Sushi Bar Atari-Ya (Swiss Cottage)
75 Fairfax Road
London NW6 4EE
Nearest Tube: Swiss Cottage
4 Yummy stars
Price ££ Starters/salad £3.80-£13.50; Sushi (1 piece/Sashimi (3 pieces) Rolls £2.30-£10; Mains £5.20-£23 (at time of writing)
Chirashi at Atariya Swiss Cottage
Buzz factor 4/5 stars
Food 4/5 stars
Value for money 4/5 stars
Eat-in or Take-away
Among the parade of shops and restaurants sits Atariya, conveniently within walking distance from Swiss Cottage tube station with South Hampstead Overground even closer.
Pretty informal restaurant with bare brick walls on one side, wooden table and chairs and the bar and sushi bar on the other side. Right at the back is a table on a raised platform. If you are into people watching, then go for this table. Of course, you become more visible to others too. So, watch your manners, though slurping is perfectly acceptable in Japanese culture. Service was adequate and you can get the waitress’s attention without difficulty.
Reliably fresh sushi here, being part of the Atari-Ya restaurant group. Its sister company supplies fish to other restaurants (including Michelin starred ones apparently) and not surprisingly, their fish here is consistently of good quality.
There is a great variety of rolls here, offering some not just with raw fish but also with cooked food eg soft shell crab, prawn tempura, chicken teriyaki and even black cod. Do try their spicy tuna roll too. Their black cod with miso was tender and moist and similarly, their deep-fried aubergine with miso was so soft and full of flavour too.
They do a roaring trade here particularly on a Saturday evening. So, if you want to get a take-away, my advice would be to order and collect quite early – well, before 8 pm.
