Kurumaya

The restaurant is in a very busy neighbourhood with St. Paul's just around the corner. Once you pass all the buzzing pubs and restaurants, and you step into this Kurumaya, you are immediately captured in a very quiet and calm even homey environment. The menu is extensive with everything you wish to see in a Japanese restaurant. We tried sushi sashimi, beef rice bowl, mixed tempura plate, miso soup, tofu etc. Everything is delicious but lack of a wow factor. Price is reasonable. Good for a quick work lunch.

It was fun watching sushi going around on the belt conveyor. The restaurant has table service downstairs and a take away section at the entrance as well as the belt conveyor counter. Sushi and other dishes are on the different colour plates indicating it's prices. Orange £3.50 Red £3.90 Green £4.50 Blue £4.90 Pink £5.50 Yellow £5.90 Most cooked dishes from the kitchen were on the yellow plates and I thought they were good value as long as you pick them up while it's still hot. Most dishes including sushi are on the belt without top covers for the first few rounds, and I found them unhygienic. Sushi chefs in the corner were friendly, though they are very busy making all sushi for takeaway, downstairs tables as well as the belt conveyor counter. You'll get your bill from a staff, and pay at the till by the entrance. Be aware that the service charge is astonishingly high even for the city standards. It is 20%! For pick up by yourself sushi and pay at the till, I think it is outrageous. I don't think bringing a drink and counting the plates and writing it down isn't worth 20%. Or am I mean to think that way. Prawn tempura was good, machareal sushi was good, others I had weren't. One experience was enough for me.

The sunken table area is quite cool downstairs but we sat at a normal table. The atmosphere was super off with it being dead quiet with no music. Just an awkward atmosphere. The salmon sashimi was really good, super fresh! I had a rice bowl with steak as my main and it was just okay- it was pretty bland and could’ve done with a sauce, there was just so so much pickled ginger as well, it would’ve been nice to have some other veg. The waitress was amazing, super lovely and she was concerned when we left loads of food at the end but we were just so full!

Re: Friday 4th August evening Food was good and I feel the pricing was fair for a central London restaurant. Seating was downstairs. A little too cozy. It's nice they give you the option to sit at the tables or on the sunken floor area that requires slippers. The waitress was fantastic and did a great job working by herself, tending to all tables and checking in on us. They are lucky to have her! Bad look to see who I got the impression of the owner sitting at a table drinking and looking unfriendly or helpful. Unfortunately, the condition of the one toilet available was atrocious. For this reason we will not come back. I forgot to take an image of the sink- it would be impossible to wash hands if someone were to use the urinal which is in front of it. I do not think I would feel comfortable bringing children into that toilet without waiting for them. There is no excuse to have it in the condition it is and this could be renovated over a weekend. They are closed on the weekends so that baffles me even more. The majority of the floor tiles are loose. Additionally, the amount of fruit flies in the toilet and restaurant needs to be addressed. I'm sure this goes against many H&S standards. Disappointed to say the least.

I just found this place while looking for a nice restaurant for a date. It's such a precious gem in the city. The food is just amazing, presentation is also very authentic. They have two different spots so you can choose between running sushi upstairs or enjoying downstairs take service. The decoration is just perfect too. We were attended by a very nice waiter called Rafael which was very friendly and helpful. I'll definitely go back there soon again.

Good food, crowded during lunch hours. Little bit expensive, paid 65 £ for 11 plates from the sushi conveyor belt

I bought some take out Sushi for lunch. It was very nice and felt you got a bit more fish than you do in the usual packs from the likes of Itsu or Wasabi. It was however expensive (what London lunches aren’t!?) at £11.50, but on par with similar foods. However, reading the other comments on the cleanliness of the place, I’m not sure I’ll be coming back. Shame, because I do enjoy a nice Sushi restaurant and saw they also have a conveyor belt set up too. Would have liked to return but going to give it a miss.

Upstairs has a takeaway counter and seating with a conveyor belt for a quick lunch. But downstairs is a gem - lovely seating and excellent food. There is quite a lot of seats available considering it’s central London and I’ve never had to wait long for a table. It can get a little loud but still lovely.

The food is ok . It is a little bit pricy. They ran out at least 2 things we ordered in the menu. The service is so so. The place is nice and quiet , good for conversation.

It is Jap food yes. But nothing too special. Food portion is... Ok. And quality is.... Ok.... Not exactly something that wow'd me nor is it something that I will look forward to go back again. Coupled with the price, it almost felt too pricy.

It's hard to find cheap and cheerful as well as authentic Japanese takeaways around this area. there's Mugen down the road, posh Sosharu and some in leather lane but otherwise we are devoid of our Japanese counterparts. The takeaway meals are cheap. the curry is pretty much like those curry cubes you can buy from Japanese supermarkets and are quite nice. unfortunately they do not put the curry in a separate container and so if the food has been sitting in the warmer for a while you may find the katsu is no longer crunchy and the udon is now soft. Another lament is that the udon noodles actually appear to be egg noodles. I also wish my curry didn't only have ginger but actually carrot slices in it as I felt like I was eating chicken and noodles... which doesn't have that much needed crunchy texture. Drinks are Asian niceties but very expensive... more expensive than in the shops in China town so there is definitely a huge mark up. if you sit in to eat you pay a surcharge of 50p. there are also more items on the sit in menu that you can order like bento boxes which are not available on the takeaway counters.

