Nippon Kitchen

Been here a few times now and really enjoy it, great food but staff could be better

Seriously worth the 5 stars. My positive experience with Nippon actually started at the beginning of December last year when organising a work night out. My first visit was wonderful with great sushi and super friendly staff. My second visit was on a Friday night, I called and spoke to someone super clear on the phone and very personable. This is important to me. My friend and I both order a bento box with a mixture of meat and fish, and the first part of the meal arrived within 15 minutes of ordering. The rest of the meal was delicious and the perfect temperature. We both had banana tempura for pudding too. Winner. The décor and atmosphere are bang on, menu is very easy to understand, and not too noisy either so I could hear what my chum as saying, I’m going for dinner again this Friday night and sod it I’m going back… Do it do it do it.
They also have fabulous looking private dining rooms which they have cleverly set up so as you go to the bathroom you can have a sneaky peak.

Wow. It was my first Nippon Kitchen experience and I must say, very impressed.
It was a Thursday evening and quite miserable out, so didn’t think to make a reservation… I probably should have. They were jumping! But we got a table after about 15 minutes.
The staff didn’t give a brilliant first impression, but I’ll put that down to a very busy night. Except the one waiter that remembered our entire order without writing it down, which included about eight different types of sushi, two mains and four starters! Impressive.
The space is wonderful, high ceilings, a nice twist of the traditional building with modern aspects.
We didn’t have to wait too long for the food to arrive, which was great as we were both famished!
For starters:
I sampled some mixed Tempura which were delightful, the batter light and fluffy. The shrimp and sweet potato being my favourites of the night.
The veg Gyoza were sublime. I usually opt for fried rather than steamed, but these steamed ones blew me away. Melting in my mouth, mmm.
I wasn’t too fond of the Agedashi Tofu, I’ve only ever had it fried, and this wasn’t. It just tasted a bit bland to me… and was a nightmare to pick up with chop sticks! It just kept sliding straight through them!
Finally there was the Yasai Korokke which I had never tried before but so pleased I did. Sweet Potato in Panko breadcrumbs with a sweet sauce. Delicious! If only there hadn’t been so much other food I would have eaten them all! Definitely recommend.
Main:
Of course I had Chicken Kyatsu curry. It’s sort of my mission to try this dish in every Japanese restaurant to compare them.
This isn’t ranking very high on the list so far. The chicken was nice, quite thin. The curry was very thick and tasty, probably one of the best. But then the potatoes and carrots were a bit on the crunchy side which didn’t go very well with the whole feel of the dish.
Sushi, Oh my:
Cucumber and Avocado Maki, very nice. Nothing too different about them from anywhere else. But them the Spicy Sake Salmon Maki, amazing, it just had the right amount of kick to it. Unfortunately by this point I was too fun to try any of the other sushi, but it all looked amazing, and my friend certainly enjoyed eating the rest!
I’d go back again in a heart beat, although I’d probably get less food, and perhaps the Duck Teriyaki which my friend ordered and was sublime, despite the slightly fatty duck.
Mains are very reasonable, at around £10 but the price can quickly mount up with all the starters and sushi!

Me and my husband love japanese food. Sushi, noodles, spiciness, beautiful presentation, rice, miso — ah so much to love. I hadn’t had any japanese in Glasgow apart from wagamama (toooo salltyyy bleehhhh) and so I was looking forward to visiting Nippon after reading lots of good reviews.
We foolishly turned up as a group of five on a friday night with no booking and so I didn’t mind waiting for a table. The popularity of the place seemed promising!
It’s true, the food is good. I love asian food because they do wonderful things with vegetables, there’s no danger of dairy being involved (hi, vegan!) and SPICY — awesome. I ordered veggie tempura and spicy noodles. The tempura was pretty nice but the spicy noodles were deeeeelicious. Smoky, spicy, vegetables crunchy, portion LARGE. nice.
So why the three stars?
I’m afraid we were just really unlucky with our waiter.
Now I’m a lot more patient than I used to be about waiter mistakes and delays. I don’t really like it though when my questions or queries are met with sass and unhelpfulness. Also when they forget to put through your order and then don’t even apologise.
Oh what a shame, it really put us all off, despite the tastiness of the food.
I really hope that I’ll go back one day and have a good experience to add on the two stars I’m sure this place deserves.
In the meantime though I might just go and try out one of the other many japanese places in glasgow. Sad story, nippon kitchen :(

