Kuriya Keiko

They offer authentic Japanese foods!
I ordered karaage (fried chicken) and rice set which was amazing. Karaage was very juicy and it was quite same to Japanese ones.
But I felt it was not enough to fill my big appetite… Maybe it is better to order some kinds of food and enjoy their variety of delicious Japanese foods like Izakaya style.
I heard they sometimes offer Japanese sushi workshops! I want to take my friends there!

Lovely service and lady running this restaurant, truly japanese, yummy, cool & cozy at same time. Beautiful and spaceous. So Hidden! A few steps fr Holloway rd! Worth checking it out!

Awesome! Great Japanese food at outstanding value!
This is my second visit to Kuriya Keiko, a lovely little restaurant off Hornsey Street 5 minutes from Holloway Road tube station.
1. Food — wholesome home cooking with generous portions. Everything we tried was good and served piping hot. No pretentious, overpriced sashimi starter that costs an arm a gram here ;)
2. Staff — the owner, Keiko san, could not be nicer. The waiter (Diego) was helpful and friendly throughout our dinner. I had to organise a mini Xmas party for 5 people — I had to change my booking twice, but no moans or groans from the restaurant. They also let us bring our own crackers and decorate the table to our heart’s content!
3. Location — this is perhaps where the restaurant is being let down. It is actually very conveniently located in the Islington Studios just a stone’s throw from Holloway station. However, the restaurant itself is not visible from Hornsey Street (need to bend left as you hit the entrance to the studios).
4. Events/​Cookery classes — the restaurant also hosts events and cookery classes. I have yet to try their classes, but I thoroughly enjoyed the mini Japanese concert they held there!
Overall, I am surprised that not more people have discovered this gem of a restaurant yet! Oh, where are thou, all ye students of the nearby London Metropolitan University? :)

Thank you Unilocal lovelies! I would never have thought to explore down this road if I hadn’t seen Samir’s review and everyone’s photos!
Kuriya Keiko is a nice little Japanese restaurant. They are currently a little short staffed, so the hot food was a little slow (but that’s not a big deal as you can wait with a drink and some sushi rolls…)
The staff are all really friendly, especially the lovely lady (I wonder if she is Keiko?) who rolls sushi. She mentioned that they are aiming to introduce less traditional Japanese food… but it all seemed quite traditional to me. It reminds me of local izakaya food, mixed with a bit of ofukuro-​no-​aji (ish) home cooking.
All the food is presented beautifully, and it was really tasty… I normally order nigiri sushi, rather than rolls, but the sushi rolls here are excellent — they change every day, depending what the staff can get hold of that is fresh and tasty. Yesterday the sushi roll specials were pork katsu or salmon and avocado, served with a spicy mayo. Yum. The gyoza was obviously handmade, and really good. The only thing I wasn’t über impressed with, was the tofu katsu, which was a teeny bit dry. The menu was completely different to the menu photos that other Unilocalers have posted, so I guess it changes regularly.
I’ll definitely come back… if nothing else, it’d be nice to try their omu-​rice, I didn’t have that for aaages and I love it!

Really good food and nice interior. like the staff especially the ladys who make the sushi, very friendly.

I’m screwed.
A total of two new sushi restaurants opening at my doorstep within 6 months, one excellent value and the other, this place a more experimental one and slightly more expensive. I shall never need to move much or eat another type of food!
Their first month is a soft opening where that have been trying new dishes and testing the new service. They are both a Japanese restaurant and have regular sushi lessons with introductory classes from £20.
The dishes in the restaraunt appear to be a mix of traditional and experimental. I’ve been there twice now and the first day they were serving a sushi platter for £6/​7 coupling Parma ham and sushi balls, genius. Today I had a two course Sunday lunch and had the ‘black plate’ option which apparently is commonly eaten in Japan and is known there as «European Cuisine» or «Omu-​rice».
There were beautiful wasabi tofu and beef burgers. It was accompanied with a rice chicken omelette dish. This came with a potato salad and after a small sushi platter. Individually the dishes were excellent but together it seemed a little heavy, but all for a very reasonable £12.
They have a couple of teething problems like no vegetarian options (yet) and a very limited drinks menu eg no diet coke.
This place has really great staff with good quality produce and imaginative chefs. Hopefully once the full menu is up and running I can give them the final star.
PS The wifi password is ‘welovesaki’; awesome!