I've been to Kurumaya several times. My husband works right around the corner and as a sushi fan, this is better than anything else nearby. The first thing you need to know is that it gets super crowded after 12:30 on a week day. I don't know about the downstairs bit as I've never been, just upstairs where the sushi comes around on a conveyor. Local business people swarm the place to either sit and eat or to get takeaway service. Like any place, there are good things and bad things to eat. I love their goyza, any of their fish sushi but my particular favourite is the fried softshell crab roll pieces. Yum! Not the cheapest place in the world but also not the most expensive, it's still worth the money for a quick business lunch near St Paul's.

Nestled in little Wattling Street, between Queen Victoria Street and Cheapside, Kurumaya offers the perfect combination of value for money sushi and convenient location. The dining space is below the ground level sushi bar. Weekday evenings are super quiet; so don't go for the ambience. The food is super fresh and the ingredient quality is very close to A grade. The chef selection with salmon, tuna, seabass, hamachi and toro nigiri, California maki, salmon avocado maki and tempura maki at £29.50 is definitely the best priced sushi selection on the menu. The seven varieties sashimi platter with Toro, hamachi, tuna, salmon, scallop, ebi, and saba on a bed of grated radish is not a bad deal either at £32. I have posted pictures of both these platters. I will try the hot dishes next time around.

Came here on a last minute hunger search for something to eat after working late in the office. I was craving sushi and this was one of only a few options in the area. I should have turned away after looking into the window from the outside. I had my doubts after looking at the sushi on the belt and it seemed to not be incredibly fresh. Plus the fridge/freezer in the corner of the sitting area didn't give me the greatest confidence that they were using the freshest fish. I ordered up a salmon skin hand roll and upon being served the roll, there was a strong fishy smell that turned me off. After taking a few bites, there was a number of bones still in the skin that I had to pick out after trying to chew. Definitely a big no no. The udon was mediocre too. The noodles seemed pre-packaged and not the correct type of noodles for udon. The chicken was flavorful and the broth tasted good. If they were able to replace the noodles with the right set, that would have made things a bit better.

The first time I ever went to a sushi place was in Hong Kong. They had colour-coded plates for the dishes (different colours for different prices) and everyone sat in a huge loop with a conveyor-belt at eye level displaying all the yummys for you to just pick up and gobble down. Or take your time and enjoy the delicacies. Whatever. Anyway, I loved it. But I have to say that most of the sushi places I've been to in London have not been that at all. The sushi is small, overpriced, not-so-fresh and, most importantly, regarded as a starter and not as a meal. Imagine my delight, then, when I went for lunch to Kurumaya. This place does sushi the right way, the same as in Hong Kong all those years ago. The food is made as you sit, but rather than having to wait for a waiter (no pun intended) to get to your table three times before you even ask for food, you can eat straight away. And it's really tasty. You can order extras, and I did just that. I'm more a fan of maki rolls than hand rolls or sashimi, so I ordered the maki set. It had a great variety and was reasonable value at £10.50 for enough sushi to fill me up and some miso soup. The waiters were efficient and friendly without being overbearing and, given that it is in the city, the service was quick and organised (you get the bill as you eat and then pay at the counter to avoid a wait at the end). The only downer I'd say is that you pay slightly more than you would probably normally pay for a lunch. We paid £15 per head, which isn't too bad, and worth it for the food, but others may disagree. That said, I'd definitely go back to Kurumaya, and recommend it to anyone who wants good, fresh, sushi as a meal, not just a starter.

There are not many good Japanese food in this area. And Kurumaya's food are very mediocre to me. The portion is fine, but doesn't taste fresh. The setting is lovely, but the wait is long and the sushi didn't impress me very much.

Stopped in last night. It wasn't busy but the service was quite good, as was the food. We had a wide tasting variety. I'm a noodle fan myself and the seafood udon was just right. With drinks came out to about £40 per head. Remove shoes as in traditional Japanese establishments.

Kaiten and take-away upstairs, traditional on-the-floor (but also regular) tables downstairs. Not cheap and not 100% authentic but super fresh and no weird, experimental stuff. Can get quite full.

Sushi is OK. but not other foods. Also bit too pricy compared to others in the neighboorhood that quality of food did not justify.

I've had the hot food here now on two occasions and my general takeaway is that it is edible but not great. The first time, I had a beef over rice dish and the second I had the salmon over rice and pork gyoza. I like how the salmon is served also with a layer of egg, which is quite traditional, but would rather not have the salmon in cubes. By way of comparison, Ribon gives you a thin fillet. The gyoza was unspectacular as well; they were only about half plump and came served on what looks like very wilted lettuce. I have eaten the sushi as part of large platters that we order into lunch meetings, which is similarly good but not memorable.

I've been to the sushi train part of Kurumaya twice and have been really pleased both times. For the City, it's really well priced, quick and they have good service. Much cheaper (though less fancy food) than sushi train rival K10 which isn't far away.

Had a lovely and memorable chirashi sushi takeaway. More expensive then what I would normally spend for lunch (£7.80) but much cheaper than other chirashi sushis I have had (which can easily run you £12 to £20). The overall quality was excellent with very generous portions of fish and rice. And there was good variety too. Much more than just the typical salmon and tuna.

Not bad food, tuna belly maki is very good. Ramen/noodles are average. Service is not a strong point however.