I feel bad for Wagamamas sitting impotently beside this contender to the Japanese cuisine throne in Glasgow, the chain has long lost it’s sparkle for me, servicable but now struggling against the Nanakusa’s and Ichiban’s of our dear green place. But last night I ventured to Nippon Kitchen and there was certainly a lot to enjoy. For a start you can get soft shell crab although it still doesn’t quite stack up to my previous offerings from Asia Style.
My friend had a bento box which at £16 was an absolute bargain! Stuffed with crab, prawn and vegetable tempura, sushi, sashimi, rice and a chicken kebab type thing. Friend number 2 had a 20 piece sushi plate, a huge portion, I tried a maki roll which was lovely but I found the selection lacked a little imagination for such a large sampling. I chose the Teppan Duck with Ramen Noodles, it was delicious, it’s not very often I would go somewhere and have the same thing twice but with this I would. Topped off with a mound of pickled ginger it was a savoury delight. They had a nice, if small, selection of Japanese beers, I plumped for an Asahi Dark which was right in my beery wheelhouse.
Overall good atmosphere and good food, Definitely would go again.

I confess, I love sushi. It makes me happy.
When my friend decided to hold her birthday dinner here, I was excited. It was fantastic. We were given a private room upstairs. This surprises me a little bit because I didn’t realise there was an upstairs bit.
I remember having been to Nippon kitchen before, and even back then the sushi was great and my friend ordered brown rice tea, which was delicious too (not sure whether that is still on the normal menu).
We were given a set menu — three courses plus appetiser for £22.95, which is very reasonable. For the appetiser, I ordered the edamame beans which I love at the best of times, and these were especially amazing because they had a lot of salt on them. The birthday girl was a little unlucky because apparently she was missing many beans.
Following that, I decided to go for the California rolls. Goodness, they were perfection on the banana leaf thing they were served on. Worth the wait (because they did take some time to appear and people were getting hungry). The birthday girl went for the gyoza, and I wish I could have had those AND the California rolls because they were both absolutely divine. SO, SO tasty. Flawless.
The teriyaki salmon I ordered for my main was good, but nothing compared to the sushi. The glaze was sticky and tasty, but the salmon portion small and ever so slightly overcooked and tiny.
To finish, I had the green tea ice cream. I thoroughly enjoyed this too — even though it came with weird little dots/​bean things on it, which i can’t place and i didn’t enjoy that much.
All in all, the food is perfect, I love this place and I think everybody should come here and love this place!

Nippon Kitchen is a Japanese restaurant, specialising in high quality ingredients and dishes that are made to order. Think Wagamamas, but considerably less «chain-​y». Technical term… Handily located right next door to Wagamamas it’s a great alternative, with considerably more cocktail options to hand.
The menu has a large and varied selection, which paired with the generous portion sizes left us with far too much food for three people. I opted for the Duck Tamago Donburi, which consisted of lightly battered duck served with egg, onion, leeks and lots of rice. Duck is one of my favourite meats, but I find it to be something that restaurants rarely get right. Luckily for me, this was one of those rare occasions! The duck was surprisingly tender, which was perfectly balanced with the crisp batter and sticky rice. Whilst the seasoning wasn’t the most exciting, it was still really delicious and something I’d order again.
Hayley & I decided to share a portion of chicken gyoza, but we agreed that we’d had better. They were a bit too salty for my liking and Hayley likened it to tortellini, which was a shame because the rest of the food was brilliant. For her main Hayley had the Chicken Chilli Noodle Stir Fry, and Morag had Vegetable Chilli Noodle Stir Fry with a side of Tempura Sweet Potato Maki and Vegetable Gyoza. Much like myself, they also thought that the food was excellent.
I’ll definitely be heading back to try out some more of the menu from Nippon Kitchen, there’s no denying that they maintain a really high standard! I’d love to try some of their cocktails too. The best way to describe their price point would be affordable, which was a surprise for the quality of food you’re getting. Like I mentioned before, the portions lean on the generous side! It’s one to visit if you’re a fan of Japanese food and it’s fair to say that there’s a clear reason the restaurant is so highly recommended.

