Soho Kaiten Sushi Since 1995, Doors at Noon: Kulu Kulu

Kulu Kulu Sushi, at 76 Brewer St, London W1F 9TX, has been running its conveyor belt in Soho since 1995, more than three decades of plates going round on the same Soho street. Lunch starts at 12:00 and dinner at 17:00, and the room stays dark on Sundays. If you typed conveyor belt sushi near me somewhere between Piccadilly Circus and Carnaby Street, this is the counter where the plates are already moving when you sit down.

The appeal has never been the decor. When Time Out London gave Kulu Kulu four stars in its September 2024 review, it described an in-and-out Soho sushi joint that puts speed ahead of polished service or setting, and that is exactly the deal. You come in, take a seat, pull plates off the belt and leave fed. Three decades on Brewer Street have been built on that simple promise rather than on any reinvention of the menu.

That speed comes with an unspoken rule worth knowing before you go. The same Time Out review noted that at busy times staff will ask you to leave as soon as you have finished eating. Nobody is being rude when this happens; the counter only works because seats turn over. Treat it like a ramen bar in Tokyo rather than a long West End dinner, and you will enjoy the pace instead of resenting it.

This also tells you who the room suits. Solo diners and pairs fit a belt counter naturally, and a quick lunch before a matinee or a shift in a nearby office is the classic use. A birthday party of eight wanting to linger over sake for two hours is the wrong crowd for a room built around turnover, so book somewhere else for that kind of evening and save Kulu Kulu for the fast, satisfying weekday fix.

Both hot and cold dishes do the loop here, so the belt is not just a parade of raw fish. The cold side is led by rolls: futomaki and inside-out rolls generously filled with anything from crisp deep-fried salmon skin to tuna and avocado, according to Time Out. The salmon skin roll is the one to watch for, because the fried skin gives a crunch that ordinary maki never has.

The hot plates are the pleasant surprise. Time Out singles out the sweet miso-glazed aubergine among the hot dishes, a soft, sticky, deeply savoury slice that makes a good break between rounds of raw fish. If a plate of it comes past early in your meal, take it then, since popular hot dishes tend to disappear from the belt fast during the lunchtime peak when every stool is occupied and hands reach out all along the counter.

Beyond the belt there is an à la carte menu for a wider spread, covering sushi platters, tempura and udon noodle soup. Ordering tempura and udon from the menu rather than waiting for them to drift past makes sense, because both are at their best straight from the kitchen. A bowl of udon alongside a handful of belt plates is a sensible, filling lunch on a cold, wet Soho afternoon in late autumn.

An honest judgement: skip the idea of building an elaborate omakase-style meal here. Kulu Kulu is not trying to compete with the serious sushi counters of Mayfair, and judging it by that standard misses the point. Pick rolls, a hot plate or two and a bowl of udon, eat well and quickly, and keep the special-occasion sushi budget for a different night and a different kind of restaurant altogether.

The official opening times are split into two sittings with a gap in the afternoon. Monday to Thursday the counter serves 12:00 to 14:30 and then 17:00 to 21:30. Friday and Saturday follow the same lunch window of 12:00 to 14:30, with dinner running a little later, 17:00 to 22:00. Sunday is closed all day, so a Sunday sushi craving in Soho will need another address entirely.

The best seat comes at the start of either sitting. Arriving right at 12:00 or right at 17:00 means the belt is freshly loaded and the stools are mostly empty, so you can choose where to sit rather than taking whatever single space opens up. The hardest moment is the middle of the weekday lunch hour, when people from surrounding offices all arrive at once and the doorway can fill with people waiting.

Have a plan B ready if you find a queue at the door. Rather than standing on the pavement for twenty minutes, take a lap around Golden Square and come back, or simply return for the 17:00 dinner opening, when the room resets. Remember that nothing is served between 14:30 and 17:00, so an afternoon visit after a late shopping trip simply will not work here on any day of the week.

Calling ahead makes more sense for groups than for solo diners, since a single person can almost always slip into a gap along the belt once the first wave of the lunch crowd has finished and headed back to work.

Brewer Street runs through the southern half of Soho, and the nearest Underground station is Piccadilly Circus on the Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines. From the station, it is a short walk north into the grid of narrow Soho streets, and the restaurant sits a few minutes from Regent Street. Leave a few extra minutes at weekends, when the pavements around Piccadilly Circus are packed with tourists.

Oxford Circus is the other realistic option if you are coming from the Central or Victoria lines, with a walk south past Carnaby Street. Buses running along Regent Street and Shaftesbury Avenue stop within a few minutes of the door as well. Cycling is possible, but bike parking on the tight Soho pavements is scarce, so a Santander hire bike docked at a nearby station is often the easier choice.

Golden Square, a few minutes west, is the obvious place to sit with a coffee before lunch or to wait out a queue. The small Georgian square has benches under plane trees and feels a world away from the crowds on Regent Street. It is also a useful landmark if you have arranged to meet someone, since it is far easier to find than a single shopfront on a busy street.

After eating, wander north to Berwick Street, where the street market and record shops give a sense of the older Soho that existed long before Kulu Kulu opened its doors. Carnaby Street is a short walk west for shopping, and Chinatown sits just across Shaftesbury Avenue if you want a sweet bun or bubble tea to finish. All three make it easy to turn a quick sushi lunch into an afternoon out.

Address: 76 Brewer St, London W1F 9TX. Lunch runs from 12:00 to 14:30 every day except Sunday, dinner is served Monday to Thursday until 21:30 and Friday to Saturday until 22:00, and the restaurant is closed on Sunday. The counter suits solo diners and pairs; larger groups should ring first. Expect a brisk turnover and be ready to give up your seat once you are done.

Use the Karpo APP to save Kulu Kulu Sushi alongside other West End lunch options, so that when the queue is long or it is a Sunday you already have an alternative lined up. Pairing it with a walk through Golden Square and Berwick Street turns a twenty-minute sushi stop into a proper Soho afternoon, without needing to book anything in advance.