Umu

Down a discreet mews turn off Bruton Place, Umu opens with a small reception into a wood-panelled room of dimmed light and mirrored, latticed walls. It has held a MICHELIN star continuously since 2005, and Executive Head Chef Ryo Kamatsu cooks Kyoto kaiseki: a seasonal progression of small courses that leans on the delicate cuisine of the old capital while drawing on Japanese and British produce alike. The room seats sixty-four, and the way that number is split tells you what kind of place this is.

Thirty-eight sit in the main restaurant, a warren of walnut tables, grey banquettes and rust-red cushions screened by circular wooden fretwork, with a glass-fronted wine cellar glowing at its centre. The rest are counter and table experiences: ten at the sushi table, where you watch the cold food prepared inches away, twelve at the sake table set beside one of London's deepest Japanese sake lists, and four at the cellar table, an intimate corner among the bottles. A Kyoto-style open dining area to the left works as a semi-private room for up to ten, with three seasonal group menus written for it.

Umu takes the whole restaurant for exclusive hire and welcomes private and corporate dinners. It is a restaurant for the quiet celebration rather than the loud one, and for a DJ-led evening the appeal is the exclusive buyout: a self-contained Mayfair room, wine cellar and all, given over entirely to one party.