My partner and I eat out a lot. Partly due to being too lazy to cook at home, but mostly because we simply enjoy eating good food made by people who love it as much as we do.
After a while, though, we found ourselves going back to the same places again and again. Not that that’s a bad thing—we have our favourites—but you know the old saying about too much of a good thing. I think there is also a genuine fear of wasting a meal. We only get three a day and each one has to count. You have to truly enjoy what you choose to eat, especially in London where it can cost quite a bit.
To break the habit, we started playing a game where we pick a random Japanese restaurant. The only rule is that it has to be somewhere we’ve never tried before, and once you pick it, you can’t back down. There have been a handful we totally regretted and will never return to, but a few have been added straight to our list of favourites.
This is how we found Guru Guru Sake. Sushi. Sakana.
Guru Guru is a retro Japanese listening and sushi bar tucked between what looks like a beauty school and a Korean cocktail bar, offering authentic Japanese dishes. The menu, although not huge, provides a nice variety without making you feel overwhelmed. The vibe is relaxed and friendly, and the food is fresh and affordable. What more could you want? Now and then, the quiet background chatter is interrupted by giggles as guests make their own Hojicha Kakigori with a cute yet slightly creepy bear-shaped ice-shaving machine.
Our first visit completely won us over. We ordered a sushi set each, alongside a few smaller dishes to share. I really enjoyed the Toro Taku Otsumami and the Grated Yam and Tuna Temaki.
Fast forward a few weeks, and here we are again. This time we brought a couple of old friends with us and ordered a whole lot more.
The Toro Taku Otsumami was the standout dish. It’s 80g of premium bluefin tuna, finely chopped and mixed with tangy daikon radish (takuan). It comes with four sheets of nori seaweed so you can wrap the fatty tuna mix yourself. The contrasting texture of the melt-in-the-mouth toro and the crunchy acidity of the pickle is beautifully balanced and so satisfying.
We also ordered a few sides: the Tosazu Salad, Yuzu Daikon, Ohitashi, and the Karaage, all of which were lovely. From their specials, we just had to order the Grated Yam and Tuna Temaki again.
For something a little less traditional, try the Guru Guru Roll, made from seven different types of selected fish all rolled into one futomaki. Somehow, the combination just works. If you love tuna, the Crazy Tuna Roll is packed with a generous, thick-cut load of fresh fish featuring different fatty levels of tuna, making it incredibly rich and savoury.
The Aburi Saba Sushi is another favourite. Authentic, high-quality Aburi Saba Bozushi (pressed sushi with lightly flame-seared mackerel) is incredibly hard to find in London restaurants, and this certainly does not disappoint.
I absolutely love this place. The vibe is laidback, and the quality and freshness of the fish are excellent. When you’re with friends having a great time, you can easily spend hours eating and chatting, letting time just slip by. I can’t wait to go back.
This brings me to the one thing you should be aware of: expect to spend quite a bit of time here, as the service can be a little too laidback at times. It does affect the mood of the place slightly, and we did notice other tables getting quite annoyed at the long waits. In our case, we had to remind the waiter that we still had two more dishes to come when he came over to ask for our last orders. We ended up waiting over an hour for those final two plates. Perhaps they just saw we were deeply engrossed in conversation and didn’t want to interrupt, or maybe they genuinely forgot about us, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind if you’re ever in a rush.
Guru Guru Sushi. Sake. Sakana is in Angel, Chapel Market.
Closest tube station: Angel.
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