I need my sushi fix from time to time, and Nippon kitchen is where I go to appease it there and then. On standard, Im decidedly content with a customised assortment of sake, suzuki, saba, maguro and unagi nigiri.
They can do the more mainstream and westernised sort decently, but you will not find your uni or otoro here. So fittingly, this rating is for their sushi as compared to others in Scotland. They do a good spread for types of dishes including options for donburi, noodles, and even grilled meats.
Staff are friendly but can over service a bit. For lunch, their chicken teriyaki on menu is a fair deal but I’d ask for sauce on the side as it has a tendency to be drenched. I prefer the mellow dim lighted mood at dinner, and I did notice the sashimi was better handled and cut. Its a yay for Nippon with this establishment.

Nippon kitchen,
I had a great time here last night. However my eyes were too big for my belly as I got here very hungry and pretty much ordered the most expensive Bento box D ‘special combo’ it came with a lot of food & was priced at £16, but worth it.
For starter I had the vegetable tempura, which was delicious. It came with a lovely battered sweet potato and a bowl of dipping sauce. This was delicious and moist inside but the batter crispy.
My drink with my meal was the lychee martini, mmm this smelled delicious at every sip, a little like elderflower perfume. The taste was just as lovely, very strong and lots of alcohol. There as a lychee inside my drink too bleeding flavour.
My bento box arrived in bits, the sushi rolls came first, it sat there for around 10 – 15 minutes as my partners food wasn’t ready neither was the rest of mine, this was the only downfall for me, was the order my food came in. My miso soup arrived next and this sat for 5 – 10 minutes getting cold ad still my partners food hadn’t arrived.
When it did arrive, I was impressed my partner had the sirloin steak in a sesame sauce, this was very rare and flavoursome and he really enjoyed it.
my sushi was lovely and so was the pieces of fish on the plate, my favourite was the tuna. The battered crab shell I had was a mixture of very dry and moist, so this was hit or miss. My bento box was great, however with the miso soup and sushi and the bento box (which all came part of a set) I found was too much food for me. If I hadn’t had a started I would have eaten it all.
All in all the food was gorgeous, the customer service was attentive and friendly and the atmosphere warm,
I would go back

You know when you’re convinced you’ve reviewed a place because you love it so much you can’t imagine that you haven’t already… Sorry Nippon Kitchen, I’ll rectify that error now!
Within question, Nippon Kitchen is my favourite place to get Japanese food in Glasgow. The staff are friendly, the menu has plenty of options (for carnivores, veggies and vegans), the drinks selection is good and the food delicious and always fresh and well prepared.
My most recent visit (of many) saw me order chicken gyozas, cucumber maki mono and chicken teriyaki. The gyozas were well prepared as always, light and slightly crispy, not at all stodgy in the way dumplings sometimes are. For all its simplicity the cucumber makI mono was also excellent, I wish I could find out how they prepare their sushi rice as it’s always got this slightly creamy quality I love that I can never seem to replicate at home, and it was also obviously freshly made to order. Stale sushi is the worst. Then came the teriyaki, a sauce I often find a little too bitter elsewhere but Nippon Kitchen manages to create that perfect balance of savoury and sticky sweetness, and it’s served over chicken with an excellent crispy batter. I’m drooling just thinking about it now.
My companion had pork ribs to start, which were proclaimed to be the best ribs she’s ever tasted (I may have stolen one and would agree they were great, superbly tender), followed by a very tasty looking ginger stir fry with duck.
They also have an excellent menu of Japanese drinks available including sake, plum, whisky and beer. I’m a great fan of the dark Asahi beer they serve but this time I opted for a cocktail I’d been meaning to try for ages, the Asian ginger martini. Made from vodka, ginger and sake, it had a lovely mix of sweetness from the sake and fieryness from the ginger. Now I’ve had it once, I suspect I might need to order one every time I’m in…

This restaurant is located just in the middle of Glasgow city centre. 5 minutes walk from the Buchanan Subway Station.
It is exquisitely decorated and have lots of tasty Japanese foods.
Their special season menu is a must try!
There are also special offer at noon from every Monday to Thursday (e.g. 1 course for 8pounds, 2 course for 12 pounds) which is a good deal for two people~
Absolutely my favorite Japanese food restaurant in Glasgow!

