Sakagura Mayfair

The Japan Centre Group, a London retail group that also run Shoryu ramen restaurants, are launching a glossier, more formal affair in the Heddon Street quarter. Sakagura, moments from Regent Street, is surrounded by other notable restaurants like Gordon Ramsay's Heddon Street Kitchen.

Sakagura will focus on a distinct type of Southern Japanese fair: washoku. The combination dish always uses fish, rice and miso as a base. Other types of Japanese food available includes more commercial yakitori staples like kurobuta and nigiri sushi, and wagyu steak. Like you'd find at less formal grab-and-go Japanese eateries, the dining style is your choice: share sushi and yakitori with friends over cocktails, or dine traditionally with large plates.

In the vein of Anzu, another restaurant which also opens shortly, Sakagura is a slightly more formalised way to eat Japanese food. Anzu are calling themselves a "Japanese brasserie", and similarly Sakagura will be a well-polished restaurant with a West End destination feel.

The subterranean Sake Cellar is also turning heads for its wide range, which includes sake cocktails with experimental twists.