Matsuri

When the owners of Japanese restaurant Matsuri decided to open another London branch, they wanted to change things. The St James's original is all basement atmosphere dominated by Japanese conversation and gesticulating teppanyaki chefs.

For the High Holborn newcomer, the focus was put back on a smart but informal ground floor with floor-to-ceiling windows and tightly packed tables. There is still a teppanyaki room down below, where parties of up to eight can sit around an open grill with their own chef to cook (set meals - think lobster tail and fillet - from £30 to £80 per head), but upstairs the main dining room seats 60, with room for a sleek bar (20 more seats) and the modern-day city essential, a sushi bar (15 seats).

The aim? To get more diners to appreciate authentic Japanese food - not just the fusion cuisine of some of London's more glitzy Japanese high rollers. As head chef Hiroshi Sudo explains: "Our basic line of taste is always traditional."

To start, you might try lightly fried soft-shell crab (£6.50) or a beautiful salad of four different seaweeds, with four different colours, from green to deep purple, arranged around the plate (£5) - the modern touch here being the bright presentation.

The quality of the fish is also strong. The selection of sashimi comes as thick, cool slices of fish - the sea bass is particularly good: soft and delicious. The restaurant sources most of its fish from the Mediterranean, with salmon from Scotland and only eels from Japan. "The freshness of the fish is special. We are proud of it," says Sudo.

Sushi from the specialist chefs includes the likes of octopus and eel in the nigiri range (£2-£4.50 per piece); or the more intricately constructed maki-style options like fried prawn in crispy batter or tuna and spring onion (£2-£8 per piece).

Sudo, who worked in the original Matsuri after leaving the Colza restaurant in Tokyo, counts among his own favourites the main course of beef misoyaki (£18), a tender piece of Scotch fillet, grilled with a miso sauce. "The Japanese started to eat meat only about 150 years ago. Before that eating beef was forbidden," explains Sudo. "Only the shoguns ate it, on the sly." Miso is fermented soya bean paste and it lends a very mild coating to the meat, almost like another fermented food - cheese.

From the teppanyaki menu his other favourite dish is that jewel of Japanese beef, Wagyu. Not always available, the Kobe breed is very expensive (£50 on this menu - "but worth it"). The meat is renowned for its thick and melting taste, and Sudo serves it with ponzu (Japanese citrus fruit) sauce or wasabi cream sauce.

Also popular are the kushiage dishes (skewers of vegetable and seafood deep-fried in breadcrumbs, £5-£9) and the tempura dishes (£8-£15). Fifteen pounds buys a selection, including four enormous, langoustine-style prawns and hefty slabs of vegetables such as aubergines - "delicious at the moment", says Sudo, who stresses that Japanese chefs are as obsessed with the seasons as their European counterparts.

Average spend in the evenings is £40, but this falls to between £8.50 and £22 at lunch. The restaurant currently has two promotional menus: one to publicise its extensive sake collection ("Begin the Sake" - buy one drink, get another free, plus two Californian sushi rolls), the other an introduction to Japanese food ("Begin the Japanese" - three-course dinner for £20).

Chef's cheat

I use a Japanese knife for slicing food, especially fish. Knives have to be very sharp or else they affect the texture and look. The edge on Japanese knives is only one-sided, whereas European knives are two-sided. It makes the knife sharper.

What's on the menu

• Japanese pickled vegetables, £3.50
• Chicken with ginger and soy sauce, deep-fried in batter, £6
• Seasonal grilled fish in spicy Namban sauce, £18
• Osumashi soup with chicken, seafood and vegetables, £5.50
• Tokkurimushi - three-layered pot with ponzu sauce, spring onion and grated radish, and fish, shiitake mushroom and vegetable soup, £5.50