Life in Islington

Me encontré con la vida hace unos pocos años, simplemente por casualidad (como siempre parece ser el camino con estupendos restaurantes japoneses). Vi que llega y esperamos que con impresionantes cebo. Yo no me di cuenta de que en realidad era abierto hasta un año había pasado! Un amigo me decía acerca de este estupendo lugar japonés y me di cuenta de que había sido desanime por las grandes puertas y ventanas altas vacíos sólidas!

piso de madera, las paredes blancas, techos altos y tranquilo. A pesar de que estaba ocupado cuando estuvimos allí el miércoles por la noche, lo mantuvieron un buen espacio entre cada mesa que no me pareció que estaba lleno. La comida estaba muy bien presentada y sabor fresco y sabroso. selección de vinos no es importante, pero muy buenos vinos de calidad, incluso tenían un sommelier. Para lo que sirven, el precio era muy razonable. Este restaurante parece dar orgullosa en lo que sirven pero no aparece. Me gustó mucho la experiencia, fue casi tranquila sensación como si cenamos en jardín zen. Sin duda volveremos.

Esta fue mi primera vez en la vida. Al haber estado en la zona varias veces antes, nunca observé la vida hasta mi compañero de trabajo indicó me durante mi última visita. Y ¡qué descubrimiento! Fuimos a comer y me pidió el tempura de las ofertas especiales de almuerzo menú. A £13 te dan un plato de entrada, ensalada, sopa miso, tempura y un postre. Ese día el postre era mousse de té verde (o algo que parecía mousse). Todo estaba delicioso y veía genial!! Incluso el té de jazmín era precioso. Sí, sirven té jazmín floreciendo. Es flores té que florece dentro de su taza ya que cervezas. Es muy lindo. Recomiendo encarecidamente la vida y sin duda volveremos en mi próxima visita a Londres.

Stupendo il pesce, pollo fritto e Tofu. Prezzi incredibilmente bassi. ASSOLUTAMENTE DA PROVARE. Zona bella e centrale

Esta un poco fuera del circuito turístico y prácticamente nos volvimos hacia la antigua calle ya que pensamos que la calle estaba demasiado tranquilo.

Verdadero lujo - encantador personal, stark (pero no frío) habitación, mejor (es decir más frescos) sashimi que he tenido en mucho tiempo. platos principales vienen en 'fuerte conjuntos" que son poco opresiva como tienes que tener toda la shebang - miso, budín, etc. - pero compartimos una y algunos otros complementos entre nosotros. Buena variedad de tes, así como cervezas, servicio rápido.

Visited Life as in the area Place was empty when we entered around 1230 for lunch so I wondered. Turned out to be good price/quality Japanese with very nice yellowfin sashimi and slightly fat but nice sushi

Ristorante minimalista, pochi piatti, ma divinamente presentati. Preceduto da antipastini iniziali prendiamo un buon salmone in salsa teriyaki accompagnato da una zuppa di miso. Proviamo anche alcuni roll , non male. Piccolo dessert per finire. Piatti non abbondanti, ma gradevoli. prezzi non necessariamente economici. Servizio efficiente. Buono più per una pausa di lavoro che per una cena.

Fui allí con mis colegas durante la hora del almuerzo. Se sirve un menú de almuerzo desde £13.00 . Pedí salmón asado teriyaki (de inicio ensaladas, sopa miso y té verde cremas Brûlée). El personal es amable. Ambiente agradable. Es mejor reservar mesa si tienes pensado para cenar a la 1 pm.

Não esperem um ambiente badalado ou requintado. O Life é bem simples, com cara de galpão que cujo restaurante foi ajeitado lá dentro. O sashimi não decepciona. Bem cortado e fresco. Os sushis bem feitos, ao estilo tradicional japonês, ou seja, fatias grossas do peixe sob um arroz bem preparado. Já o tempura de legumes não agradou. Deveria ser mais leve, menos gordura...O creme brulê de chá verde é gostoso e vale a pena experimentar.

Came to dinner just because we went for a couple of drinks in the bar downstairs! Didnt look like nothing to have high expectations for. The room is kinda strange... Cold and awkward room setting/atmosphere. i guess theres too much empty space, maybe the decor and light are a bit off too, on the cold side. That being said, we were expecting a pretty standard sushi meal. As soon as we took a glance at the menu we realized there was much more to it! We ended up ordering almost no sushi/sashimi! And we loved everything we ate. The scallops were divine. Had to order more at the end! Same with the slow cooked pork belly. Wagyu beef also very good. In the end we were more than pleased and even surprised by the quality of the food. service was good as well. Will came back. Oh, and nice bar! Ended up spending my birthday there!

