Sashimi in London – Where to buy the freshest fish

by Best-Japanese Team
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Sashimi plate salmon ikura tuna

Updated July 8th 2023

Although finding sashimi grade fish may be easier in London, you can have excellent sashimi delivered to your home throughout the UK.

In this post, we start with our list of where you can buy the freshest fish and seafood in London. You will find a brief introduction for Atariya, Japan Centre, Soldeli and Natural Natural below but check out our Best-Japanese Supermarkets post for the full details. Also we have included information about Billingsgate Market and Primrose Hill Sakanaya.

If you are located outside of the London area don’t worry! You can still order sashimi online with Soldeli and they can deliver nationwide within 2 to 5 business days.

Sashimi London
Sashimi from Primrose Hill Sakanaya

Atariya – Impressive Sashimi selection

Atariya have locations in Golders Green, Kingston, Swiss Cottage and West Acton. The main attraction at Atariya is their fresh fish and seafood. For example, their impressive selection includes:

  • Scallops
  • Boiled Prawns
  • Squid
  • Hirame (Turbot)
  • Tuna
  • Salmon Roe
  • Mentaiko (Seasoned Pollock Roe)
  • Tobiko (Flying Fish Roe)

After a quick look around the store, you will find that’s not all. Ataiya have a small deli area with sushi, bento boxes, and very reasonable Chirashi (assorted fresh seafood) rice bowls. The staff are also friendly and happy to help you choose the weight and best options for your sashimi and seafood.

Natural Natural – High Quality Sashimi in SakeSakana

Natural Natural Sashimi Grade Fresh
Sashimi Selection at Natural Natural

Natural Natural is located in Ealing Common and Finchley Road. They have a pretty good online presence so you may have come across some of their discounts for first time buyers. Most importantly, they offer high quality sashimi including popular choices like Salmon and Blue Fin Tuna. Their fantastic wide range includes scallops, surf clams, boiled prawns, and sea urchin.

After you have checked our the sashimi and seafood, make sure you take a look at their sake and the Natural Natural supermarket. However if you are after the best sashimi, remember to go early before it all gets snapped up. We should also mention that Natural Natural provides free delivery to mainland UK address on all orders over £50.

Japan Centre – Sashimi and DIY Sushi Kits

Japan Centre’s current flagship store is just off Leicester Square, but they also operate Ichiba in Westfield London, and UMAI in Stratford Westfield City. As a result, you have options to buy sashimi grade fish and seafood across London. For example, if you are in the centre you can visit their Panton Street store close to Leicester Square and pick up some sashimi from the counter. Or if you are in Westfield, check out Ichiba where they also have a selection of ready made sushi bentos. Another thing they are great at is providing DIY kits which include easy to follow instructions for making sushi at home.

Soldeli – Selection includes large Salmon fillets

Soldeli
Soldeli Sashimi Corner

We originally knew Soldeli for their ability to deliver fresh sashimi in all areas across the UK. However this summer, they opened a retail store in Southall in West London where you can buy a selection of fresh sashimi including Tuna Otoro, Chutoro and Akami along with Salmon and Hamchi. Soldeli also have frozen seafood such as tiger prawns and scallops too together with other Japanese food, snacks and drinks.

While it’s slightly off the beaten path, what’s great about Soldeli is that you can get various sashimi cuts and slices going up to 1.4 kgs for a sashimi grade salmon fillet. You do have to slice this yourself however this can be part of the fun if you are a sushi lover. The other reason to go is Soldeli have a sushi bar open on Saturdays from 10am to 3pm where you can order sushi or take home a prepared sushi or sashimi bento box.

Billingsgate Market

Billingsgate is where buyers from the best restaurants and fishmongers in London source their fish and seafood. Although it is a professional fish market, it’s also open to the general public. The market opens at 4am and the serious buyers are in and out before half five if not before. Stalls start shutting up at 6:30 which is when prices start going down and bargain hunters arrive. You can easily get seafood and fish for prices you don’t see in a supermarket – for examples 4 rainbow trout for £10.

So how about the Sashimi? You will need to carefully ask the traders if the fish they are selling is sashimi-grade. We have a separate article with extra details on what you need to ask which you can read here. Remember that at Billingsgate you have to bring cash, as there are no ATMs nearby and traders often don’t have card readers. Also, you won’t be able to buy small quantities. You’ll be buying by the kilo or by boxes or in our case with sashimi-grade salmon, you have to buy the whole fillet.

