Tosa

Locals don’t come to Tosa for the sparkling setting – the brown and white dining room seems just a little lacklustre. Instead, friendly service and a decent range of sushi and skewers are the main draw.

If you like to see the chefs at work, head for the robata grill at the front (though you might end up a little smoky). Otherwise, there’s plenty of seating dotted around the room, including some more intimate pews at the back. On a weekday lunchtime, the room was bustling with local families and lone diners well acquainted with the menu, plus the odd table of Japanese salarymen. Cheap sets were going down well, such as the yakitori selection, which included juicy spirals of pork and shiso, sticks of quail’s eggs and classic chicken chunks with onion – all pleasingly smoky from the charcoal grill (served with rice, salad and miso for £11).

Sushi and sashimi are also popular, the fish as fresh as you like, though the rice rectangles in our sea bass and capelin-roe nigiri were indelicately large. The drinks list features the usual array of Japanese beers and sakés.