Sexy Fish

Art, Fish, and the Mayfair Calculus

The ceiling at Sexy Fish was commissioned from artist Michael Roberts. It is, by any measure, an extraordinary thing to eat beneath — and that choice, made at the outset when the restaurant opened on the corner of Berkeley Square in 2015, tells you exactly what kind of operation this is. In Mayfair's restaurant tier, where the room is often as deliberate a statement as the menu, Sexy Fish arrived already knowing its position: Asian-inspired cooking set inside one of London's more theatrical dining environments, with works by Frank Gehry and Damien Hirst sharing the space with a clientele that expects both to be taken seriously.

That combination — serious art, serious fish, a crowd that arrives dressed for it , sits in a specific bracket of London dining. It is not the austere tasting-menu format of CORE by Clare Smyth or the classical French register of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. Sexy Fish operates in a different mode: high-energy, visually dominant, built for a long evening rather than a reverent one. Its Michelin Plate recognition in both 2024 and 2025 confirms that the cooking merits attention independently of the room , which, given how striking the room is, is the point worth making.

Asian-Inspired Cooking in a City That Takes It Seriously

London's appetite for Asian-influenced cooking at the premium end has deepened considerably since 2015. The city now runs a credible range of Japanese-leaning restaurants across multiple price points and formats, from omakase-only counters to larger à la carte rooms. Sexy Fish sits in the latter category: a full-scale restaurant where the menu draws on Japanese and broader Asian culinary traditions without committing to any single regional identity.

That approach , Asian influences applied across a menu rather than anchored to a single cuisine , has become a distinct format in European luxury dining. Lucky Cat by Gordon Ramsay operates on a broadly similar premise in Mayfair, as does Bar des Prés at the lighter end. Further afield, Jun's in Dubai and taku in Cologne show how far this register has spread in premium dining across Europe and the Gulf. The format works when the sourcing is rigorous and the cooking has a clear point of view. At Sexy Fish, the Michelin Plate signals that the kitchen clears that bar, placing it in a cohort where the food justifies the room rather than simply competing with it.

The fish dishes form the menu's core, as the name suggests, with Asian treatments that vary in weight and register. What is less expected, and worth flagging, is that the beef rib skewers attract consistent attention alongside the seafood. In a restaurant where diners arrive expecting fish to dominate, a meat dish that holds its own is an editorial note, not an afterthought. Menus that cross confidently between protein categories within an Asian-influenced framework are not automatically coherent , at Sexy Fish, the execution evidently holds.

For context on the broader range of Asian-influenced dining available in London, YiQi represents the more intimate, lower-capacity end of that spectrum , a useful comparison point for readers deciding how much room scale matters to their experience.

The Room as Argument

Restaurant design in London's top tier has moved in two directions over the past decade. One cohort has stripped back toward minimalism, letting the plate carry the statement. The other has invested in environments that function as destinations in themselves, where the physical experience is inseparable from the meal. Sexy Fish is a clear example of the second approach, and an unusually serious one. Frank Gehry contributed sculptural coral reef pieces. Damien Hirst's work appears across the space. Michael Roberts' ceiling functions as the room's architectural centrepiece.

This is not decorative gesture , these are artists with documented international standing whose work appears in the room not as reproduction or reference but as original commission. The result places Sexy Fish in a narrow category of restaurants where the art budget has been treated as equivalent in seriousness to the kitchen budget. That is a calculation worth understanding before you arrive, because it shapes the entire atmosphere of the evening.

Part of Richard Caring's wider restaurant portfolio, Sexy Fish sits alongside properties that collectively represent a particular model of London luxury hospitality: large-scale, design-led, socially visible. That context explains the room's ambition. It does not diminish the food, but it does tell you that the restaurant was conceived as a total environment, not a quiet place to eat well and leave.

Where It Sits in London's Dining Map

Berkeley Square positions Sexy Fish at the heart of Mayfair's restaurant concentration, a neighbourhood that now carries more serious dining density than at any point in the last twenty years. The square and its immediate surroundings house a range of formats from private member spaces to accessible fine dining, and the foot traffic skews toward international visitors, finance, and media. For readers working through London's wider options, our full London restaurants guide maps the range across neighbourhoods and price points.

Against the city's highest-credential restaurants , The Fat Duck, L'Enclume, Moor Hall, Gidleigh Park, Hand and Flowers, or Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons , Sexy Fish operates in a different register. It is not competing on tasting-menu depth or multi-star ambition. Its Michelin Plate recognition positions it as a restaurant where the cooking is genuinely good within a format that prioritises energy, environment, and breadth of appeal. That is not a lesser proposition; it is a different one, and the distinction matters when you are deciding how to spend an evening.

The Google rating of 4.1 across more than 5,500 reviews indicates a scale of operation and a breadth of visiting audience that few restaurants in London match. At that volume, maintaining consistent Michelin recognition is a meaningful signal about kitchen reliability.

Readers planning a broader London visit will find additional resources through our London bars guide, London hotels guide, London wineries guide, and London experiences guide.

Planning Your Visit

Address: Berkeley Square House, Berkeley Square, London W1J 6BR. Price range: £££ , mid-to-upper Mayfair bracket, consistent with the room and kitchen credentials. Reservations: Bookings are strongly advised given consistent demand; contact the restaurant directly or use available online booking channels. Dress: Smart dress is appropriate for the environment; the room's energy and design context make effort worth making. Awards: Michelin Plate 2024 and 2025.

What Should I Eat at Sexy Fish?

The Michelin Plate-recognised kitchen builds its menu around Asian-influenced fish dishes, which remain the primary focus. Within that framework, the approach draws on Japanese techniques and broader pan-Asian references. What consistently attracts notice beyond the seafood are the beef rib skewers , a meat option that holds its own against the fish-led menu and is worth ordering rather than treating as an afterthought. Given the restaurant's scale and the range of the menu, the practical approach is to anchor your order in the fish dishes, which reflect the kitchen's primary identity, and treat the beef rib skewers as a deliberate addition rather than a fallback.