Machiya in City of London, Westminster

An amazing Japanese restaurant in the heart of London. The location was perfect. Just a few minutes away from Leicester square. My local friends took me there. The place is small and cozy. The chicken katsu was delicious, and the same goes for the meatballs. The service was quick and excellent, the price was great for the value.

The food was heavenly, and the environment is so homely. The staff is so sweet and suggested really good dishes. Thank you, I will be back for sure.

Seriously delicious food and really great drinks! We got the chicken and pork katsudon, and the pork kakuni (braised pork belly) to share. Also have to shout out their “Long Jasmine Iced Tea”, which might be the best cocktail I’ve ever had. We reserved a table for around 7:30 on a Friday night and they weren’t crazy busy, but after around 20 minutes it was packed and people were getting turned away left and right, so I definitely recommend the reservations.

Food was nice, although frustrating we booked and on arrival were told we would be sitting at the bar - had we known, we wouldn't have booked

The food was really mediocre which was disappointing because I was expecting more. I had the Kakunidon & just a few bites of the meat & I got bored of the taste. It was just too simple. My friend had the Pork Katsudon which I had a bite of & it was also boring after a few bites. Service was normal & the ambience was nice & quiet since it was a weekday.

The taste is very bad, not Japanese food at all, the meal is small and expensive, the beef is very dry and tasteless, the pork ordered by my friend is very smelly, it may be that the quality of the meat is not good + the processing of the meat is not good. 😊😊If you want to eat Japanese food, go to “eat Tokyo,”😍😍which is near Soho.

A sweet little restaurant with wonderfully cheerful staff who took care of us the whole time! We were early for our reservation which wasn't a problem - and despite a few other people already present, food was served piping hot and surprisingly quickly, especially as we ordered a mix of one main and lots of small plates together. The tonkatsu and agedashi tofu were highlights in particular - but the desserts and coffee we had were also fantastic, espwcially the matcha mille crepe. We'll be back next time we're in London! 😊

I will come again for delicious shake teriyaki & fantastic welcoming

Very nice food but they tried to seat us at the bar after we had reserved a table in advance; finally sat us at a table, but the table was small and the seats very hard - low stools with no backs . The matcha crepe cake was a nice dessert.

Food had too much MSG. Staff members were extremely unfriendly. Overall, bad.

Good for solo diners. Fresh food, fast and friendly service :)

Delicious menu that's worth the price. Not much space inside, but generally cosy.

Amazing Japanese restaurant. It's been on my list for quite a while and it's completely worth it.

Fantastic place, I would thoroughly recommend this place to anyone coming to London looking for Japanese cuisine. The Unagi was fantastic!

Oyako Don and Chicken Katsu were great!!

I cannot find the words to express how much I love this place. I've been to this restaurant 3 times already which is something I usually never do in central London but Machiya's delicious food, Cody environment and extremely friendly and hospitable staff always have me wanting to come back. I look forward to future visits !

Homely Japanese food. Delicious and authentic. Small restaurant.

Very delicious and cute restaurant

Amazing food! I would recommend Chicken Katsudon (rice bowl)

I didn’t really enjoy the fish, the chicken was good. I may give it another go, who knows.

Very good service friendly staff and amazing food would highly recommend 👌.

Excellent food & service, can’t fault anything, except perhaps the music 😝

The food was very tasty and wonderful. You got what you paid for everything, especially the tonkotsu ramen. Definitely recommended if you're looking for premium quality food. The staff are very kind, courteous and courteous towards customers. I would love to visit again soon.

Great Japanese dining experience in the heart of the London theatre district. Excellent selection of traditional dishes at a reasonable price complemented with excellent service and an expansive range of Japanese drinks including sake. Recommended!

Wonderful friendly restaurant with fabulous tasty food 🙏

staff and host were incredibly polite and food was amazing

Delicious, fresh food, swift and attentive service. Slow cooked belly pork, salmon rice bowl, katsu curry recommended

Fast service and generous portions. Very high quality dishes.

Awesome cuisine, very nice waitress

Echoing a few others, the food unfortunately missed the mark, and the staff were rather rude.

Lovely dining experience, delicious food and excellent service. I would recommend!

We really enjoyed. We were welcomed in and the staff are so lovely and kind. Relaxed atmosphere with really delicious food. Highly recommend the Kuruma Ebi donburi!

Super cool atmosphere in an intimate restaurant with great decor and vibes. Food was great , specially the chicken katsu curry! Packed place even on a weeknight, can see why it's popular. Walked in for 2, no reservation

Great food! We ordered several plates to share them all and none of the disappointed! The attention at the restaurant was super nice

Friendly staff, a great atmosphere for an evening of eating, snacking and drinking with food to die for.

Amazing Japanese restaurant in London! Lovely evening! Great service! Will return

That was a truly good moment with a really good food quality! I recommend

Incredible food and service. The Katsudon was perfect

Amazing food! Service was excellent and a lovely ambiance! Would highly recommend!