I supposed that they are not specialise on sushi and rolls. The fish quality was that good. However, there main dishes seem great and fancy but i was starving for sushi mainly.

This Japanese restaurant in on Old Street next to Goswell Road, several buses and close to Barbican station. We had the Sashimi set (very nice) and the Tempura set (also good). The come with a starter, miso soup, rice, salad and a small dessert. Service excellent and friendly. Also lots of sushi, and an interesting lunch time menu for £22. Nice food and good value.

We ended up at LIFE yesterday evening as our friends recently moved nearby and we'd thought to try our luck. Well, we were lucky! When first walking in we weren't even sure they were open. It was very quiet, but the staff made us very welcome from the very start. Also, once we were seated it actually turned out to be a lot busier than we thought. The interior is very basic but stylish. The food is absolutely delicious and very good value for money (especially in the Barbican/Clerkenwell area). We've tried the Tofu and Fried chicken as starters (shared between four of us) which was perfect. After that I chose 3 types of sushi (spicy tuna, scallop sashimi and spider roll) and it's definitely some of the best I've had in London until now. We shared the fried banana between the four of us for dessert as there was hardly any space left, yet we simply had to try it. There's even a 'secret' bar in the basement! We'll definitely be coming back.

Looking for a sushi restaurant to visit in London but didnt want to end up visiting one of the extremely expensive ones where you pay for the view or the actual restaurant rather than the food. So we visited Life because of its good reviews. By stepping into the restaurant its not something special or its not something that will make your night out interesting. The food itself though is very nice :) The menu has some interesting sushi plates and a variety to choose from.Even though the food was a bit late to arrive...and we had to ask twice why it was taking them more than 40 minutes to bring the food...I must say that it was worth the wait! Fish was fresh and all sushi/sashimi/nigiri/maki rolls satisfied our appetite to eat sushi!!! Its presentation was very nice and it came in the way that all restaurants present them. But in this restaurant you dont pay extra for this, which is good!Desserts menu only had a few dishes to choose from. And the actual dishes were not something special.This restaurant is highly recommended but it will not be an unforgettable experience.I would go again just to have a budget sushi :) !!!

My friend recently had his birthday party here in the bar downstairs and him, myself and my wife ate in the restaurant on the ground floor prior to this. The tempura veg and prawns were excellent, not overwhelmed by the fish tempura, we weren't told what sort of fish, or the squid but mostly it was very pleasant. The sashimi was very fresh and of a very high quality and the miso soup was gorgeous, with drinks it came to about £25 a head, nice wine, Asahi on draft and pink grapefruit juice. It was fully booked so I'd recommend booking and there are only about 30 odd covers. The downstairs bar was ok if a bit less polished and if you wish you can hire the decks and play your own music for £10 an hour, although I must say I found this a bit of a cheek :)

I'm lucky enough to have Life near to my office, so love to go for lunch here - the food and service never disappoints. The sashimi is always fresh, and the set lunch menu with the surprise starter and dessert each time is always great. Although I stick to the sashimi, friends have commented how nice their salmon, chicken and tempura dishes have been. Overall, I would highly recommend it!

Ottimo servizio cortese e veloce, il pesce sembra fresco. Ho scelto di provare i roll dei quali c è una buona varietà. Il menu nel complesso è abbastanza basico. Nel complesso una buona cena ma porzioni ridotte e prezzi un po troppo alti .

Was guided there by a London resident, both of us share affinity for things Japanese. We were guided to our reserved table after waiting a while by a helpful Korean waitress who lived long enough in japan to have all the necessary knowledge of cuisine.The place decor is rather simple, but definitely with an intimate atmosphere. Food was excellent. We ordered the chef plate for that day, which was a medium-rare tuna steak. Did not have the like before except in Japan. Also some interesting Mackerel sushi. This is a recommended place for good Japanese cuisine