First trip. In short I’d go back both my son and I popped in for lunch. It’s a mixed up bag of messages inside. Not Japanese. There’s the odd nod with ornamental bits and chairs that look japaneeezy. And that’s it. Food wise. All very nice decent choice aplenty and also beverage wise to. Service was slightly slow even it was t busy. Price wise I’d say was decent. Starters however were tiny.

First, I apologise for not taking more pictures — I was starving and inhaled my food upon arrival. That said, we enjoyed our late lunch at Nippon Kitchen. I really appreciated that they have a separate gluten free menu that includes noodle dishes and several kinds of sushi. They also have gluten free soy sauce. I had three kinds of sushi rolls — avocado, tuna with spicy mayo, and cooked salmon with mayo and green onion (kind of like tuna salad but with salmon.) The avocado and tuna rolls were tiny and you only get four pieces, so the three rolls weren’t enough for a starving me. I ended up splitting fried rice with my partner afterwards.
Meanwhile, he and our lunch companion ordered a few things to share — veggie tempura, veggie teriyaki (which is also tempura, FYI, and it does say this on the menu but we missed it), a few sushi rolls and something that looked like pillows made from tofu and rice. They gave the best rating to the teriyaki and said the sauce was excellent.
All in all the food was really enjoyable, but if you try to order sushi only, order a lot — the portions are tiny!

I’ve just realised the photos of food I took are all beige. Pastry, chips, potato scones, wraps, battered anything-​vegan — so many of my favourite foods are beige. Next time I am getting a stir fry with lots of coloured vegetables!
I’ve only been here once before, and there was a bit of a staffing issue (sushi chef was absent… somewhere…) which caused a bit of confusion and delay with my order, but this was a while ago and otherwise the staff and food had been excellent. So, tonight I was a little in the rare position of being in a non-​veggie restaurant where I had lots and lots of choice of dishes and no idea what to get. All sorts of combinations of rice /​noddles /​curry /​veg /​tofu were available, and there is a note on the menu that all vegetarian options can be made vegan. I have no idea how anyone without dietary requirements could choose so easily!
I ordered Agadashi tofu because it’s one of my favourite dishes. It is more seaweedy and less sweet than in other places, but still good. I ordered the Inari sushi because it’s also one of my favourite dishes, and wherever I am if it’s on the menu I usually order it. The rice was a decent sized portion, and topped with what I think were black sesame seeds. The tempura was alright; I don’t think there’s much you can do with vegetable tempura to make it that exciting and at £6.00 in hindsight I wish I’d tried something else from the menu. The dumplings were nice.
They do have at least one vegan dessert option — a rice pancake with a bean filling — but I decided not to order it as I already felt the meal costs had a spiralled a bit beyond what I’d budgeted for. It was £3.00 for my pint of soda water and lime, and £5.50 for 125ml of the special lychee sake I ordered afterwards (sweet and delicious).
There were about 14 of us and we had a bit of a wait before the food started coming, but that’s to be expected with a large group and freshly prepared food, and there always seemed to be a member of staff around if we wanted to order drinks or dessert.
I’ll definitely head back in a small group and try a dessert and a different main and possibly bump my rating up to a five.

The Bento boxes here are incredible, so much food for such a reasonable price! The sushi itself was really fresh, and the prawn tempura in particular was also really good.
Re-​visited here last week for a team lunch, and the lunch meal deal was pretty good. A very filling katsu carry for around 8 quid. Turns out I love Katsu sauce, when it is made properly. The service wasn’t the quickest for an hour lunch turnaround, but it wasn’t bad by any means.

