Taro - Balham in Wandsworth

Great service and great food. Took someone who has lived and worked in Japan and she was impressed with the quality.

Service is super slow. Food tastes good. Atmosphere is noisy

Great Japanese restaurant. The tonkatsu is delicious and the price is also really good.

I had a really nice sushi platter! Tasted fresh and satisfying

The actual space was a bit tight but comfortable enough since it was not too crowded. But a full house would make it quite tight. ☺️ Service was quite efficient and effective and our dishes came in a timely fashion but not all together for the 3 of us. Something to work on definitely so the food doesn't get cold. The food was delicious 😋 We had a pork Ramen, a chicken Ramen (good portion of chicken)and sushi platter. Starters were also appetizing 😋☺️

I am a regular at Taro. The food is good especially the sushi is very good, great portions and size, very filling and well done. The currys and teriaki a bit Less good in my opinion. But the worst thing is the service. This is the only restaurant I have been in which the physical costumers are completely overlooked to give all their attentions to the take away and Uber/ delivery drivers. So you are there waiting for someone to come around forever to ask for some water when they are all there prepping their takeaway and giving bags to the drivers. Also the service for the costumers that are seated and paying for service a good 12.5% is basically 0 while people who are not paying for the service charge ( takeaway) get all the attention. This drives me mad if it wasn't the best sushi place in Balham I would have stopped coming here long time ago.

Good lunch deal, tasty food and special thanks to Rika!!! Perfect service and attention.

I wouldn't even give the curry to my dog and the sushi was lukewarm. There was so much noise coming from the open kitchen that you could hardly have a conversation.

Great local restaurant, I like to bring the kids. Service is friendly and relaxed, even when we cause confusion with the various requests from the kids. Food is tasty, good quality & arrives quickly.

We went for dinner here on a weeknight. The food was quick, delicious and fresh - we ordered several different items including fish, veggie and cooked meat/fish sushi, gyoza, salad and tempura prawns. The portions were all decent sizes for the money and the plating of the food was appealing. Whilst service was fast, the only constructive feedback I’ve give is that we specified three items to come as starters but actually received our food in a completely different and random order. As a further suggestion, it would be great if they could serve 0% beer such as Asahi Super Dry 0% on the menu to give pregnant people (like me) and other non-alcoholic drinkers the option to enjoy Japanese beer with their meal.

This is a great place to chill out with your favourite ice cream

Ordered from Uber eats and rarely do I enjoy a meal enough from there to leave a review however Taro was excellent. The portion sizes of the bento boxes are perfect and the packaging means everything arrived as intended. Very quick delivery and everything tasted super fresh. If you want a take out but don't want to feel horrible after I'd give Taro a go!

great service…. food was delicious

Food are so delicious and environment are good.

Amazing food and high quality sushi Good portions reasonably priced Best in balham Highly Recommend

My review is based off a tuna steak bento box. A Google images search of "tuna steak bento" is what I was expecting. The tuna was in thin slices, cooked to very well done and then drowned in teriyaki sauce making it impossible to taste. The rice was soggy, pickled ginger dry and edamame unwashed. For 22 pounds I was looking forward to a nice meal but Sainsbury's quality is higher

Was eating here with my friend and was recommended lots of delicious food by the young waiter with red/ purple hair was really sweet and offered vegetable sushi because my friend couldn't eat the sashimi from the bento box. Definitely will be coming back again!!! Food came fast and service was great

Best food I've ever had at this restaurant, tried their chef special roll and tuna steak bento was amazing, miso soup tastes just right! Just what was needed for the weather. Highly recommend eating here!!!

