Oxford Circus is where you go to shop, to navigate and to lose forty minutes at a pedestrian crossing. It is not, historically, where you go to eat well. Which makes what has arrived at 1 Cavendish Square, tucked quietly behind John Lewis, on a square most people walk past without looking up, feel like a genuine discovery.
Aki London is the first international outpost of Aki in Valletta, Malta, Michelin Guide-listed for four consecutive years and widely considered the finest restaurant on the island. That kind of reputation tends to either travel beautifully or collapse entirely under the weight of expectation. Here, it travels.
The name comes from akitsu, the Japanese word for dragonfly. Fluid, elegant, never quite where you expect it to be which suits the place.
“...akitsu, the Japanese word for dragonfly, borrowing its fluid and elegant nature to shape a vision that unites modern Japanese dining with the cultural vibrancy of an art club. Rooted in the Kyoto tradition of connecting the land to the plate, it evolves this philosophy into an immersive earth-to-table-to-canvas experience unique to our brand. Here, curated works from leading artists and an atmosphere set by live DJs create a living frame for a cuisine that speaks of craft and culture in equal measure.”
The building is Grade II-listed, a former bank put through a £15 million renovation by Maltese designer Francis Sultana. He has drawn on the interwar world of Jean-Michel Frank and Ruhlmann, but this isn’t a period piece. Deep greens, burnished gold, gloss-lacquered wood, soaring ceilings dissolving into cloud motifs. Plaster trees and Kimono fabrics. Contemporary works by Ryan Gander and Bouke de Vries keeping it firmly, unapologetically in the now. It’s the kind of room where you keep noticing things an hour in and I appreciated that.
I went for dinner, which is the right call to experience its green marble grandeur at it’s greatest, with the downstairs bar, Kiyori, adding an atmospheric low pulse.
The food arrives in synchronisation to the music, tuna tartare on a giant ice cube, theatrical, but it earns it. Hand-picked Cornish crab on a crisp rice cracker, simple and precise. The Kobe sukiyaki, thin slices simmered in aged soya broth with shungiku leaves, yomogi tofu and shirataki noodles, is the kind of dish that reminds you why artistry matters. There’s a quiet ribbon running through the menu between Maltese and Japanese tradition too, bluefin tuna treasured in both, golden Maltese honey lending sweetness where you least expect it. To finish, a roasted soy parfait with sour cherry and yuzu sorbet that was quietly one of the best things I ate all evening.
The drinks match it. The Hishio cocktail uses centrifuge extraction to fold fermented soy into a Negroni and the orange wine I ordered worked with everything in a way that felt purposely complimented.
The philosophy is Kyoto-inspired farm-to-table, and they mean it, 80 micro-farms cultivating Japanese herbs on-site, in-house fermentation using nukadoko, a fin-to-tail approach throughout. Aki is also one of only a handful of UK restaurants certified by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to serve authentic Kobe beef.
What Aki London has done is genuinely masterful, built a restaurant that is destination-worthy in a part of London that is known as a shopping district. The welcome is warm, the room is extraordinary, and the kitchen has real integrity. It all holds together with the confidence of somewhere that knows exactly what it is.
Discover Aki London at 1 Cavendish Square, where Japanese dining meets artistic vibrancy in an exquisite and immersive atmosphere.
Aki London, 1 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0LA
The Luxe Resident 