Dozo

Love going here for lunch. The lunch menu is 7 pounds for a sizable bento box or ramen which comes with a miso soup and I always leave feeling very satisfied with my food. In the past, I’ve gotten a curry tonkatsu don which had a very healthy serving portion and also the teriyaki bento box, neither of which disappointed. My friend got the salmon ramen and was similarly stuffed and very happy. We definitely plan to go back in the future.

Firstly, the positives — the sashimi was fresh, generous and a good price. On the negatives, I have a sneaking suspicion that this restaurant is manned by Chinese chefs doing Japanese food because their other cooked dishes lacked all subtlety and finesse of Japanese cooking. The sauces were unbalanced, overwhelming and hinted that the chef did not understand Japanese cooking and is more used to the flavours of Chinese cooking. Even their grilled mackerel had all the wrong flavours and was pretty much inedible. A bit of salt and then grilled, how do you get that wrong? But they so got it wrong. I would have given it 1 star, but the sashimi was good and the service decent.

I went to this restaurant on a week day at noon. I was casually dressed after my yoga class.
The waiter asked me to sit at the front table, looking outside to the street. The restaurant door does not shut properly. I would advise not to sit near the door. It was very annoying to watch the staff shutting the door each time customers came in.
I ordered the sashimi lunch set. The lunch sets are all half the price of the same meals for dinner. The sashimi pieces were small. Obviously half the size! I was very disappointed. The sashimi were too cold and also placed on ice to keep them ‘fresher’. Even though the sashimi were cold but I could still taste that they were not that fresh. The miso soup and salad were nice.
The table had traces of tobiko, I bet from the previous night’s. When the staff served my dishes they saw the tobiko too but chose not to acknowledge the tiny bits of evidence. I can not help it if I am eagle eyed.
There were a group of girl students sitting at the table next to me. When the waitress served them miso soups, she did not re-​arranged their bento boxes to create spaces. The waitress accidentally spilt the miso soup on the table and onto one of the girls’ skirt. I watched the whole scene. The manager was quick to react. He gave the girl some napkins and the waitress also wiped the table. I heard the waitress telling the manager that the customer knocked the soup over. I was gobsmacked!
After that I asked the girl if the manager replaced her soup? She said no. Then I said this to her, «If this is a good restaurant, they would have replaced your soup and maybe give you a discount as a gesture of goodwill». Obviously this is not a good restaurant!
Cheap lunch sets but not cheerful.

I have no words for the food here and 5 stars are just not enough!!!
The Volcano Maki is to die for! All the dishes are so tasty and there is so much choice you can get a bit overwhelmed. The service and the ambience of the place are pretty unique as well. What an amazing Japanese restaurant in Soho. It is a bit pricey but it is so much worth it. Better to book a table as it is insanely busy… always!

Rushed inattentive argumentative service. Unagi was melt on your tongue gorgeous, but rice was dry. Not going to waste any more time on a long review, just don’t waste yours on this Chinese run place.

One of the reason I enjoy Japanese restaurants, besides the food, is their casual, quiet, and relaxing atmosphere. The hotel concierge recommended Dozo to us. The food at Dozo was outstanding, but the atmosphere left a lot to be desired.
Now to be fair we arrived at Dozo without a reservation, though to be honest there was no mention of reservations needed on their website. We arrived at 6:15 p.m. (they supposedly opened at 6:00 p.m.) and the place was packed (a good sign) but the noise and chaos of the restaurant overpowered the entire restaurant. The maître d was quite flirtatious with us, so he «found us a table» or rather squeezed us into the end of a row of tables, requiring us to sit on the floor with our legs dangling into a black hole in the floor, no I am not joking. We were packed elbow to elbow and shoulder to shoulder, and foot to foot with the crowds. It was not a pleasant dining experience.
The food however, made up for the cramped quarters. The vegetable gyoza were perfectly prepared with a flavorful and tangy dipping sauce. The Kaiso salad, a mix of seaweeds, was utterly flat and flavorless and sat in a pool of water. Their sesame dressing, served on the side, was more of a thick peanut butter than a sauce. It was the disappointment of the meal.
The sushi, consisting of a tempura asparagus roll, a rainbow roll, and a tuna roll were fresh and delicious. There are some basic vegetarian rolls on the menu, but other than five types of rolls and a couple of salads, there is nothing on the menu that doesn’t consist of some form of meat, fish, or seafood.
If you’re looking for a Japanese restaurant in Soho, this is an option but just beware that it will be noisy, and crowded. If you’re looking for a quieter experience, go elsewhere.
Online at:
Reservations Accepted: Yes via telephone 020 7434 3219
Food: 4 paws
Service: 3 Paws
Overall Rating: 3.5 Paws

Great experience here! Sushi lovers, volcano maki + Unagi Don + green tea = heaven!