We ordered a tuna steak bento box and we got pork instead. I called the restaurant and explained we received our order with a wrong meat. The lady who made our food tried to convince us that this is tuna. I told her the taste is definitely not a tuna taste but she insisted that it was indeed tuna. The taste was not tuna, nor was the texture! Of course, anyone can make mistakes, but being seen as stupid is a lot! They did not want to solve my problem at all just keep saying that is a tuna. This is not the first time we have ordered this. Last time the tuna steak was different. As everyone can see in this pictures this is not tuna. I asked one of my friend who is a chef what he thinks about it and he said the same. My partner could not have his lunch because he doesn’t eat pork. What's even better they didn't even want to give compensation for this bad experience!! This so rude! They only want the money and the satisfaction of the guest is no longer of interest to them. 👎🤢🤮 Reply to the owner : Why would I say it wasn't tuna? Why would I say that?? And what about the taste and texture?? I hope everyone in the kitchen knows what kind of meat to use for a tuna steak, or at least it would be good if they had a good eyes. 🥴🙄

Great quality food for a very reasonable price. The staff are friendly and helpful! The food is always out quickly and tastes absolutely delicious. I go here a few times a month - my favourite restaurant in Balham!

Went mid week for a family meal. Decent food - though I do wish they would give less of rice and more of chicken or veg on the ' don ' dish. A little bit on the pricy side Will defo go again

Kalawati Aryal, Nishesh and Megha are excellent definitely will be coming back !

Nice open restaurant (looks better than the Soho restaurant and is bigger)

Nice place and we sat outside and watched the world go by. Staff all friendly... but service way too intense at start - huge menu and we were asked to order within 1 min, 3 mins and 5! Spicy edamane beans - I was expecting hot and fresh and rolled in spices. What we got were fridge cold and drowning in a thick goopy over sweet sauce. Tempura prawns came in a thick greasy batter like you'd get in a fish and chip shop. Sushi was decent enough aside from slice of inedible rubbery octopus. Sashimi wasn't elegant slices of premium raw fish but huge CHUNKS. Gag. And while the salmon was fresh the tuna was stringy and chewy. Jasmine tea was a pot full of dust not tea leaves. Honestly... For 40 quid each with no alcohol... Don't think I'd recommend.

What a gem of a restaurant! Some of the best Japanese food I have ever had. The sushi and sashimi were very fresh and clean. Everything was beautifully presented. Huge choice of dishes. The chefs worked skilfully and quickly. Service was friendly and efficient. Not expensive! Good atmosphere and not surprised to see a steady stream of takeaways being sent out. A great find!

Excellent food. Such good value. Great menu!!! (With the exception of the octopus balls which weren’t very nice) but the sushi & ramen etc was fab.

Really good quality food, especially the fried chicken. Very very annoying to have to fight our way into the restaurant through a big crowd of Deliveroo drivers all waiting in their helmets at the door where a poor member of staff was frantically trying to control the situation, occasionally shouting at them to get out. The drivers also stared at us and the food. Overall felt like we were competing for service with a hundred people not even in the restaurant and so the service really suffered and it took a long time to get anything. Food is of very good quality and tasty, except the octopus balls which were gross. Excellent value. Would recommend to the restaurant that diners in the restaurant should be given priority, but I imagine they make much more money on take out.

It is a small restaurant with very good Japanese and Asian food.

The food was very dissapointing. We had two Bento boxes, the sashimi was cut in huge chunks and roughly. The rice under my grilled salmon was overcooked and soft and my plum wine came in a champagne glass I have no idea why. I was expecting a great experience as I had been to the one in Soho. One of the chef's kept coughing too whilst cooking which wasn't the best feeling after being served food to eat. This was very dissapointing experience!

