Thank you so much for all your replies, unfortuneatly I was too sick to take my better half out for a lovely meal for his Birthday but we will definitely be trying some of these suggestions :)

hi,
might be too late, but I have some recommendations for future...
I like those restaurants, as I am Japanese...

Zuma: no doubt. it is the great place, same as roka. zuma does valet parking service. great for saturday lunch or sunday lunch as well as evening. surprising, but there are kids friendly. If you need a table, best to make reservations.

Roka: there is two branch, one in Charlotte street and other is canary wharf. Canary wharf does sunday brunch which is amazing. there is kids' play space inside the restaurant, only on sunday.

Umu: traditional and very elegant & classy

Yashin in high street ken: great but don't go there with starving stomach. When I went there with my husband and other couple. we did 2.5 round of whole menu and bill was quite something... Fantastic sushi, best to go when you are "medium" hungry :-P

Chisou: three in london. one in beauchamp place, chiswick and off regent st. Casual and great great food.

Flesh and buns: this is more casual, relaxed and fun place to go. this is newly opened but always really really busy. the food is great. a lot of finger licking delicious food. ([url]http://www.fleshandbuns.com/[/url]) try the marshmarrow desert!!

Tokiya on Battersea Rise is very very good. I know it's not posh, but the food is fantastic, very authentic and perhaps worth considering. It can be slightly challenging to get in touch with them to book - email seems better than phone but really, it's worth the trouble.

Tsunami had great food though my husband and I got the worst ever food poisoning from there...seriously the worst! So bad I haven't been able to go near sushi since (4 years later).
If you're willing to go a bit further afield and think dim sum, Plum Valley in Chinatown is amazing!

**i meant sunken tables at Koi!

We like the food from tsunami and actually get their take-away but think the service is average. Also the seats are really close together so when you are a table for 2, you are pretty much sitting on top of the people next to you. We had this girl tap her chopsticks on the table non stop and drove me nuts

I second Koi in Kensington...we travel to go there and they have cool sicken tables so feels authentic.

I'm afraid I rather unhelpfully can't suggest an alternative, but I wasn't very impressed with tsunami. I've only been the once so may have made bad choices/ they had an off day

What about Tsunami in Clapham? Seems to get good reviews...

KOI in Princes Gate at the end of Gloucester Road is amazing!

For Zuma, you can just show up if you are ok to sit at the counter rather than a separate table. You might have to wait a bit to get a table, but they don't take reservations for that area so should be ok.

Umu is fantastic, can second Yashin as well although I find it a bit claustrophobic.

Yashin in Kensington is on par with the others you mentioned: http://www.yashinsushi.com/w8

Hi

Sticks'n'sushi in Wimbledon! I went there twice it's really nice!


http://www.sticksnsushi.com/restaurants/wimbledon.html

Hope you have fun!

Hi,

I'm looking for a really really nice Japanese Restaurant for Friday night, does anyone have any recommendations please? I'm getting desperate...

I have tried, Zuma, Roku, Nobu and there are no tables :( and I can't find anything else with the same great reviews.

If anyone has any suggestions, I would be so grateful, thanks