Maguro

I’ve ordered takeaway for lunch and dinner several times and each time the food and service was consistently excellent.
I tend to order the chirashi don just due to ease for lunch. Everything I’ve tried has been really fresh, conveniently packaged with fresh wasabi (not packets, thank goodness!) and the staff have always been really friendly.
Highly recommend!

A small venue but wonderful atmosphere. The staff are super friendly and the food is fresh, delicious and beautifully served. The black cod is outstanding! One of the best I’ve ever had.
The takeaway is just as good (I come here a lot!), the chicken yakitori is delicious. Tempura is best eaten fresh so I much prefer to eat that in the restaurant then for takeaway.
Overall one of my favourite restaurants and a good find for Japanese food!

I mean, any restaurant that can make you schlep an italian booty from south london AAAALLLL the way to maida vale is worth talking about, right?
RIGHT.
The foie gras scallop sushi here is amazeballs, as is their salmon tartare and their immense variety of rolls and nigiris — and the miso eggplant is seizure inducing. They have a relatively large menu for such a small restaurant, but it is pricey so beware! Dinner for two with drinks has always come out between £70 and £100.

Great little secret sushi restaurant in Madia vale. This is a small restaurant however and you will most likely need a reservation for. Every table had a reserved sign on it when we went for dinner last week. The staff is sweet and accommodating and the sushi was delicious. We will definitely be back and probably be making this our «regular» sushi place :)

I had given up on the idea of good sushi in London until I came here tonight — WOW!!! Incredible fish, fresh and delicious, the hamachi and jalapeño was delicious and the miso aubergine is OUT OF THIS WORLD — a must try! Went with my friend but would definitely take my kids too. Very well prices with a large menu — I can’t wait to go back.

Came here with a group of friends on a reservation– good idea as well as the restaurant is very small! All tables were reserved except for 1. Lighting is somewhat dark inside but your eyes adjust. Food was excellent but is a bit pricey. My favorite dishes were the nasu dengaku– which was a sweet aubergine dish and the tofu teriyaki. This would be a good date spot or if you are perhaps with a group up to 6 (as the restaurant is small). Service was attentive. It’s on a quiet side street. Will return as i really enjoyed the food.

good food and atmosphere but place is quite small so people are often jammed together

Some people love this place — it sits in a side alley and quite nice interior… It gives a vibe of real foodie restaurant. Food does not taste bad but as a Japanese foodie, I cannot approve of this place. It is ran by Koreans who ran multiple restaurants in the neighbourhood.
Foods lack passion and authenticity — but if you are looking for a Japanese restaurant outside of central — can be a good alternative. I have no specific dishes I could recommend… They are all okay but nothing outstanding.

We came here for my birthday and it was the perfect place for a nice, romantic, celebratory occasion. It’s tucked in a quiet, residential area and you can recognize it by it’s dark wooden exterior, which stood out against the neighboring white houses.
For a Saturday night, it was completely packed. So make sure you reserve because It’s a very intimate, small place. The interior is also wooden, but in a more modern, sleek design with lighted columns as paneled walls. And most of the friendly staff is Japanese, which I liked.
We ordered a bit of everything: sashimi, udon, teriyaki chicken, sushi… it was all extremely fresh and authentic. Honestly, I think it’s the best fish I’ve had in London. SUPER pure sashimi… hard to find here. But be aware that the soy sauce bowl is deceitfully small, as we made quite a mess of the table early on :)
Overall, I recommend sushi lovers to come here for a special, laidback experience!

I should start most of my reviews with «I thought I had already reviewed this place». I have been here so many times yet I am struggling as to why I don’t have a review up.
The reason I came here? A Unilocal review from numerous years ago led me here — and that review… is also gone. Did I do one and it has been sucked into a web-​like black hole? Well assuming that the Unilocal Gremlins have not taken to pranking me… here we go! Again!
By London standards this place is pretty good. However, what is not so great here are the top end prices for merely average food. I have had a lot of great sushi in many places around the world (current champions are the beautiful state of California, in terms of both quality and value for money!) and unfortunately Maguro does not compare favourably.
I tend to find the service here fairly vague albeit inoffensive. The décor is pretty stylish even down to the potentially questionable disco style lighting in the lavatories. In terms of ambience, at peak times you will pretty much all be sitting on top of each other as they have crammed so many seats and tables into a very small restaurant. Mind you, when you are seated next to Sir Paul, you probably will not mind!
As a point of note, if a table is not available here, the cocktail bar around the corner (The LV Lounge) will happily seat you and take your order! In all actuality, I often prefer the more tranquil environment there and of course you get the chance to sample some beautifully crafted cocktails while you munch your Maki!

I live just around the corner but never managed to go there until recently. It’s quite a small restaurant, with a very modern look and nice staff. I really liked the dark wood panels and the lighting.
For the food, I guess it is really a good place for sushi. As I’m not a big sushi fan, I cannot say anything about their sushi dishes. I had some chicken skewers and duck breast with plain rice and really liked the food. It looked nice and tasted delicious. I also went for the green tea ice cream well, it tasted interesting. I will probably not order it the next time I’m going there, but it’s an interesting idea at least.
Based on just one visit so far, I can recommend Maguro. It’s tucked away in a small side street but seems to be popular. When I was there on a Thursday evening, it was full. If you like Japanese food, it’s worth checking out Maguro.

