HIMI Carnaby: A Sake Bar Near Me With Counter Sushi in Soho

HIMI pours a 60ml glass of Chiebijin Junmai for £8 at 4 Newburgh Street, London W1F 7RF, on the quiet lane behind Carnaby Street, and on Saturdays it serves straight through from 12:00 to 22:30. For anyone searching sake bar near me around Oxford Circus, it is the rare Soho room where the sake list was built by a dedicated sommelier and the food comes from a sushi counter, not a deep-fryer.

HIMI opened on 31 January 2025 as the second restaurant from Tamas Naszai and Tomoko Hasegawa, the married chefs who met in the kitchen at Tokimeitē and went on to run Roji, a Mayfair omakase room. Naszai won the Japanese Culinary Art Competition twice, in 2017 and 2019, according to the restaurant's own site, and the pair moved from a fixed omakase format to a looser izakaya here.

The name joins two syllables: hi, standing for Japan, and mi, meaning flavour or taste, and Restaurant Online gave the pronunciation as hee-mee. The drinks list is the work of Yuta Fujii, a sake and wine sommelier, and some bottles are imported directly from Kimijimaya, a Yokohama sake merchant, which is why several labels here are hard to find elsewhere in London.

Their old Mayfair room did not stay empty: after the couple left, the Chisou group reopened it in May 2025 as Noren Sake and Sushi Bar on South Molton Street, Hot Dinners reported. That makes HIMI the place to follow the chefs themselves, while Noren is the place to follow the address. The two are about fifteen minutes apart on foot across Oxford Street, which makes a two-stop sake evening possible on a Friday.

Every sake on the sample list comes in four sizes: 60ml, 125ml, a 180ml tokkuri flask and the 720ml bottle. Chiebijin Junmai from Oita is the friendly start: £8, £14, £18.5 or £70 a bottle. Senkin Muku, from the Senkin brewery in Tochigi, steps up to £11 for 60ml and £108 a bottle, with a citrus sharpness that suits raw fish.

The bottle to remember is the Mimurosugi Junmai Ginjo labelled HIMI-Exclusive, at £13 for 60ml, £33 for a tokkuri or £128 a bottle. Gangi Sekirei is the big-occasion pour at £20 for 60ml and £224 a bottle, while Dassai 23 sits at £192 and Zankyo Super 7 at £840 for the trophy-hunters. If you want a cocktail first, the Zen Martini costs £15.

The food menu mixes izakaya snacks with sushi. Kogashi edamame, charred rather than boiled, costs £5, and torikara fried chicken is £6 for two pieces. Isobe-age, a single scallop fried in a seaweed-flecked batter, costs £13, and ebichili, prawns in a sweet chilli sauce, costs £19.

For sushi, the nigiri selection of five pieces is £29 and the negitoro hand roll £16. Our honest call is that the fried plates are where HIMI feels most like a bar, while the nigiri is good but pricier than a dedicated sushi counter. For a full raw-fish meal, book the weekday Lunch Taster Set at £65 per person instead of building one from à la carte.

The lunch set is also the gentlest way to try the sake list. It runs Tuesday to Friday only, and pairing it with a single 125ml glass, Chiebijin at £14 or the Mimurosugi at £23, keeps a midweek lunch to a sensible bill while still giving you a taste of what Yuta Fujii has sourced from Kimijimaya.

The upstairs room has a long bar behind a small noren curtain, with counter seats directly in front of the chefs, four stools in the window looking onto Newburgh Street, and a little terrace kept open all year with heaters and blankets. Downstairs there is a second dining room under a skylight; Hot Dinners noted the kitchen was cut down so counter diners would have more legroom.

The Infatuation scored HIMI 9.2 and named it one of the best new restaurants of 2025, but warned that the counter is a little cramped. The low tables are more comfortable, though you miss the chefs explaining each piece as they slice it. The site also says it does not recommend visits with children under ten, so this is an adults' evening rather than a family stop.

Reservations run through ResDiary, and card details are taken for every booking. Cancel with less than 48 hours' notice and HIMI charges £50 per person. Groups of six to ten pay a £50 per head deposit, and parties of eleven or more must contact the restaurant directly. A discretionary 15% service charge is added to the bill.

Walk-ins are welcome when tables are free, and the best odds are early in the week: HIMI is closed Sunday and Monday, so Tuesday at 17:30, when dinner service opens, is the moment to try for a window stool without a booking. If the room is full, Koya at 50 Frith Street is a ten-minute walk east and takes no reservations at all, though it is an udon bar rather than a sake specialist.

Newburgh Street is one of the small lanes parallel to Carnaby Street, lined with independent fashion shops, so arriving 30 minutes early and walking the block costs nothing. Liberty London on Regent Street, the mock-Tudor department store, is a three-minute walk west and keeps Monday to Saturday hours of 10:00 to 20:00, so you can browse its fabric floors before a 17:30 table.

After dinner, Golden Square is a few steps south and quiet at night, a good place to sit with a coffee before the Bakerloo or Victoria line home from Oxford Circus. Piccadilly Circus station is also within ten minutes on foot down Regent Street if your route runs south.

Address: HIMI, 4 Newburgh Street, London W1F 7RF. Nearest Tube: Oxford Circus. Email: info@himi.uk. Lunch runs Tuesday to Friday 12:00 to 14:30, dinner Tuesday to Friday 17:30 to 22:30, and Saturday is 12:00 to 22:30. Closed Sunday and Monday.

Budget: 60ml sake pours start at £8 and the Lunch Taster Set is £65 per person, plus 15% service. Book through ResDiary and note the £50 late-cancellation fee. Ask the Karpo APP for a Soho sake bar open on Sunday or Monday, or for a late cocktail bar near Carnaby to continue the night.