This was an appalling meal. We were excited that a new local Japanese place had opened in Balham, and as such set out to try quite a lot from the menu. All dishes were disappointing both taste wise and presentation wise. The sashimi salad was just sashimi in a bowl with a few leaves and 1 cherry tomato cut in half but not separated, no dressing or presentation. The yaki-tori was extremely small pieces of chicken on the skewer like off cuts, and in retrospect we should have resturned the dish immediately. The sushi was tasteless and lacked presentation or appeal. The beef teriyaki was also underwhelming. We had some other dishes which were all poor, I've actually forgotten what they were. We tried both versions of the mojito and both tasted like chemical fragranced hand wipes. Service was inattentive and completely disinterested. We gave some simple polite feedback at the end of the meal and as anticipated, the staff didn't seem interested or at all surprised! To top it all, it's not a cheap restaurant. The same money could have bought us an extremely good meal in Tsunami down the road in Clapham. I can't see the restaurant lasting, locals certainly won't be returning after one experience there, unless is relies on the people popping in for a noodle dish to take home on the way from work - but there are much better options for this. This restaurant hasn't appeared on TripAdvisor yet, perhaps to avoid an onslaught of negative reviews?

Taro is, and will forever be my favourite restaurant. I’ve been coming here for 5 years now, whenever I’m either local or for a special occasion. This attests to its unique ability to provide fantastic sushi and reasonable prices. The food is simple, fresh (never more than a day old) and well served. Specially spider rolls are a must here. The staff are continually friendly too. Keep it up Taro

I used to love this place, but feel it has really gone downhill recently. Food seems to be incredibly hit and miss with consistent sub-par service. You repeatedly have to ask for plates/glasses/soya sauce. Music is seriously awful, why would drum and bass be played on a Friday night? I’ll go to Fabric if I want to listen to this.

Vegetarian Bento box was amazing. Nice atmosphere. really good spot.

Eat here often and am never disappointed, and always satisfied. Food is tasty, decent portions and reasonably priced. Lunch menu is especially good value. Good service. Well recommended.

Reasonable price with good portion & quality

Ordered sushi from here via Deliveroo. Really solid sushi, way better than average. For reference, I lived in Japan for 8 years and am consistently disappointed with sushi in London but this was great honestly.

Great gyozas and good ramen, starters came at the same time as mains though. Very nice place feels quite Japanese and nice atmosphere. If you’re too close to the entrance you would be disrupted by all the Deliveroo though

I’ve been to Taro several times and the food is consistently delicious. Some the freshest sushi I’ve had and loads of food to fill you for the price. Very authentic Japanese menu which I’ve enjoyed exploring, the lunch time offer helps with this. The service is a bit slow but the staff are really nice. Nice music as well. Will keep visiting

Quite an average restaurant. My friend usually takes away and has a good experience. The service people took forever to understand but we’re asking for even though it was on the menu. I ended up with a lunch Bento box even though they aren’t served at the weekend personally not a good experience for sushi, but the food was okay

Good cheap Japanese food. I got the tofu steak bento.

Ordered on deliveroo, ramen broth very disappointing in both pork ramen and tonkotsu. No depth or flavour. Hard boiled egg in ramen and overcooked soggy noodles. Wont order again.

Really amazing service. Waiters are so kind. One lady literally sprinted down the road after me because I forgot my bag it was so sweet. Will defo come here again :)

I waited for over an hour for delivery only to get a phone call from the restaurant 5 minutes before the rider arrived at my house saying that they forgot to pack an item which was my daughter’s entire lunch. No attempt of redelivery was offered, they just asked me to cancel the item on Deliveroo. My daughter has an eating disorder and can only eat a very limited spectrum of food from a handful of restaurants. But letting a child starve doesn’t seem to matter to them at all. Totally irresponsible!

Very cozy place. Delicious food, had sushi and spicy chicken. Reasonable prices and food portions were also pleasant. Polite staff, helpful and fast. Very nice.

To date the best Tonkatsu Ramen I have ever had. Taro has always been a great place to go for sushi anyway. Go!

Great selection of sushi and other Japanese favourites and a simple Japanese style interior with a few seats outside for when it's a nice day. I would recommend the duck teriyaki don but be prepared that it's a lot of food!

My favourite local sushi restaurant! Reasonably priced and great quality! Staff are always friendly. We mostly dine in but on occasionally we get takeaway.

They have good value sashimi 🍱 here but it's not as good quality as some other places, particularly the eel but it's still nice. Veg gyoza 🥟 and edamame spring rolls are very much my thing here too.

