Aaya

The food was great and fresh tasting but over priced and definitly not worth what you pay. I ordered the lobster tempura for £18.50 as my main and when it arrived my stomach rumbled wih disappointment at the sight of a handful of pieces of tempura. If you've got the apetitie of a supermodel maybe AAYA's stingy portion sizes will satisfy you otherwise count on having to pay £100 before you actually get enough food to to barely make you leave without hunger pains.
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, December 30, 2008

I booked a table at Aaya on a Monday evening for a group of 5 colleagues, some from overseas. While the food was good, the service was truly awful. We asked for tap water four times before finally managing to get any, the white wine was tepid when it was served. Later, when we ordered a second bottle, staff could not find the bottle opener and left our bottle standing on the counter unopened for almost 15 minutes. Needless to say, that was warm too. We needed help with the Japanese menu - the surly waiter looked affronted that anyone would ask, and seemed to have little or no knowledge of the items being served. Waiting staff seemed more interested in standing around chatting to one another than looking after the surprisingly busy restaurant. One order did not appear until 15 minutes after the others, for which we did not receive an apology or explanation. When our bill arrived, we asked the staff to remove the automatically added service charge. No one asked why we were unwilling to pay for service - an indication that the staff were not surprised and clearly untroubled by unhappy customers. I was embarrassed to have suggested eating at Aaya - the good food is entirely let down by such appalling service.
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Claire Divver
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 2
Saturday, December 06, 2008

I brought my partner here for his birthday. Overall the food was good and the interior was nice but a lot of the menu items were not available, including their tasting menu. The biggest disappointment was that, after waiting over half an hour for our meals to arrive and our coffees had only just arrived, we were asked by the door host to hurry up and leave because our 1.5 hours were up!
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, December 03, 2008

booked a table at aaya last saturady and found the food just divine, the service was spot on. the quality was equally on par with nobu, standout dishes were the miso baby ribs and the amazing chilean seabass.
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sam hartley
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Monday, October 20, 2008

Right I did come back and it’s now officially the 2008 winner of the London Restaurant Awards category of Oriental Restaurant of the Year.

Yes it’s good, even more so with the introductory set lunch menus during these belt-tightening times (all within £15.00 without booze). My set of Eel was good enough to be profoundly salivating and one of the companions’ Tempura set was deemed utterly delicious and the batter entirely ethereal. My observation with my daughter’s choice of sushi was immediately impressive; there was something about the way these morsels were prepared and moulded, it somewhat reminded me of the way that they can only be achieved in kitchen that caters for some supreme being alone. The rice in the Sushi set was perfectly cooked (not easy with London’s hard water) and the fish perfectly fresh (not bad considering Billingsgate doesn’t start trading till 48 hours later). À la carte selections were equally enthralling. The tuna katsu tataki and and soba noodle maki rolls were perfectly administered and accomplished. Subtle hints of El Bulli and the Fat Duck can also be found here, intensely flavoured accompaniments of tiny chunks Soy and Ginger jelly found scattered in these dishes. But my standout was the Saikyo miso baby back ribs, lusciously melt in the mouth before you can even dictate the full name of the dish in words. Finally, decent puddings do actually exist at an oriental restaurant! Aaya has obviously done their homework on this issue with their Shiso pannacotta and Poached Pear with Sake Jelly. The Green Tea Ice Cream was proclaimed by my daughter as grown up food for little people; near sugarless but perfectly satisfying.

Service was cool and charming, come to think of it I think all the staff members were nothing but.

I would have conceded and given this place a total upgrade to the full max from my first review. Unfortunately no, this was due to the poorly stained teacups and the Tatami mats used to decorate the high, high ceilings. These mats are meant to stepped on and not hover above the diners’ heads, I’ve been told it’s counter productive and insulting. Oh well, these two things aside I wouldn’t be surprised if a Michelin star is awarded soon.
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bellaphon
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Sunday, October 12, 2008

Had a lovely birthday dinner at Aaya, found the food amazing, even though we had to have a little help from the waiters in navigating the menu, the service was very helpful.

The room was great for the atmosphere, and we were well looked after, their miso, baby back ribs and chilean seabass was great.
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andy hayes
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Friday, September 19, 2008

Had dinner at Aaya as we usually do Roka. Found the food quality exceptionally good, service was very efficient. All in all, a lovely evening.
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susan small
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, September 10, 2008

If you have interest in design this is a great place for atmosphere; the space is beautifully designed by David Adjaye and the lovely furniture by Barber Osgerby.

Unfortunately the food isn't fantastic with menu consisting of Japanese words that no one understands unless you're Japanese.

We recently had a birthday dinner there hoping that this would be the perfect place for it as we had tried the restaurant at their opening.

The poor waiter dropped a whole glass of lemonade which flew across the table and people on both sides got completely soaked including the birthday one. We felt sorry for the waiter as it may have been his first day so our friend just tried her best to be nice and had to ask for the floor to be cleaned. Even her shoes were soaking wet with lemonade.. Then we noticed that they broke glasses every half hour.

We all had a nice evening despite the accident until we noticed that they had placed extra things on our bill. As we had Japanese company on our table we luckily noticed that they had put dessert written in Japanese and glasses of wine which were most expensive at over a tenner a glass. They weren't sorry nor did they look surprised which seemed very strange to us.

I don't think we're prepared to be spending over £300 here again.
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Ai
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, September 10, 2008

had dinner at aaya found the service and fod first rate, reminded me of meals i had in tokyo, not surprising considering as all chefs were brought over from japan, even fresh wasabi was used which was a nice suprised as it showed in the quality.
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john chan
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Saturday, September 06, 2008

Had dinner at Aaya.

Quality of food was very good although portions were relatively small.

Prices are fair but not cheap.

Service was overall good although a little slow.
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Wednesday, August 20, 2008