They have a disco ball in the bathroom and not much else in terms of lighting.
That was pretty awesome, peeing under disco light. Didn’t really match the cool minimal 50s wood design in the dining room. A narrow space but plenty of seating if it’s not busy. Came here on a Sunday afternoon and it wasn’t busy at all.
Spicy tuna was delicious, chirashi sushi was enjoyable as well despite the tiny pieces.
Ordered a different spicy roll that had wasabi tobiko and japaleno in it and yet it didn’t taste spicy AT ALL. Didn’t taste bad really, but I wanted the spice. The spice is life!
With those three things and some hot sake the bill was a bit high for my taste. Then again I’ve been spoiled with super cheap tasty sushi in my native bay area. Whimper…

Stopped here on a sunny Sunday afternoon after an epic canal walk from Kingsland High Street. I was jonesing for some Japanese comfort food, and Maguro delivered a solid Chicken Katsu Don. I enjoyed the crinkled minimal modern interior design as well.

I live round the back of Maguro, so this is my ‘local’. Back in the days (the 80’s), this used to be a little American style pizzaria, that served dependable delicious American style pizzas. That went down the drain due to a lousy manager/​owner (he used to be the waiter) called ***. He ruined it. We liked it just the way it was. He sold it, made a small fortune, and now the exact hollowed-​out shell is called ‘Maguro’. For anyone who used to frequent the ‘Pizza Place’, they will be familiar with the world’s smallest gents toilet. The layout it absolutely identical; the kitchen is in the same place, the main counter, the miniscule gents toilet, etc. The décor inside is superb; Walnut veneer from every angle; it feels like you’re sitting in a recording studio. The lighting is very low (very good if you’re on a first date and you don’t really want to see all of the flaws of your date’s face etc, or if you’re after the romantic effect. Be careful tho’, because if you’re the last customer and you leave the restaurant having just paid your bill, the staff don’t hang around for long, waiting for you to clear the 100m mark, before turning the lights on; those halogens light up before you’ve even taken your tenth step from the restaurant’s front door. (I truly feel this subdued lighting does make the food look far more appealing than it actually is). The food? Well, I’ve been there about 5 or 6 times now, and each time we visited, we’ve had about 8 starters and about 6 main courses. Every dish is ‘perfect’, or at least ‘seems’ that way when it arrives (in the hard-​to-​see subdued lighting). It’s all very tasty, very very hot (be careful when you order the courgettes; give it 5 minutes before eating them or else you’ll scald your mouth). Talking about the courgettes, they come so hot, it makes you wonder how courgettes can be raised to such high temperatures. The answer is blowing in the wind: ‘microwave’. Only a microwave can do that to a piece of food; luke warm on the surface, 2000 degrees C on the inside. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. The prawn tempura is delicious. The deep fried squid is yummy. As is almost each and every single dish on the menu. I think there was one noodle dish my father ordered, which was gross. It was some kind of ramen noodle, but the seasoning was totally out of tune; it tasted like some sort of Italian pasta thing… Stick with the starters and the deep fried stuff. This place is expensive. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. If you’re hungry, a little trick you might like to try out is to first order a bowl of sticky rice (£2.00); sink that, so your stomach is filled slightly, then choose a few choice dishes that will tickle your taste buds. Otherwise, you’ll fall into the trap of ordering and ordering and ordering, until about £120 later worth of food, you’ll only start to feel satiated. So just to recap: first off eat a bowl of sticky rice, then follow up with a few choice starters, and perhaps finish with the prawn tempuras and you’ll come out feeling okay (semi-​robbed). P. s. the toilets are like the Bee Gee’s have popped in to decorate them (great toilets, shame the taps are rubbish tho). P. s. if your a comedy fan, keep your eyes peeled for Russel Howard, he’s always in there. P. s. Apparently, ‘Maguro’ is Japanese slang for a woman who lies motionless on her back during the act of intercourse, which is quite fitting really, because after stuffing your face full of this stuff, you too will be lying flat on your back, motionless, being shafted by the gobsmackingly extortionate Maguro bill. Bonaggi appetiggi.

We stumbled into this lovely Japanese restaurant — the sushi is some of the finest I’ve had anywhere.
Unfortunately the waitresses haven’t even got passable English — which is not ideal for a London restaurant.
The décor is very nice — but the restaurant is a little too crowded.
Also, the first starter we ordered (zuchini/​courgette fried makki) were so scouldingly hot (with no warning) both my g/​f and I burnt our mouths!
The prices are relatively punchy too.
But, as you can see, despite the above negatives, I’ve still awarded Maguro 4 stars, the reason for that is simply the food. It’s such high quality, and with the ideal combo of classic Japanese dishes and ones with a modern twist.
Will definitely be back!