We had farewell meal here for a friend and although it was sad to say goodbye we did have an amazing meal, and the staff we're great, and the food as always was amazing

Worst sushi we’ve ever tried (we tried dragon roll, salmon roll and California roll). The rice was over cooked and just awful. Edamame was ice cold, the tempura vegetables not good at all. Not going back for sure and spent £68. Next time I’ll just go to Sainsbury’s cause the sushi there is better

Whilst working for a week in Balham, my wife and I ate lunch here everyday day. 100% excellent meals and service.

Best sushi place in Balham with a great selection of options. Would recommend the bento boxes 🍱

Just ordered takeaway and the sumai and tempura chicken avocado rolls were amazing. Chicken gyoza was also really tasty! Really recommend!

Small local sushi spot. This place is my go to when I can’t decide what I want to eat or when I want to dine alone. I love warm sushi and plum wine so it’s what I usually get. I have tried other things on the menu and no complaints.

I’ve been to Tokyo over a dozen times. This is actually exactly the amazing food you would get in Tokyo. Do yourself a favour and dine here. Amazing!!!

Very othentiq Japanese food. Highly recommended

My favourite sushi place in south London for sure. I’ve brought friends and family here and every time we walk out so full and satisfied with our meals. I average around £16 per head every visit. The service is welcoming and Daniel is a warm passionate manager who clearly cares about the business and customer experience. I had never tried tempura fried sushi before to which he kindly offered on the house and he was not wrong. I need encouragement to try something different. He sealed the deal and I am a forever fan. Despite living in Surrey this branch is the closest to me so it’s become a monthly visit. It would be weekly if I could! The price range is fair, even the catering staff are friendly and exchange a smile. Mon-Fri after 5:30pm it’s an extra 10% off the bill. I have relatives coming from Bali next week and I’m being sure to book a table because this place does get busy! It’s not a big restaurant so there can be a wait for a table during peak hours, but it’s ideal size because the chefs have never made me wait longer than 10-15mins for my food. Unlike much larger scaled restaurants. So I recommend!

Disgusting overcooked rice warm sushi , not coming again . Avoid x

A really lovely little place on Balham high street with a lovely garden out the back too.

Omg I've walked past this place so many times and never gone in mainly because it was super busy. HOWEVER, on this occasion, I had mum with me, and said let's go! I'm so glad we did, the food was very reasonable in price they gave you so much and the vegan options were lovely. I would usually eat from a particular chain restaurant in the area if I were feeling lazy to cook, but I will certainly be replacing my go to food pace as a result!!

Came in for lunch time, portion was really good and very tasty, it wasn’t a bit order but the Katsu curry was delicious. Will definitely be coming back. Thank you.

Had an amazing first experience. Food was 5/5 and the service was so attentive, friendly and fun. Would definitely recommend.

Service has become appauling got food after the rest of our table had finished Sushi did not have much ginger had to order more. Wasabi no longer spicy. Won't be visiting this Taro again.

Oh dear Taro - Balham what have you done? Bland food, portions smaller, service terrible, that is if got served at all. This one off my list of places to go. Kennington Taro here I come.

