
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Monday, November 26, 2012

This is a new addition to Finchley's portfolio of restaurants. I'm told it opened only a matter of months (or weeks) before this time of writing. It replaces Daruma-San which previously occupied the same site.

It's all change here. Gone are the low tables and white decor. It has a warmer feel to it now. Still lots of hard surfaces and a somewhat tentative contemporary look. Sadly the use of space isn't so great. If you have a table around the edge of the restaurant, you'll probably be okay. But a couple of tables are in the middle of all the action. If you're unlucky enough to be sat there, you'll have people and objects buzzing all around you. Judging from the facial expressions of one such couple, I'd say they looked a bit hassled.

Food was excellent. I can't fault it one bit. Enjoyed every mouthful. Advice was available if required.

But the service left a bit to be desired. It was slow and forgetful. Dishes were not only brought out separately, but with significant gaps between them. One of us could potentially finish something before the other had a chance to start. It also took three requests to get the bill.

The bill itself was a pleasant surprise, though. I normally associate Japanese restaurants with being expensive. To be fair, they were running a promotion at the time to recognise that they were a new restaurant. But even with the discount removed, the bill looked okay. Overall I'd recommend it. Slow service isn't the end of the world and the food was worth it.
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Alan Ingham - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 8
Friday, November 23, 2012