Life is a bit of an oddball of a place. When you first walk in you are greeted by a somewhat worn-off interior of what could be a bar in any standard English pub but that impression is immediately shattered when the attentive and charming Japanese staff approach you to seat you next door. Now this is when things become pretty and a little strange.Next door is the actual restaurant seating area, a wide open space with seats arranged against the walls, leaving ample of space for the waiters and guests to navigate the area. Decorated to minimalist Japanese style, enhanced with random Star Wars figurine decor on the window ledges this place has a quiet, quirky, yet composed charm about it. The service is flawless and always at hand to advise and recommend. Extremely attentive the only flaw we could find was the unwillingness to amend the nigiri platter we wanted to order to include Eel but as most Japanese restaurants, and restaurants in general, don't allow changes to set meals, this was to be expected. Nevertheless, it was a little disappointing as we offered to pay the difference for the more expensive Eel to be added to the mix. We ended up ordering the Eel nigiri separately and it was absolutely worth fighting for. Delicious, succulent, tender meat with a buttery-lemon flavour palette to it. If you have to get one nigiri from the menu, get that one. We ended up ordering the duck breast houba yaki in walnut-miso paste, a sashimi set and the aforementioned nigiri sushi set. The duck was gorgeous, especially dunked in the nutty-earthy flavours of the walnut miso paste. The sashimi, as good as it was, it paled in comparison the wholesome and delicate flavours the Eel nigiri and the duck brought out. Dessert was served as Matcha Brûlée with Vanilla Icecream. Delicious. The food presentation left little to complain about.I cannot comment on the downstairs bar but I found the area in and around the downstairs toilets rather random, sporting a somewhat creepy industrial site atmosphere with run-down toilets to go with. Overall, great experience, lovely food, on the pricier site but not as expensive as many other Japanese places I have been to. I'd come again for sure.

Our waitress might have been new because she did not know much of the menu and was not too reactive on the service. Otherwise food and wine were brilliant, calm place where you can hear your friends talk. Bar downstairs is very chilled, good music. Will come back

Life is one of my most favourite restaurants in London - the service is always absolutely impeccable, the food is fantastic (and the waitstaff is very happy to recommend things - or to get the chef to come up with some off-menu specials). It's not the cheapest restaurant in the area by a long shot, and there is even a better Sushi restaurant nearby (Sushi Tetsu - but they only have 8 seats, and it's almost impossible to get a reservation, and is about 3 times more expensive than Life), but Life is still my go-to Sushi restaurant. Don't miss it!

What a find! Would definitely recommend to anyone who wants to try tasty Japanese food. Very attentive service. Great drinks available (try the sake hot). A good,varied menu. Fresh tasting fish. A wonderfully unusual aubergine starter. Reasonably priced.

Went yesterday evening with a party of seven. For those new to Japanese food there are excellent set menus at £25 and £30 with lots of course and each one something to try, taste, talk about. This is a lovely way to eat out and share an experience. I have eaten on tokyo (ten years or more ago) and this brought it back.: the attention ti detail and care.The room is large warehouse like with minimal tables etc. The downstairs loos and interesting feature.Would highly recommend for fun, the food and great value.

Venue: This was a business 'after-hours' outing with colleagues/partners. Venue is fairly sparten with wooden seats, simple wall decoration and slightly industrial feel. Warm welcome when I arrived.. Located on a busy intersection of Old Street and Goswell Road. Service: was attentive and polite, not intrusive. 12.5% service charge is added automatically.Food: I have my doubts about the 'fusion' menu and would have preferred something more pure Japanese. However, this is a personal view - my companions enjoyed their dishes. there was a good range of sushi but I went for the tempura which was well done. Side dishes of rice and miso soup came in over-sized bowls making the portions look a little mean. My companions ordered the set menus ~£25 which offered three courses, none of which were large portions but all quite fresh.Drink: Small range of the 'usual' Japanese beers, would have been nice to see something less predictable than Czech-brewed Asahi. Two red wines by the glass, about half a dozen by the bottle. A good range of cocktails on a Japanese theme.Facilities: The toilets downstairs were pretty unpleasant, not very clean, no soap and no hand drying facilities - this could have been much better and a surprising let-down for a Japanese establishment.Overall it was good, but certainly not great. It didn't feel like brilliant value and the venue was not special at all. For the above average prices one would expect a little more. The service was friendly and the food of good quality, I would say that is more four stars but overall I'd give this a three. I probably wouldn't go back (I prefer Satsuma or Ten Ten Tei on Brewer St) but this might be your thing.

I have been fortunate enough to eat at Life regularly during the past few years and cannot recommend it highly enough...for the quality of food it serves, it is excellent value. The lunch menu is less varied than the the evening menu, but always delicious. The evening meni is a treat! Go and try it if you love Japanese food!