Oh dear. I do this review with a heavy heart. Came here prevoiusly about a month ago and the service was slow. Thought we would try again today. Ordered food. Talked about allergies and asked for a substitution. All ok so far. Previous time we asked for extra ginger as the portion size was small. They gave us more but charged extra for it. Mentioned the need for lots of ginger with the sushi, only got one piece per Balham roll set - see photo. When made a comment, some more was brought out - was expecting to pay more for it. Allergy information was obviously not passed onto the chef as it was present on the sushi set - but my son eat it, so he was happy. My hot dish, which usually comes before the sushi sets did not turn up. We asked for clarification on the order and were told he would check. 10 minutes later an order was put in with no communication regarding status. No apologies, or explanation so order could be refined or cancelled. By this time, my family had virtually finished their meal. My food arrived and I had to eat up quickly so as to not keep them waiting. Asked for bill to find the hot meal had been charged for at the full menu price not the lunch menu price. Had to query this as well. Overall, as expecting to have a nice relaxed lunch, only to find I had to hurry the main part of my meal. Getting customes in is the difficult part of the industry at the moment. Once the customer is in, you would expect some form of customer service, with good communication and a smooth customer service. I am sorry to say, but Balham has now put me in a position of not wanting to go back any more to Taro. We love the Kennington branch as there is smooth interaction from the staff, but Balham ... Will not be going back, as it is not cheap and would like some form of positive communication, as we know thing do go wrong at times. It is not rocket science - just talk to the customer so they are in the loop and not trying to second guess what is going on.

Delicous sushi, worth my time and money! Came to eat with my friend and was served by Tom-working very fast and gave great customer service. The sushi sets were of good quality and didn't contain that fishy taste I was worried for, making it enjoyable as well as smooth to eat. I would definitely come again sometime 👍

Absolutely loved my experience at Taro Balham! came out for dinner on a Sunday with my children and they loved the kind service and really enjoyed the chicken katsu set for the kids, portion size was a bit big but overall really amazing taste. When my salmon teriyaki bento box arrived I was surprised at how much comes inside it, the rice was soft and fluffy and the salmon was cooked well. Very flavourful. I would definitely visit again and I highly recommend it for people that are visiting Japanese restaurants!!

Been here multiple times since it was first opened, their quality seems to be going downhill. Had a bento box, rice is chewy and is obviously overnight rice. I eat Japanese food often and it’s the only time I had overnight rice at a Japanese restaurant.

Eaten at both the Soho and Kennington brand and was our first trip to the Balham one. Sadly we wished we hadn’t bothered. Not only was the restaurant freezing cold but the service was some of the worse we’ve ever had. No fault of the the two servers. They were totally understaffed and over worked with a Sunday lunch service. Don’t bother going if it’s busy

This was just about the worst sushi I’ve had in a really long time. The service was quite bad as well. We only came because it was a friends’ choice. Had I seen the reviews I would not have come here at all. There are certain standards when it comes to sushi. It’s hard to make sushi pretty, and sometimes we use western ingredients to enhance the flavor - I get that. My biggest concern trying a new sushi restaurant is the possibility of warm and mushy rice and the overuse of cream cheese and mayonnaise 🤢. This place did EXACTLY that. Eating raw fish with a mouth full of very warm rice, along with cream cheese and mayonnaise… was just not anything I would ever look forward to. Some dishes don’t specify the ingredients they use, and you can’t really tell what’s in the photos. Also during our dine-in experience, I was ordering the sushi boat, and then I wanted to add an extra order of Ikura. To which the waitress said “we don’t have any Ikura today.” Well then when were you going to tell me that, because that’s one of the items included in the boat?? Thankfully, I found that out sooner rather than later, and I was able to cancel the boat. We didn’t mention that part of course, but throughout our time there, the waitress seemed like she did NOT want to be there. All in all, I can’t believe a place like this is still in business in 2023, but I guess maybe some people prefer it for the price or just don’t know any better 🤷🏻‍♀️

Prawn tempura roll was nice and clearly made to order. Balham roll was hard very cold (like so cold it hurt my teeth to bite) - likely premade and served from fridge. WAAAY too much disgusting mayonnaise (not even flavoured so why?!?) on everything. Gyoza delivered with a literal thimble of dipping sauce. Half filled miso soup. My usual sushi place was closed but this was a shocker. And very expensive!! I’ve had taro before and I remember it not being great but this was really awful. Never again!!

We've eaten dinner here many times in the last few months. The food has constantly been fresh and delicious. The gyozas are delicious and the bento boxes both vegetarian and non vegetarian are a perfectly balanced & healthy meal at a great price. They also have a 10% discount Tuesday-Thursday. Staff are cordial and very helpful. Recommend

Good enough.. Decent tempura sushi.. however the Tokatsu ramen is only not bad.. not as good as Ipudo..

