Kiki, London UK | ytTastes | Yvanne Teo

JAPANESE, LONDON, UK

KIKI RESTAURANT, KENTISH TOWN, LONDON


For me, this local Japanese restaurant popped up from nowhere. I must have had blinkers on for not noticing that it had replaced the original Indian restaurant. Operating since May 2025, they have just celebrated their first anniversary.

So finally I had the chance to eat there, both for a lunch and for a dinner.

Lunch was more sedate, and they offer a lunch menu deal, whilst dinner is more bustling.

I think it is a family affair, at least for the dinner seating, it was quite cute to watch the front of house with all the family helping - young and old. You will need to be patient as when bustling with diners, the service isn't particularly fast, nor do they notice when you try to attract their attention.

The interior is a bit stark, mainly white and slightly clinical, perhaps they have inherited a few things from the previous restaurant and tried to adapt it. I can't help but wonder about the entrance though... you step up and then down into the dining room.

For lunch, my friend and I opted for their set lunch menus - I always try out the pork katsu set as a baseline comparison and my friend opted for a curry donburi. I think one of the nicest things is that they did not serve the set in a bento box, but used different porcelain bowls and plates which made it so much more like a homemade meal.

We also added a plate of tuna sashimi (just because we had to try this out as a matter of "necessity").

Kiki, London UK | ytTastes | Yvanne Teo

Kiki, London UK | ytTastes | Yvanne Teo

For the dinner sitting, the menu is more extensive, as I was trying to stick to a minimum of carbs I found this surprisingly easy to achieve here. So I didn't opt for sushi which they have an extensive menu of.

A lovely green bean salad with sesame sauce, followed by beef sukiyaki and a dish of assorted sashimi.

Continuing from my lunchtime experience, the dishes were served in lovely porcelain, again giving you the feeling of eating at someone's house rather than in a restaurant. This extended to the dishes, in particular the sukiyaki dish. So for a neighbourhood restaurant, this is a great place to eat at.

The serving staff are lovely and helpful, though I think a little inexperienced as when more of the tables became occupied the service level dropped, and attracting their attention became much more difficult.

For myself, I would recommend coming here for the lunch time set menus - for the cost, the quality of food and the service, this is about right.

For dinner, I would say I had expected a little bit more, perhaps if the service was more efficient? It is more of a casual diner than a restaurant.

Kiki, London UK | ytTastes | Yvanne Teo

Kiki, London UK | ytTastes | Yvanne Teo

Kiki, London UK | ytTastes | Yvanne Teo

Popped in for another lunch, so you can see there was an order of soft-shell crab sushi and yellow-tail nigiri.

This time, I decided to try their ramen.

This visit has re-affirmed that lunch at Kiki is definitely better than dinner. The service brought me back to when I was in Japan, very attentively Japanese.

I could also say that this was one of the best ramen I have tasted in London! Perfectly "bouncy" noodles in a rich broth.

The sushi and nigiri were also excellent as well. A great place for a leisurely lunch, we finished it off with some tea and were thankful that they didn't hurry us along.

A great lunch spot!

Kiki, London UK | ytTastes | Yvanne Teo

Kiki, London UK | ytTastes | Yvanne Teo

Kiki, London UK | ytTastes | Yvanne Teo

ADDRESS



KIKI RESTAURANT
253 Kentish Town Road
London NW5 2JT
United Kingdom



Open

Tue~Sun 12.00-15.00 17.30~22.30

Tags

#JAPANESE #SUSHI #SASHIMI #SUKIYAKI #TEMPURA #LUNCHBOX #BENTO