Sumi

Notting Hill's Japanese Carte, From the Endo Lineage

When Endo Kazutoshi opened Sumi on Westbourne Grove, he named it after his mother and pitched it at a register quite different from his harder-to-book omakase counter, Endo at the Rotunda. That distinction matters in London's Japanese dining scene. The capital's premium tier has increasingly split between highly controlled, chef-led omakase experiences with limited seats and fixed progression, and more open, convivial formats where the diner sets the pace. Sumi belongs firmly to the second category: a Michelin Plate restaurant (recognised in both 2024 and 2025) running an à la carte menu across sashimi, nigiri, temaki, robata grills, and gohan rice bowls in a room that fills early and stays full.

The expansion in 2022, when the restaurant took over the neighbouring unit on Westbourne Grove, was a telling signal. Demand had outrun the original footprint, and the additional seating filled quickly. That kind of organic growth in a neighbourhood already dense with options points to something more durable than novelty. For context on London's wider Japanese dining range, the scene stretches from counter-led precision at places like Umu and Humble Chicken down through robata-focused neighbourhood restaurants, with Sumi occupying a position in that mid-to-upper tier where quality of raw material is non-negotiable but the atmosphere is deliberately relaxed. For a broader view of what London's Japanese restaurants offer across formats and price points, see Akira, Chisou, and Ginza St James's.

How a Meal Here Actually Progresses

The structure of an evening at Sumi follows a logic that rewards sequencing rather than ordering everything at once. The carte's divisions are functional: starters and salads open the meal, raw fish commands the middle section, and the robata grill anchors the heavier, more sustained part of the progression.

The Opening: Vegetable and Dressed Plates

Lighter end of the menu carries more ambition than its placement implies. A garden salad drawing on ten different vegetables, dressed in wasabi wafu, demonstrates the kitchen's ability to calibrate acidity and heat without blunting crunch or sweetness. These opening plates set the palate rather than just filling time, which is worth bearing in mind when the temptation is to skip straight to the fish.

The Raw Fish Middle Section

This is where Sumi earns its Michelin recognition. The nigiri selection includes chutoro (medium fatty tuna) and sea bass, both of which depend entirely on sourcing and temperature discipline to work. The temaki hand-rolls extend the format: a version built around diced scallop with shiso flowers and soy offers the kind of textural interplay — soft, creamy fish against the structural bite of nori — that distinguishes serious Japanese kitchens from decorative ones. For diners who come specifically for raw fish and want to compare London's offering against the precision of Tokyo's counter culture, the benchmark is set by restaurants such as Myojaku and Azabu Kadowaki. Sumi operates in a different register, but the sourcing is serious enough to justify that comparison as a frame of reference.

The Robata Anchor

The robata grill is where the meal's progression finds its most distinctive note. The charcoal format amplifies rather than dominates: an Ibérico secreto cut of pork, a cut taken from the shoulder blade area prized for its fat marbling, is finished with yuzu kosho, whose gentle chile heat and citrus acidity cut against the fat without overpowering the pork's inherent nuttiness. This kind of restraint in seasoning is consistent with Japanese grilling tradition, where the heat does structural work and the condiment clarifies rather than competes. The robata dishes are the section to prioritise if you are building a meal with a clear arc. Watch the bill here , this section accumulates cost efficiently, and the overall spend can climb faster than the individual plate prices suggest.

Rice Bowls and the Close

The gohan section offers a more grounded, substantial close to the meal for those who want it. Rice bowls in the Japanese format tend to be filling and direct, functioning as a reset after the more delicate fish courses. Whether you treat them as a main or a supplement depends on how broadly you've ordered across the preceding sections.

The Room and the Crowd

Interior, reconfigured after the 2022 expansion, uses pale wood and grey banquettes in an arrangement that keeps the space feeling open rather than cluttered. An open kitchen to one side allows the cooking to remain visible without being performative. The crowd skews young by the standards of the W11 postcode, and the atmosphere is consistently lively , a function of both the cocktail list and the format, which invites sharing and reordering rather than a fixed march through courses. When weather allows, outdoor tables under parasols on Westbourne Grove offer an alternative to the indoor room and are worth requesting at booking.

Drinks operation merits attention as a standalone. The cocktail list is exotic by the standards of a Japanese restaurant (rather than a dedicated bar), the sake selection is present, and 18 wines are listed with every bottle available by the glass from £9. That full-by-the-glass policy is practically useful: it allows matching across multiple small plates without committing to bottles, which is exactly how the carte is structured to be eaten.

Where Sumi Sits in London's Dining Picture

London's most formally recognised restaurants in 2025 operate at a different price point and in a different format. The Fat Duck in Bray, L'Enclume in Cartmel, Moor Hall in Aughton, Gidleigh Park in Chagford, Hand and Flowers in Marlow, and Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton all represent the set-menu, destination-dining tier. Sumi's proposition is the reverse: a neighbourhood restaurant with serious sourcing, an accessible format, and a room that absorbs a range of occasions from a quick solo dinner to a larger group sharing across the full carte. Within London's Japanese subset, it holds a Michelin Plate across consecutive years, earns a 4.5 on Google from 568 reviews, and was busy enough to expand within four years of opening. That combination of critical recognition and sustained commercial demand is a reasonable proxy for reliability. It is priced at £££, which positions it above casual Japanese dining in London but well below the omakase tier that commands £200-plus per head.

For anyone building a London trip that includes Japanese dining, Sumi functions as the practical, repeatable option in the Endo stable , less structured than a reservation at the Rotunda counter, but not a lesser experience so much as a different one. For a full picture of what London has to offer across dining, hotels, bars, and experiences, see our full London restaurants guide, full London hotels guide, full London bars guide, full London wineries guide, and full London experiences guide.

Quick reference: Sumi, 157 Westbourne Grove, London W11 2RS. Price range: £££. Michelin Plate 2024 and 2025. Google rating 4.5 (568 reviews).