I have never experienced such bland and tasteless sushi in my life! Overpriced and no flavour. Avoid!

I used to be a frequent customer but Taro no longer accept cash. This is very bad. I won't come again.

Amazing place to vist, amazing food we were served by Daniel Great atmosphere very friendly staff, Don't miss out on this great place definitely visiting soon.

Very welcoming staff and decent looking menu. Had the tuna steak bento with overcooked dry tuna. The scallop sashimi was good so disappointed that quality was so variable. IMHO, better Japanese options elsewhere.

Booked this place last minute and so glad we did. Sushi is our favourite food so we can be a bit picky but Taro did not disappoint - the staff were so chatty and friendly which was nice and the food was fresh & inexpensive with a good selection! 😊

Really good food, especially the bento boxes. I am a big fan but sadly the vegetarian options for my girlfriend are not amazing.

Today we visited at taro Balham restaurant and had a chicken don, chicken katshu and salmon bento such a amazing foods I had ever and good handling staffs and kind .

Incred experience. Eloise in particular was a gem- she enlightened the whole experience and the Asahi beer she poured was particularly lovely. Will be coming back - what a delightful time it was!!!!

We were served by the wonderful Eloise, who was an absolute delight and ensured that we all had an amazing experience. We all had the chicken katsu curry which was absolutely spectacular, followed by a nice cold, refreshing beer. Thank you so much, we will see you again soon :)

Lovely place, your employee Eloise was a lovely girl with a lovely compassion for serving food. Brilliant price as well.

went out for dinner with 4 friends - Eloise served us and she was amazing - had great banter and always had a smile on her face. the food was yummy too.

Tasty fresh Sushi and great choice from the menu. Not particularly expensive!

I’ve been coming to Taro for many years back in Soho and I’ve been to Balham branch as well many times and their chicken teriyaki is my absolute favourite as it’s the best in London and I’ve tried many chicken teriyaki everywhere and outside the UK. It’s the flavour and the sauce and the way they make the skin and edge’s perfectly crispy and the delicious bed of vegetables underneath that compliments the whole taste, yummy yum!

The best chicken katsu curry ever!

Amazing Japanese food. Maybe a bit pricey but portions are massive.

Absolutely fantastic restaurant. Staff is super friendly and smiling. Great vibes and the beef don was genius. Fulfilling, fresh. Highly recommended to anyone who likes Japanese dishes.

Average dining experience with patchy service - food was OK.

Had heard really good things about taro but unfortunately we were let down. The service could be improved and delivery drivers got priority over diners. Gyoza were nice but nothing special.

good value, and generally quite good. Sticky tables tho....

Love this place, the sushi is so fresh and lovely.

Really enjoyed my time at Taro and I would return. I have to say the tako yaki just can't compete with tooting Broadway Market !!

Great service, delicious food at a reasonable price, always space available

Taro in Balham and Soho both used to be good years ago but food quality has recently gone downhill. Salmon teriyaki lacked flavour, could have been more grilled and served on a bigger plate or bowl, not just chucked over some rice and beansprouts. Didn't see a single Japanese person working there, not surprising that its not authentic.

Sushi and beef was not fresh , most disappointing as other Taro chains have been good. Won’t be coming back

I must admit I seldom saw such an incompetence to manage orders, avoid to order take away at this restaurant they don't close the orders if they are busy and the customer ends up waiting more than 2 hours to get the food delivered, absolutely shameful!

Food is usually good (sometimes can be a hit or miss depending on which chef is on duty) and service is also generally good. The problem comes when you have to pay and they don't accept the old £20 notes, which are still perfectly legal and - despite what the owner thinks - can still be spent anywhere and don't need to be exchanged in the bank.

The music is banging, nice atmosphere, and I didn't have to wait much ,delicious food.