Ichi-Riki in City of London

Hidden gem. Great sushi, very friendly. Worth a stop if you're in the area.

This is such a sweet little authentic sushi place, and I likely would have rated it more highly if I didn’t have any dietary requirements.Unfortunately this place is just not suitable for those with coeliac disease.The restaurant is run by what appears to be a husband/wife/son team. The younger male is in the kitchen preparing fried dishes and cleaning. The woman is behind the sushi bar, and the older male is the front of house server. His English is not very strong, so despite the two signs I saw that indicated you should speak to a member of staff if you have food allergies, this proved to be a bit difficult.As research suggests that sushi rice, wasabi, picked ginger, and miso soup can all be gluten free but in some cases are not, I tried to ask whether these were at this restaurant or not. The answer I got was that the rice (either sushi or steamed) had a little bit of gluten in it, while the noodles had a lot of gluten in it. I didn’t understand why the rice would have gluten so tried to ask if it was made with a vinegar but he didn’t understand. Eventually he got noticeably frustrated (as was I to be honest!) and said “I don’t know, I’m not a scientist.” Not helpful for a restaurant guest with allergies when you should know as the owner and operator, and basically excludes anyone with allergies from your clientele. He was also explicitly not understanding the seriousness of coeliac disease by telling me that the rice had a little bit of gluten in it, but the noodles had lots of gluten. I wasn’t interested in the levels of gluten but rather, the absence of it entirely.I then asked to see a list of allergens (as all restaurants should have and be willing to show you). This had a column for cereals containing gluten and annoyingly, none of the items he was claiming had gluten (eg miso soup, jo nigiri sushi, dragon rolls) were showing as having gluten on their table, which was written in January 2020. So when I then tried to order these items, he expressed concern and said are you sure because they have gluten. I showed him how the chart he’d given me said otherwise, but he responded to say that his common sense would make him think otherwise. All in all, incredibly unclear and stressful for someone with dietary needs.He was however able to offer me a gluten free soya sauce, but equally was also convinced that soya had gluten in it when I asked him about the miso soup. I corrected him to say that soya beans themselves do not have gluten and the only reason why soya sauce had gluten was because it added wheat, picking up the sauce on his restaurant table to show him.Coeliac UK have some guides in different languages explaining coeliac disease and gluten that you can use for travel. However, they only had Japanese and it turned out that he was South Korean and could not read the Japanese language, so that was not helpful.In summary, I stuck to the sashimi, did have some wasabi and pickled ginger, ate edamame beans, and used the gluten free soya sauce and did not end up having any bad reactions or a coeliac attack after my visit. However, I would not recommend this otherwise cute and authentic sushi restaurant unless you don’t have dietary restrictions. I do hope they will make the effort to look into the allergen content of their foods more throughly though, and educate themselves on coeliac disease, as I don’t see why they could not easily cater to those of us with coeliac disease.

Little hidden gem for a family style restaurant. The sets are good value.

My fiancé and I tried many Japanese restaurants in London and Ichiriki is one of our favourites. This restaurant is located at the centre of London and offers high quality food at really reasonable prices. We had two sets of nigiri, one udon + nigiri + salmon temaki set and one pumpkin koroke for only £55. The food was fresh and served with a octopus+cucumber+seaweed salad and miso soup. The owner was really kind and provided very good service. We will definitely visit this restaurant again :)

Little hidden gem in Victoria/ Westminster! Quick service, good sushi and served by lovely staff. We had a lovely night, thank you!

Super super quick service, wonderfully kind staff. The food is also pretty cheap considering it's delicious and fresh sushi! Really enjoyed how quiet and calm it felt :-)

This is a little gem hidden in Victoria. It's a small and humble place, wonderful to dine with close friends and families. Open kitchen so you see how diligently they prepare your dish. Their speciality is sushi, rolls and sashimi. Everything we ordered was delicious and very reasonably priced. We were more than happy to order the second round. I'm looking forward to visit there again. Highly recommended.

Good value, had the sushi & udon set and it was £17. Good quality sushi, fresh fish and udon is very good too.

I absolutely love this hidden gem. If you can find the discreet doorway, descend into the basement and the cosy interior of a traditional japanese sushi bar. The staff are so polite and the food is so good, i return at every opportunity. The price is also reasonable so many visits are possible!

Good quality sushi. The fish is fresh and staff are very kind and their service is quite fast! Would definitely go again.