Chisou Mayfair Tempura Restaurant Near Bond Street: Rock Shrimp and Yasai

Rock Shrimp Tempura is the dish to build a Chisou Mayfair order around: small shrimp fried in a light batter and dressed with a creamy, spicy yuzu sauce, listed at £18.60 on the restaurant's Mayfair menu. Next to it sits Yasai Tempura, the vegetable plate, at £15.80. Those two plates pull in different directions, one rich and citrus-sharp, the other plain enough to taste the batter itself, and both are sized for sharing across a table of two or three.

Omakase sushi 9pcs, the chef's choice of nine nigiri at £32.40, makes a natural partner for the rock shrimp. Order the nigiri first so it arrives cool and clean, then ask for the tempura once that plate is cleared; fried food landing beside raw fish tends to steam the rice and soften the batter. Couples who want more raw fish can step up to Omakase for 2, a chef-selected sashimi platter listed at £63.40, and still leave room for one fried plate.

Chisou's izakaya guide, published on its blog in August 2026, lays out a sequence worth borrowing: start light with sashimi, tofu or pickles, move to the grill, add something fried, then something richer, finishing with sushi, noodles or rice. On this menu that could mean Age Dashi Dofu in light dashi at £7.90, then Nasu Dengaku, fried aubergine coated in dark and white miso at £11.40, before the tempura and a bowl of steamed rice at £4.40.

Horenso Salad deserves a slot too. Chisou describes it as "our famous baby spinach salad", topped with spicy prawns and yuzu dressing, and at £15.50 it echoes the yuzu in the rock shrimp sauce while adding something raw and green to a fried course. Gluten-free diners should speak up on arrival: the restaurant's FAQ says many dishes can be adapted for a gluten-free diet, and tempura batter is the obvious item to talk through with your server.

Sake is the other reason to linger over the fried course. Chisou says it carries one of the largest sake lists in London, with sake experts on hand to guide guests, and the Mayfair branch adds handcrafted cocktails built on Japanese flavours and ingredients. Ask for a crisp, chilled sake with the vegetable tempura and something fuller-bodied against the creamy rock shrimp sauce; steering that choice is precisely what the floor staff are there to do.

Reservations are recommended. Chisou's FAQ says both restaurants are popular throughout the week, "particularly during evenings and weekends", and advises booking in advance to secure a preferred date and time. Weekday lunch is the easier window: from Monday to Saturday the kitchen serves a Teishoku lunch menu of balanced set meals, with the full à la carte list still available, so ordering tempura udon or rock shrimp at midday never depends on the set menu.

Seating comes in three forms here. Inside the light, spacious dining room, a sushi bar sits in the middle of the floor, where chefs prepare dishes in front of guests; a small outdoor terrace takes diners when the weather allows; and downstairs, Noren Sake & Sushi Bar is a 12-seat counter beneath Chisou, built around sake, seasonal sushi and Makezu hand rolls. Noren can also be hired privately, which suits small groups wanting the counter to themselves.

Allergies belong in the booking notes, which is where the restaurant asks diners to mention them, and servers then walk each table through suitable dishes. Registered guide dogs and recognised assistance dogs are welcome, while pet dogs and emotional support animals are not admitted. Weekday service closes between lunch and dinner, so anyone wandering over from Oxford Street at 4pm on a Tuesday will find the doors shut until six.

Founded in Mayfair in 2002, Chisou has served Japanese food in central London for more than two decades and now runs two restaurants: this Sushi & Izakaya site on Woodstock Street and a Japanese restaurant with dark wood interiors at 31 Beauchamp Place in Knightsbridge. Chisou pitches the Mayfair room at business lunches and lively dinners with friends and family, and the Knightsbridge room at romantic dates and afternoon catch-ups.

Omotenashi, the Japanese idea of hospitality offered without expecting anything in return, is the principle Chisou's own history post says has shaped the restaurant since it opened. In practice that shows in the breadth of the menu: grilled sea bass, Unagi Kabayaki, Iberico pork Tonkatsu and A4 Kagoshima wagyu strip loin sit alongside the tempura, so a group where only one person wants fried food can still build an easy shared table.

St Christopher's Place is the nearest detour, a cluster of pedestrian lanes and small courtyards a few minutes away on the north side of Oxford Street. Its cafés and independent shops fill half an hour before a lunch booking without the department-store crush, and its northern end opens onto Wigmore Street, which makes it the natural gateway into Marylebone rather than a loop back into the shopping traffic.

Wallace Collection is the anchor of the walk. Housed in Hertford House on Manchester Square, a short stroll north-west of St Christopher's Place, it displays Old Master paintings, French furniture and a celebrated armoury, and entry to the permanent collection is free. Its glass-roofed courtyard restaurant is a calm place to sit, though after rock shrimp and nigiri most people will want the galleries rather than another meal.

Marylebone High Street rounds off the circuit. From Manchester Square, head a few blocks east and north to Daunt Books, the Edwardian bookshop with long oak galleries, then drift past the street's food shops and boutiques. Walking back to Bond Street station takes around fifteen minutes, so the whole loop fits between a weekday lunch on Woodstock Street and an afternoon return to the office.

Chisou Sushi & Izakaya stands at 22-23 Woodstock Street, London W1C 2AR. Bond Street station, served by the Central, Jubilee and Elizabeth lines, is the nearest Underground stop, and Oxford Circus is also within walking distance.

Monday to Friday, the Mayfair branch lists hours of 12pm–3:45pm and 6:00pm–10:30pm; on Sunday it opens 1:00pm–9:30pm. Saturday runs as one continuous service without the weekday afternoon break, closing at 10:30pm. Lunch sets, drinks, sake and dessert menus are posted as separate files on the Mayfair menu page, and prices quoted above come from that page's food menu, including Sugoi Maki at £23.20 for anyone adding a roll to the tempura.