Roketsu Restaurant

The room was built in Kyoto, shipped to London and reassembled here, hinoki walls and sliding screens intact (Time Out).

Why go

Daisuke Hayashi trained at Kikunoi in Kyoto, which holds three Michelin stars, and opened this in 2022 (Time Out). Ten seats, and the chef's table is the only table.

The cooking is built on fire and on conversation. Bincho charcoal and straw smoke are named by the kitchen as its core technique, sushi is made in front of you at the counter, and kappo, in the venue's own words, "means dining through dialogue: speaking with the chef, sharing your preferences, and shaping your own menu" (Roketsu). What arrives is "guided by the day's harvest."

Leonie Cooper gave it four stars in January 2025, when it ran a nine-course kaiseki menu, and described dishes delivered as stories told quietly: radish sliced thin across a soup to look like ice on a lake, red beans for new-year prosperity, an eyeball made from egg wrapped in conger eel, a hot pot served in a ceramic castle tower (Time Out).

Then it changed. Time Out's own update line, dated November 2025, reads: "Roketsu is now an a la carte restaurant." Nobody has reviewed it since, and the venue's page still calls itself a tasting menu.

Order this / avoid

• Order: whatever came off the bincho, since the charcoal and straw are the technique the kitchen leads with. Sushi at the counter. Beyond that, tell the chef what you like, because that is what kappo means here.
• Avoid: booking on the assumption of a nine-course kaiseki. That format ended in November 2025. Turning up without a reservation, with ten seats in the room.

What locals & experts say

• Leonie Cooper, Time Out, January 2025, four stars out of five, on the room: "At Roketsu the chef's table is the only table, and if the bleached, hinoki wood walls and sliding screens make you feel as if you've been transported to Japan, that makes sense - the room was built in Kyoto before being shipped and reassembled in London." ref
• The same review, on the register of the place: "Despite all the formalities... there is something deeply chill about Roketsu... everything here is so measured and elegantly formal, that all you have to do is simply turn up." Her pull quote: "If only all meals were this relaxing." ref
• The kitchen, on its own method: "Blazing binchō charcoal and the delicate aroma of straw smoke, a time-honoured Japanese technique, add depth and character." ref
• No chef has named it, checked in the industry-vote file on 1 August 2026, and no review of the current format exists.

Good to know

• Where: 12 New Quebec Street W1H 7RP, off Portman Square.
• The format: a la carte since November 2025. It was a nine-course kaiseki tasting menu before that.
• The room: ten seats at one counter, built in Kyoto and reassembled in London.
• Booking: essential.
• Price: $$$$. The tasting menu was described as not cheap; the a la carte prices were not established, so check before you commit.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 5, inspected 31 August 2023, Westminster, components 5 / 0 / 5. That is the last inspection on file and it is nearly three years old. FHRSID 1413636. ref

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. His raw saved-places export carries an empty Note against this row. The master line "Daisuke Hayashi's kaiseki with a Kyoto-built counter" is curation text; the chef and the Kyoto-built room check out, and the word kaiseki is now out of date, which is the correction this entry makes.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — Worth building an evening around, and check what you are booking before you do. Daisuke Hayashi opened Roketsu in 2022 after training at Kikunoi in Kyoto, which holds three Michelin stars, and the room he built is the first thing to know about it: hinoki walls and sliding screens, constructed in Kyoto, shipped over and reassembled in Marylebone. There are ten seats and the chef's table is the only table. The cooking runs on bincho charcoal and straw smoke, with sushi made in front of you, and the kitchen describes kappo as dining through dialogue, which means telling the chef what you want and shaping the menu with him. Leonie Cooper gave it four stars for Time Out in January 2025, when it was still a nine-course kaiseki menu, and caught the register exactly: for all the formality, the effect is deeply relaxing, and all you have to do is turn up. Here is the part every other page gets wrong. Time Out's own update line says that in November 2025 Roketsu became an a la carte restaurant. Nobody has reviewed it since, and its own site still calls itself a tasting menu, so go knowing that what you eat is now partly your choice.