Upon entering I was really excited. The place looks really nice and the plates that I saw on the other tables looked really neat. I love Japanese food and was looking forward to a nice meal. Sadly enough I found the food rather disappointing. It may have been the particular dishes I tried, but I don’t feel inclined to go back.
I visited Dozo with a couple of friends and we each ordered a dish and shared all of them between us. I picked out the House Tonkatsu Ramen and this was the only dish I remotely enjoyed. Even so I thought the pork was mostly fat, and that wasn’t great. Other dishes included the Eel supreme and Volcano Maki rolls and the Unagi Don rice bowl. These three dishes had one thing in common. Sauce. The fresh and clean taste of the fish was in all three cases completely ruined by an overkill of sauce. I have never understood the desire to combine sushi and mayonnaise and I’m afraid I still don’t. The flavours were not balanced at all. It was too sweet and too fat for my liking and these are two flavours I do not at all associate with the japanese cuisine.

Love the foie don and grilled scallops. A little expensive. The atmosphere was comfortable but the service was slow during busy hours

Really good food, but the price for their maki rolls is through the roof (£16−19 for 6 – 8 rolls). Tried their Tonkatsu ramen which was delicious and better priced (£10). Overall, a good experience but many items are extremely overpriced.

Near the theaters of soho is Dozo, a dimly lit Japanese restaurant featuring sushi, sashimi and various ramen and donburi.
No special remarks on service or speed, I was seated quickly and served quickly when dining solo.
Had a wakame salad and the house tonkotsu ramen.
Generous sesame seed topping on the salad, and most of the individual parts of the ramen were great (tonkotsu, egg, bamboo shoots) but the broth was missing soul. It was as if some pork derivative (processed ham or some such) hot water, soy sauce were briefly swirled together, and called tonkotsu broth. For a ramen lover in search of hot sustenance, this was not sufficient and ultimately disappointing given the quality of the components.
As a side note, I think this place is either Chinese or Korean owned (Korean sauces featured on menu, waiter answered phone for takeaway in mandarin)

Sushi lovers the search is OVER!
Dozo a Japanese restaurant in the heart of soho.
I’m a massive fan of sushi, can’t get enough of it. Unfortunately to eat a great sushi in London can be costly, but not anymore. Today, after a very long wait I finally manage to dine in Dozo, never booked a table and had to wait, today I tackled it by being at the door before 6 pm.
We ordered 3 roles of sushi and two rise dishes!
The roles are 6 – 8 pieces, we had the class and favourite salmon skin, spice tuna and salmon and avocado.
Was great… The food is so fresh, you can taste each ingredient individually and together which makes it irresistible. The rice bowls were big and delicious,
The first one is for sashimi fans, fresh cuts of around 8 – 10 different types of fish. A must have is the slow cocked beef with egg, mushroom and onions melt in your mouth.
I never gives 5 stars, but Dozo is definitely worth it.
I know I’ll be back here again for their amazing sushi.
Cheers and enjoy the food:)

A lovely authentic Japanese establishment… Beautiful décor and a pleasant dining experience.
As I’m a regular here I try to try a new dish each time alongside my usual favourites. Firstly, a few good things to know:
Book early or in advance as they become extremely busy in the evening. There are two types of seating, tables that are embedded in the ground that you have to swing your legs down into or a usual table at normal dining level. If you have trouble getting up or moving freely the latter is the best option for you.
There are tables upstairs and downstairs (ground level) but if you choose upstairs the toilets are down in the basement (lower ground) so be aware.
The food is simply outatanding. It is fresh, always hot if you go for a cooked option and the taste is consistent. I usually go for the scampi tempura, soft shell crab maki (8 pieces) and pork belly butu (2 skewer sticks). Then if I’m feeling greedy, go for a beef ramen or a rice dish.
The drinks are reasonable price and they have a full bar. An excellent choice is their plum wine which is presented in a pivotal glass with a Chinese plum and ice.
The execution of the dishes are efficient and soya sauce, fish sauce, chilli sauce is provide at the table. The table is dressed simply and the crockery is traditional Japanese.
It is a average to loud establishment so not somewhere to go for an intimate meal. If you would rather it be a quieter experience, go earlier in the day. There is also another branch in Kensington which in yet to try, but due to the location and vast bars around the area, this seems to be a great choice.
The price is reasonable and more than fair for the high level dining experience. Possibly one of the best Japanese restaurants in London. I would roughly say, £20-£30 per head.
I promise you will not be disappointed!

Delicious food, love their sushi in particular. but the service attitude is not as good, which is why I gave 4 stars.