We had dragon roll, soft shell crab, spider maki, salmon sashimi, mixed salmon plate, spicy tuna maki and tempura. The only fish that was not fresh was the tuna which was grey and soft as if it was frozen before but all the rest of the food was fresh and tasty. The "studio" atmosphere was a real let-down, sparse and boring. Service was good and very polite and attentive. For what you get it is very pricey though and we won't recommend this restaurant fir the overall experience.

The building really is crazy, not what you think of for a Sushi place. Complete with a Stannah stairlift to the downstairs bar! We had an Ice cold Asahi beer in the basement bar before food. It is a little stark and unkempt but actually quite nice. The bar staff were lovely and it was cheap beer. The open plan, high ceiling dining room was very nice, I was there on a date and they put us in a corner which was great. Food: The salmon and yellow tail Sashimi was very nice, the Unagi eel Nigiri was wonderful but not cheap per piece! The Sushi rolls named after the place 'Life' rolls, were ok...I also had a tikito beef nigiri, i wouldn't recommend it, stick to fish. The starter of soft shell crab was very tasty.Cocktails were nice, the warm sake was better. Overall it wasn't cheap on the bill front but all in together, wonderful service, unique location, good sushi etc etc we had a great time.

We had the most gorgeous 'time-out' in the Life Cafe............Bang in the buzz of Brick Lane housed in the Old Truman Brewery is an oasis of calm. Went on a hot, sultry July Sunday. Outisde all was busy, packed with people ~ lots of delicious food smells but the day was hot and feet tired!! We happened upon the little sign and peered in ~ you need to wander in to find the cafe and then a little courtyard beyond.It was absolute bliss ~ very healthy food ~ freshly prepared. Life is a Yoga lifestyle centre ~ the floors above house Yoga/Pilates studios...........It was like 'Far from the Madding Crowd' a few yards from the buzz is a lovely cool funky cafe. Food was absolutely devine, drinks cool and refreshing, dessert sublime........... Go and try you won't be disappointed!!

I popped in here today with my boyfriend for lunch and could not have stumbled across a more delicious and cool place to eat!I ordered the veggie tempura set with some edamame for starters. I asked before ordering if the batter had eggs (being vegan I won't eat them) and the waitress was more then helpful and asked the chef for me. She came back and said usually it does, but we can make you some without eggs. Then she came back shortly after and asked about other things like fish (I presume for the tempura sauce?) etc. I was soooo so so impressed with the service and humbled that they offered to make me something I could eat. The food didn't take long and oh... My... God.... It was incredible! I would eat there every day if I could! I highly recommend the tempura. It really shows how fresh the food is if they are making be batter right then and there!My boyfriend had the salmon teriyaki and he was so impressed aswell. Overall I couldn't fault it. The service was efficient and everyone was so accommodating and lovely. The food was superb and the atmosphere was industrial cool!

I went to this restaurant with a friend and I loved it. The room is large and you feel you are in a workshop or small warehouse. Wooden floors brick walls, simple decoration and simple wooden tables. Very few tables for the size of the room and a very high ceiling. We had the sushi set meal consisting of many lovely dishes including starter and desert. Very nice indeed and very healthy of course. Lovely afternoon lunch.

The food here is brilliant..I love the Life Fried Chicken (signature dish...just try it and thank me after).Sushi here is great and very fresh. This restaurant is perfect for business, a date or with friends....it's small inside so you have to book as you'll hardly get a walk in seat.There's also a bar downstairs which seems popular with the 'arty' type of crowd (which isn't me). Prefer this place to Nobu hands down!

Have been visiting this Japanese fusion restaurant for multi-ten times in 2 years. One of the best nigiri I had in uk and their lunch set is great value. The only down side would be the variety of sushi might not enough for people who look for really traditional Japanese food.

Starts off with a couple of delicious small plates I had the sashimi set meal, the green tea creme brulee is out of this world!Have a jasmine flower tea too Highly recommendedI also have takeaway sushi sets from here and am never disappointed @ cost of £5 / £7

Really love raw fish and these guys are great, fish is always very fresh, perfer it to the other local offings of pret and alike. It joy in a box and tastes amazing!There are different size boxes from £5 to £7 and a vegi version too.

I've only ever had take out for lunch but it's been lovely every time, although I order my own rolls and wait rather than pick a pre-made box, so it's not cheap. But worth it....Now I've been for dinner there and very much enjoyed it.