Nakimushi means crybaby, a name with a sense of humour attached to a serious kitchen. It occupies a listed Victorian townhouse at 7 Kensington Mall, just off Notting Hill Gate, behind an oxblood shopfront and a custom noren curtain, and it opened on 7 September 2026 as the permanent home for two successful pop-ups.
Two residencies, one townhouse
The family tree here is tightly knitted. Chris D'Sylva owns Dorian, EEL Sushi, Supermarket of Dreams and the Notting Hill Fish+Meat Shop. Yuji Shimokawa Kelly, who grew up in London, started at Dinings SW3, cooked in Japan and passed through Umu in Mayfair, joined Dorian, then launched Urchin, which started as a counter in Sifnos and later took up residence at Supermarket of Dreams. Robin Kosuge trained as a pastry chef, worked for two years under Dominique Ansel in Tokyo, picked up sushi at the Fish+Meat Shop and was part of Dorian's opening team in 2022. His Robin's Ramen began life as a single-day pop-up at EEL Sushi, then moved to a residency at Supermarket of Dreams. Nakimushi puts both chefs under one roof, each running a different floor.
The room
The conversion is by Jack Architecture & Design, and it keeps the original brick facade while turning the inside towards Tokyo. It is pale pine panelling, parquet, brass and hand-glazed tiles in oxblood tones, carried through all three floors. Downstairs is the ramen bar, an open kitchen with a communal table and window seats, inspired by Tokyo's back-street ramen shops. Upstairs is calmer, with a tiled bar, framed Japanese illustrations and a narrow staircase. The top floor holds the chefs' prep kitchen and larder, visible through glass.
It is busy and cosy, with diners packed in tight. This is a place for lunch with a friend, a counter bowl on a cold night, or dinner with the sort of company who do not mind sharing elbow room.
The ramen downstairs
Start on the ground floor. Kosuge's signature is a pork belly charshu ramen in a Basque chicken broth, with noodles that Komugi Noodles of Manchester make to a wheat-and-rye spec, and an egg marinated in Yorkshire Tea and soy. There is also a lobster ramen built on a seafood paitan with komatsuna, strong in broth, noodles and jammy egg, though the bowl is small. Ramen runs across the building; use the ground floor for a quick, casual bowl.
The hot cooking upstairs
Shimokawa Kelly's menu is broader and more playful. Standouts include Ibérico and Duroc pork loin in red almond miso, a chicken nanban with lobster tartare, gyoza of red prawn and courgette with umeboshi, quail tempura with apricot purée and a tendashi spiked with jerk, and a buckwheat taco filled with sardine and fermented strawberry kanzuri. A mugi-cha crème caramel with white peach closes the evening. If you order one thing, make it the pork.
One dish is less convincing: the corn tempura, seasoned with fig leaf salt, arrives in a nori wrapper that adds little. The rest of the menu is stronger.
What to drink
The first-floor bar is built around shochu highballs, in regular and low-alcohol versions, including the Hato-Hai, a shochu version of a Paloma, with maraschino and grapefruit, and the Midori-Hai with shiso and miso sherry. The sake list includes an aged junmai brewed to a recipe from 1703, and the wine list leans towards Burgundy and Italy.
Booking is open through nakimushi.co.uk, and it is worth doing for the upstairs room. It will likely be at its best once things calm down a little, which is a fair reason to book a quieter weeknight.
- The vibe
- Busy, snug and warm, with oxblood tiles and pine.
- The food
- Ramen downstairs; Ibérico pork loin, nanban and gyoza upstairs.
- The drink
- Shochu highballs, aged sake and a Burgundy-led wine list.
- A tip
- Ground floor for a quick bowl; book upstairs for the wider menu.