Service, efficient and friendly during a busy time
Ambience: — lovely atmosphere within ha stunning Victorian building with Japanese décor
Toilets: — Swish!
Food: — soft shell crab promised so much and almost delivered! The meaty centre was top however the batter was far to crunchy and heavy and made the leg area of the crab like biting into pure batter.
The Sashimi (Tuna and Salmon) in particular is of a very high quality
The dumpling starters are fresh and delicious
We enjoyed several variations of Nigiri, sushi roll and sushi cones, all were fantastic, we would recommend the Salmon, Tuna and King Prawn as our favourites.
Ps I really wish they did Sapporo on tap! X

I’m a massive fan of Nanakusa so when I heard the owners were opening Nippon Kitchen I decided to go in for a spot of lunch (even though I felt like I was cheating!).
It’s a good space with high ceilings and nice décor and has more intimate seating options than at Nanakusa. Although I do love the bright openness of Nanakusa, especially if you are in a big group.
I was expecting the menu to be pretty similar to Nanakusa, however I was pleasantly surprised to find dishes that were different. Me and my pal decided to try the Chicken Teriyaki and Chicken Yakimono with Spicy Sauce both of which came with a mound of boiled rice. They were both very tasty!
I’d definitely go back to Nippon Kitchen however I can’t bring myself to give the full 5 stars as this spot has been saved for Nanakusa.

Sorry folks to bore you again with my like of this restaurant, I just cannot fault their food and service last Saturday my Friend and I decided to go out for an unplanned dinner
I called into Nippon Kitchen whilst waiting for my friend who had been delayed.
They were full but took my name and contact details and suggested that I may want to go to a local bar to wait, I agreed and crossed the road to Horton’s, I ordered drinks and my Friend arrived I realized I had missed the call from Nippon Kitchen as it was quite noisy.
I called them but sadly I had lost that table they offered to give me the next one available and asked where I was. When I explained I was only across the road they offered to come and fetch us, and fetch us they did.
Our food and service was as great as it always is, this is a restaurant that goes out of its way for its customers it gets my vote every time.

I was searching for a decent japanese restaurant in the city centre, and did not want to go to Nanakusa for the 25^th time, so I decided to venture out of my zone of comfort and go to Nippon Kitchen this time!
The restaurant set-​up is quite usual, in the sense that the place seems more appropriate for fine dining, with its high ceiling and traditional decoration, than for a japanese experience. Seating was a bit awkward and we hadn’t much room to fit our — admittedly too long — legs. I guess this is to be expected in a japanese restaurant!
We started with a sharer of gyoza (seafood and vegetable) which was very nice. As we did not feel like sushi that day, we decided to have a Yakimono each. I had the seared tuna one, and my friend had the seafood of the day, which was bream. They both came with a generous serving of seamed rice, a little salad and a gorgeous sauce (I had the one with soy sauce, garlic, ginger and chilli, called Yaki Niku). The sea bream in particular was very nicely displayed on the plate and quite impressive! Overall, the food was very good.
The reason I’d only give a 3 star rating is because, despite the nice food, service could clearly be improved. We were first seated in a little corner right by the bar, although there were plenty of better seats available (which we swiftly moved to), the waitress dropped plates several times, and took ages to take our order despite the fact that we were clearly done choosing. Lastly, the modern occidental playlist was at odd with the whole japanese food experience and it abruptly stopped and loudly resumed several times. Thankfully, that did not make me choke on my nice tuna!

On the hunt for food today we eventually ended up at Nippon Kitchen. The first place we went served no food on a Sunday and the second we had to leave due to a fire alarm!
First impressions were good. Staff were friendly and we got seated very quickly. The décor looked like it may have been a bank in a previous life, but I quite liked it. It did seen to lack a bit of atmosphere though. Just very quiet and missing any sort of buzz.
Beer choice was excellent with four Japanese types to choose from and all are lovely. I went for an asahi export black. The food menu looked great with loads of options and it was actually hard to choose. I went for a favourite of mine with the chicken katsu curry. Unfortunately that is perhaps the mistake I made as it was by far not the best version I have tasted. The sauce came out separate and was a bit cold. It all tasted a bit bland and slightly disappointing. Hard to pinpoint exactly but maybe that it just tasted like it was not freshly cooked.
I did taste my mums veggie tempura and that was lovely. So perhaps I just made a bad menu selection. I would give the place another try, but I am in no hurry to go back I’m afraid.