Love rolls here，awesome！dont forget to order the volcano and dragon rolls！！and salad is amazing as well！but sashimi is not that good、、～anyway love it！

Looking for a place that has decent sushi but going with a group who may not? Dozo is a good place to get the best of both worlds — somewhere really central.
I’ve been here a couple of times and first had the bento box with prawn tempura/​chicken teriyaki and second the tonkotsu ramen. I really liked the bento box — I think it’s pretty good value for dinner. Ramen — it isn’t the best I’ve had in London but I enjoyed it none the less. I liked how it was filled with tons of pork, seaweed and the soft-​boiled egg was perfection. I’d definitely have it again.
Its a bit gimicky how they have the traditional looking tables but the layout is definitely flawed! We sat in the inside table and our servers struggled a bit to bring the food to the table. There was a table of 2 right next to us so we had to ask them to get up when we had to leave. I’d suggest getting the regular western tables because it’s slightly more comfortable. Also, suggest booking because it’s quite busy even for a Tuesday evening.

Me and my friends decided to come to this restaurant that I’ve visited once.
They are really famous for their volcano maki and dragon maki, so we decided to order the volcano maki this time along with eel fried rice, salmon sushi, and salmon don.
But we’ve waited for more than 30 minutes for the food and it didn’t come until we were about to leave.
It’s really disappointing since we used to enjoy dining in this restaurant. And the waitress just told us to wait because the kitchen is really busy while customers that arrived later than us already paid the bill and left.
The food is as expected. The volcano maki is a bit cold but still pretty tasty. Surprisingly the best dish of the day is the eel fried rice, rich in flavour and outstanding presentation.
I would say the food is decent and satisfying. However we waited way too long to have a pleasant evening.

Over-​priced, days-​old fish, and a rude, negligent server. We got the Itacho omakase (4 pc nigiri, 6 pc maki, 9 pc sashimi); the tuna lacked flavor and had slight freezer burn. There was a seared mystery fish in the sashimi which was good though. The bf also enjoyed his curry katsu don.
Our server was awful. We were seated right across the cash register and sushi bar, yet he looked past us when we tried to signal for him to take our order. He LITERALLY looked right past us. He cleared the dishes for the party next to us, and upon begin flagged down by us, he said «hold on.» And never came back. He did the same thing when we were ready for our bill to be taken. The rest of the staff seemed a little nicer and said ‘good night’ to us on our way out. I’d probably choose the AYCE sushi place on Frith over this next time.

Hmmm… I might have been slightly too excited about this place after seeing the other Unilocalers ramen reviews. Unfortunately I wasn’t very impressed by the ramen. *sigh*
Good things:
— The staff were really friendly and helpful
— You can book a table! Most London ramen-​lands make you line up outside and wait, so it was good to be able to call ahead and book.
— The food wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t as good as some of the other ramen options within walking distance.
— Some of the other food including donburi looked pretty good
— The décor and atmosphere were nice
Less Good:
— Don’t expect über authentic Japanese food. The owners and staff are Chinese and Malaysian which is fine, but it just means the flavour is a little Chinese-​y-​Japanese.
— There are a few other issues like spelling mistakes on the menu that might confuse Japanese people. (Like writing Tonkatsu instead of Tonkotsu)
— My «tonkatsu» tantanmen wasn’t spicy at all (it was basically Tonkotsu broth with a little layu dribbled in.) The meat was minced, and not amazing quality, and the pieces were so small that they sunk to the bottom of the soup, so I didn’t eat most of them. Ah well.

After some disappointments at recent Unilocal ramen Club outings, I may just have unearthed a gem for our next ramen club event
I spotted Dozo when wandering round Soho recently. I was in the mood for some warming ramen and in amongst the comprehensive Japanese menu, I spotted a ramen section offering tonkotsu and tantanmen ramen amongst other offerings. The way they wrote the descriptions gave me a strong sense that they were aiming for authenticity in their product, so in I popped
The interior is nicely decorated though the seating may not be as practical as it’s pretty. Tables have raised platforms around them, making it look traditional Japanese tatami place settings but with holes for you to put your legs into. Women with short skirts, beware as it will be hard to get into the table space elegantly!
I opted for my favourite tonkotsu ramen, looking forward to a rich, complex broth reflecting hours of long boiling of pork bones to obtain that fatty goodness. I also augmented my meal with a side order of o-​toro nigiri
On arrival, the ramen looked very promising with dense milky broth and it didn’t disappoint! Heavenly goodness with every mouthful Moist, succulent cha shu pork and appropriately just runny-​yolked nitamago egg proved yummy companions to the fresh noodles. It brought a smile to my face
However, the star of the meal was yet to come. After being spoilt with some superb o-​toro on holiday in the USA, I have found it difficult to find similar quality o-​toro in the UK. Well, the version here at Dozo proved to the best in the UK. It had just arrived fresh that morning and was sweet and melt in the mouth tender
I am looking forward to bringing the Unilocal Ramen Club here to break our recent poor run. Just have to remind the ladies not to wear short skirts!