Delicious food that arrived quickly with lovely friendly service

the manager was very kind and friendly alltogether, had a great time with my friend, location was simple but not too bland and it was pleasing. Will definetely return!

Outstanding food and service. Will definitely come back :)

Excellent Tonkatsu, quick service

My favourite Japanese cafe! I am often in Japan and I can say that the atmosphere here is the same! Everything is very tasty and beautiful! The staff is excellent and polite

AVOID. This is the worst Japanese food that I have ever eaten: we ordered rice bowls - Pork Katsudon and Gyudon. The rice was overcooked and mushy, and had no flavour at all. The pork cutlet was dry and chewy, and served in such large pieces that it was impossible to eat with chopsticks (no other utensils provided). The beef brisket tasted like cheap meat that had been microwaved, again with no flavour. I could not even stomach to finish it. For starter we ordered pickled cucumber and kara-age (fried chicken). For £5.75 we received SIX (6 only) small pieces of cucumber. The kara-age did not arrive as a starter; it was only delivered as a main course & was somehow both dry and greasy at the same time. We have visited Japan and even the food at the convenience stores was better than this. I hope that we were just unlucky.

Great good- really tasty! And lovely staff.

Great food. Relaxed atmosphere.

I visited Machiya for the first time after a recommendation from a Japanese friend and have since become a regular customer. One of the things I particularly like about the food is it is very authentic and tastes like it would in Japan. An example are the katsu curries where the sauce is very much Japanese style and the Tsukune which even comes with the customary egg yolk for dipping. I particularly recommend the katsu curries and large plates and the Mille Crêpe and Matcha Fondant for dessert, although everything I have tried is delicious. The service is also very good. The dishes are served quickly and despite being very busy, the staff are friendly, polite and very responsive. They have Japanese speaking staff, although their English is also excellent based on hearing them speak to other customers. Machiya is a fairly small restaurant and is very busy even on weekdays and so I do recommend making a reservation if possible. I should also point out all the seating is stools and they do not have booths. However, they are accomodating to my needs and give me a table where I could lean against the wall. In summary, I always have a very good dining experience at Machiya and I would definitely recommend a visit if you fancy authentic Japanese food combined with very good customer service.

Visitado este fin de semana, el servicio era muy bueno y las señoras eran muy atentos. La comida era auténtica y sabía bien. La decoración era un poco anticuada y las mesas de 2 en la parte superior del restaurante eran muy apretados juntos.

Delicious food, pleasant service, music and atmosphere is lovely. Good prices too, will be coming again :)

Great food and great atmosphere

Very good experience. Very courteous service.

I went there for lunch on my day off. I had oyakodon and fried chicken, and the soup stock was very effective and it was very delicious. It's been a while since I tasted Japanese food. This is definitely my favorite Japanese food I've had in the UK!

No es mi primer rodeo en Machiya. Mi novio y yo fuimos a Japón el año pasado y este es uno de los únicos lugares en Londres que sabe algo como la comida que comimos allí. Los platos son muy auténticos y deliciosos. Un favorito es el tonkotsu, tan crujiente y lleno de sabor. No podría recomendar más.

Portion size is good, though the food can be a bit more flavourful. It was really difficult to get service throughout the meal.

Rude staff with zero reason. Walked in on a quiet Tuesday at 5 PM, an empty restaurant with no one. and the staff was insistent—borderline aggressive—about making us sit at the bar table. I checked online—plenty of tables available for the time, but they still insisted. Their booking system even demands credit card details, and for some reason the staff pushes so much on booking, coincidence? No explanation and no flexibility. Don’t waste your time; they clearly don’t value customers with that attitude.

Lovely place, wonderful food and staff

The food and customer service were excellent. Definitely recommend.

Amazing authentic Japanese food and atmosphere offered. Perfect for a solo traveller spending one night in London 😊 I enjoyed sitting alone at the bar table so much and it brought back memories from Japan!

Great service, fabulous food 👌, great fun atmosphere, ( not easy in such a small place!). Our server was wonderful she made us feel so welcome, ( two oldies in a young space), we didn't catch her name but just mention Mighty Crown and she'll know 😉. Definitely recommend for Japanese food lovers and good vibes😍

I read all the reviews before going there on DEC 20th, 2024. I was hoping to get food Japanese food. Unfortunately, the food was not good. The quality of the rice was terrible. Gyudon was dry and I couldn't finish the rice. The location and service were fine, but I was disappointed by the food. Nasu Dengaku, Kinoko Don and Gyudon were tasteless. Paying more than 60 pounds was not worth it for me in my opinion.

Hello, the gyudon beef was too dry

27.50 for a small bowl of eel rice and 11.50 for a barely contained alcohol “Long Island iced tea”, I am even half full after paying 40. Plus eel rice is too sweet. Would not recommend nor come again.

