炭

Sumi

Fourteen seats. One knife. Nine courses.

墨 is ink. 炭 is charcoal. In Japanese they are the same word, and at this counter they are the same act: the knife moves the way a brush moves, one stroke, made once, that cannot be taken back. The binchotan finishes what the blade begins.

Reserve a seat

白炭 · 400°C · no flame

The fire is lit at five and it is not lit again. Three of the nine courses cross it, each of them once.

柳刃 · the knife

One cut, made once.

A yanagiba has a single bevel and the length of a forearm, and it is used in a single movement: drawn, never pushed. The face it leaves is polished, and a polished face holds its taste. Saw at a fish and it turns dull on the tongue.

That is the point, and it is also the risk. A blade and a brush agree on this: you get one pass. So the fish is aged four days to stand up to that pass, the rice is seasoned with red vinegar and held at body temperature, and each piece is eaten within a minute of being formed. Nothing on this menu survives waiting.

We sharpen every knife every day, on the same three stones, in the same order.

A yanagiba blade drawn through a block of lean tuna on a pale hinoki board

Omakase · nine courses · £145

  1. 01

    Sakizuke

    先付

    Chawanmushi, brown crab, a shred of yuzu peel. Served warm, before anything is cut.

  2. 02

    Otsukuri

    お造り

    Today's fish, aged four days, cut thick. Wasabi grated to order.

  3. 03

    Zuke

    漬け

    Lean bluefin, six minutes in soy. The first rice: body temperature, seasoned with red vinegar.

  4. 04

    Kohada

    小肌

    Gizzard shad, salted and vinegared this morning. The piece a sushi chef is judged on.

  5. 05

    Aburi

    炙り

    Chū-toro passed over the binchotan. Twelve seconds, and not one more.

  6. 06

    Uni

    雲丹

    Hokkaido uni, heaped over rice, nori toasted at the counter. No soy.

  7. 07

    Anago

    穴子

    Sea eel, simmered until it barely holds, then seared. Nitsume, brushed once.

  8. 08

    Tamago

    玉子

    Egg, prawn and mountain yam. An hour in a copper pan, over the lowest fire in the room.

  9. 09

    Mizugashi

    水菓子

    Black sesame ice, kuromitsu, roasted barley. The fire is out by now.

A chef's hands setting a finished nigiri onto a small ceramic dish on the hinoki counter

The counter · by the piece

Nigiri

If you have not booked the omakase, sit at the end of the counter and order piece by piece. Same fish, same rice, same knife.

  • AkamiLean bluefin, aged four days. Zuke if you ask.£6
  • KohadaSalted and vinegared this morning.£6
  • HotateHand-dived, scored deep, a breath of yuzu.£7
  • Shima-ajiFirm, sweet, cut thick.£8
  • AnagoSimmered, seared, brushed with nitsume.£8
  • Chū-toroThe balance: fat enough, never a spectacle.£9
  • Botan ebiRaw, with its roe. The head comes back grilled.£9
  • Ō-toroTwelve seconds over the binchotan.£12
  • UniHokkaido, heaped. No soy.£14
  • TamagoAn hour in the copper pan. The sweet full stop.£4
Ceramic sake flasks and cups on the hinoki counter in warm side light

To drink

Sake

Six of them, chosen to sit beside vinegared rice rather than shout over it. By the glass unless the list says flask.

  • Junmai YamagataDry, faintly nutty. Served warm — the only one we heat.£12
  • Nigori KyotoUnfiltered, cloudy, soft. Drink it first.£14
  • Junmai Ginjo NiigataCold, clean, quiet. What the chefs drink.£16
  • Daiginjo HyogoPolished to 40%. Pear, then nothing.£22
  • Sparkling junmai FukushimaBy the flask. Drink it with the toro.£34
  • Koshu NaraAged eight years. Amber, sherry-like, strange. By the flask.£46
The fourteen-seat hinoki counter under warm pendant light, the room soft and dark around it

The counter is the room.

There is no dining room in the usual sense. There is a counter, and there is the quiet around it. You sit facing the chef because the work is the show, and because a chef who has to look you in the eye cuts differently.

We do not take bookings for more than eight. We do not do a vegetarian omakase. We do not have a private room, a set lunch, or music above a murmur.

The counter
Fourteen seats, hinoki, one length
Seatings
18:00 and 20:45
Omakase
£145 a person, about two hours
Where
Britton Street, Clerkenwell, London
Closed
Sunday and Monday

From the counter

Notes from behind the counter.

  • A wooden hangiri tub of freshly seasoned sushi rice, a flat paddle resting across its rim, in warm light

    June 2026

    The rice is red, and it is body temperature

    Akazu is vinegar aged on sake lees. It stains the shari amber and carries the fat of the tuna. Colder than skin and the piece is dead.

  • A loin of tuna wrapped in white paper and tied with twine, resting in a wooden box on the counter

    April 2026

    Why today's fish is four days old

    Straight off the boat, bluefin tastes of nothing. Wrapped in paper and left alone, it learns to taste of itself.

  • The empty hinoki counter seen from a diner's seat, a warm pool of light on the wood and the room soft beyond it

    February 2026

    What fourteen seats can do that a dining room cannot

    A chef who has to look you in the eye works differently. That is the entire argument for the counter.

Reservations

Fourteen seats, twice a night.

Two seatings: 18:00 and 20:45. The omakase is £145 a person and runs about two hours. We hold the counter for parties of one to eight.