Lady that served us today (up until closing/10pm), great friendly and welcoming service.

I always like to come back to my favorite Japanese restaurant. The vibe, food, service everything was amazing. Thank you for a best service for Yuri-san. 😄

Amazing authentic little Japanese restaurant gem! Food is incredible and service very friendly. The menu is heavenly and genuinely authentic food, a nice find indeed!

Machiya combines a cosy atmosphere, friendly service, and delicious, generous portions. If you’re in the area, I highly recommend paying a visit — I’ll definitely be returning!

very nice and authentic japanese restaurant, umai!!!!!!

Very authentic and delicious food! Super friendly staff, definitely a place to repeat 😍🤌

I never thought I could hear so much Japanese in London. The food was exactly like Japanese food.

Yuri-san was the most amazing waitress. Thank you for an authentic experience.

I really enjoyed my meal at Machiya! Me and my girlfriend both ordered the chicken katsu curry with yuzu lemonades. The katsu curry was flavourful and one of the nicer ones I have had. The yuzu lemonade was so good, it tastes a bit like sherbert lemonade but better! Definitely the highlight of my experience. I ordered a crepe cake for dessert and it was light and fluffy. I would recommend for a nice Japanese spot in central London.

Very good restaurant, I had a dish made from rice and seasonal vegetables in a Japanese curry sauce and it was delicious 😋. Very good service and welcome. Lovely place. I recommend 😀

I tried the Vegetable Katsu Curry, and it was really bland. Based on the menu description, I expected something crispy, but it was just rice, a few vegetables, and katsu sauce. For £17, it felt like a total rip-off. Not many options for vegetarians other than this either.

cosy place with lovely staff (Yuri has been fab) and delicious food

The food was delicious, the staff were incredibly friendly and the atmosphere was wonderful with fun, vibey Japanese pop music. Would come back in a heart beat!

Great chilled out place with fabulous food. Try the nasu dengaku!

Happened across this place luckily managed to get a seat for 2. Food was very tasty and service was excellent. Bustly place very clean too

Delicious pork chop rice! But I would also like to recommend the homemade green tea (? If I remember the name correctly). The tea has a light and refreshing flavor and is very delicious.

Very friendly staff, great food and portion sizes, suitable for lunch and dinner.

Delicious! Thank you very much! ^_^

Amazing restaurant! nice vibe food is amazing

Best aubergine ever and lovely friendly service.

Great little Japanese restaurant. All the food we ordered was delicious. The staff are very attentive and friendly

Love this restaurant and the staff are so friendly and helpful thank you for another fantastic meal

Surprisingly delicious food, a bit crammed space , fast service and okish prices.

Updated @ Dec 2024. Used to be one of my go-to eateries in central London but I sort of stopped coming here after being turned away the last couple times because the place was swarmed. Long story short, as we were around the area we decided to take our chances and surprise surprise - there was no queue, yay! That is pretty much the only happy part of the story, the rest is pretty sad. Now a tonkatsu is £17 and you have to pay an extra £5 for the rice and £4 for the miso soup if you want the full set. With that you get a piece of overcooked pork cutlet with breading that keeps falling off. If you think you'd get better value for money opting for the katsu curry then you'd be disappointed when you get served a bowl of curry without a single piece of veggies inside.

Our first time with my friend. The waitress was very nice and sweet. The service was very friendly, and the food was tasty and filling. I will definitely go back again!! :) And we looooved the old school rnb music playlist 😍

Very good food and amazing service, we will definitely come back 👌

Was the best experience I’ve had, thank you yuri !

Small Restaurant with very kind service. Would go again.

Absolutely amazing food!! Ordered easily on their website and got the food within a few minutes during quiet times. The food was super tasty and we really enjoyed it all. The portions were a perfect size and we were very satisfied. Not too expensive either! The restaurant was lovely, clean and light and the staff were very friendly! Would definitely recommend and will definitely be returning!

Came here for two consecutive days! Amazing Japanese home-style food, very healthy, authentic, and delicious!

Not too bad. Hope price can be better for the quality.

Very good food with good atmosphere. Fast and attentive service

Hometown taste...😂 I ordered beef bowl, eggplant, and matcha cake🍰It was delicious.

Unbelievably good japanese food. Best i’ve had

The food was amazing, really friendly staff! We ended up sitting at the bar which was a new experience for us but very fun!!

This was our second time here. It's a small restaurant so probably best to book but we've been twice and have been lucky both times to get a table without a booking. Lovely food great atmos.

Really good, authentic tonkatsu! A bit pricey, but usual for Japanese restaurants in London. Came here on a Saturday evening, and despite being quite busy, the food came fast and was tasty. It is a bit away from the crowded area around Leicester Square, so you will have a seat even without reservation! Would come again! What I ordered: Misoshiru Tonkatsu Large Plate Homemade Yuzu Lemonade Total: £26.40