Billingsgate Market Salmon Sashimi Fillet

Here’s a photo of the Salmon Sashimi-Grade fillet we bought once we got it back home. We paid £26 for 1.75 kgs of Norwegian Salmon. Although this fillet was not descaled, this only took two minutes to do and then it was onto slicing and eating a delicious Sashimi breakfast!

Primrose Hill Sakanaya

We discovered primrose_hill_sakanaya on Instagram a while back and have been following ever since. The posts are all in Japanese so if you can’t read Japanese you may need to rely on the Instagram translation tool.

Primrose Hill Sashimi Set
Primrose Hill Omakase Sashimi Set

Saturday is the only dedicated day for sashimi sets which cost £13.50 per set including tax. These are Omakase sets of 5 sashimi such as Salmon, Tuna, Ikura or Scallops, Seabass and Yellowtail. You can pre-order these sashimi sets through the email address you’ll find on their Instagram. Alternatively you can turn up on Saturday morning and get the sashimi sets before they run out. When we went shortly after their opening time at 11:30 it looked like there was still plenty of sets left.

Primrose Hill Sakanaya also has other special offers throughout the week. If you are interested in understanding how to prepare fish or looking for recipes, there are plenty of posts and reels for you as well. Aside from the sashimi, they have an excellent range of fresh fish and seafood. Finally in the refrigerators you’ll find other treats like ready made Japanese seaweed salad dishes, some fresh octopus, and salmon roe.


That’s all of the places we know for now! We hope that this list of recommendations will help you to source high-quality and delicious sashimi for sushi making or enjoying by itself. Please feel free to comment below.

If you are now in the mood for looking for authentic Japanese restaurants please have a read through our restaurant reviews. For ramen lovers we have our best ramen in London list, while our top 10 Japanese restaurants in London list covers Sushi, Tonkatsu, Udon, and Okonomiyaki restaurants.


Want to know how to prepare sashimi & make sushi?

Yes probably the first thought is why buy a book when I can watch on YouTube? But in our minds, if you are going to go out of your way to get the freshest sashimi, surely you would want to have a reference guide with step-by-step instructions and extra background on preparation. Here are 3 books that are worth considering buying before heading to Billingsgate. Even if you don’t buy them, we would suggest at least taking a peak inside each one – you can see how to slice sashimi as well as what ingredients and equipment you need.

Sushi Made Simple

Sushi Made Simple

Our first choice would be this fantastic guide to making sushi by Atsuko Ikeda, who is a Japanese chef and food consultant who’s been running cooking classes in London since 2008. You’ll find the book a masterclass proving authentic knowledge and skills with innovative ideas to give 60 recipes for rolls, wraps, and moulded sushi. You’ll learn the basic cooking methods and step-by-step techniques with all the recipes put together in a way that is easy-to-understand.

THE SUSHI COOKBOOK: A Variety of Sushi Recipes by M° Haruto Nakamura

The Sushi Cookbook

Haruto Nakamura’s Sushi Cookbook provides the secrets to sushi preparation even for those who have never made sushi before. Inside the book you can discover a wide collection of 35 sushi recipes selected by Master Nakamura. These includes the traditional sushi recipes as well as vegetarian and modern variants including 9 sushi desserts!

Sushi Cookbook for Beginners: 100 Step-By-Step Recipes to Make Sushi at Home

Sushi for Beginners

There are many variations of sushi, and Japanese author Chika Ravitch goes through a diverse collection in the Sushi Cookbook for Beginners. Here the classic like Tuna Rolls are covered before the non-traditional choices like Spicy Fried Mozzarella Rolls. You can get information on kitchen must-haves like a sushi-rolling mat as well as how to select high-quality ingredients for the perfect sashimi and sushi rolls.

Where to buy Japanese sashimi knives

There are quite a few Japanese sashimi knives you can purchase online but not all are actually made in Japan. If you are looking for a Japanese sashimi knife that has both good reviews in Japan and is respected by Japanese chefs in the UK, we would recommend Kai’s 18 cm Japanese sashimi knife from their Magoroku Ginju collection. The blade is stainless steel so it’s easy-to-clean and rust resistant. Also the knife handle is made from high grade water-resistant wood.

You can buy Kai’s Magoroku Ginju Sashimi knife at ZakZakka.com which is a unique online store in the UK for those who love authentic Japanese products. We found that you can get the Kai Magoroku Ginju Sashimi knife for £36.69, and you can receive a 10% discount if you subscribe to their email newsletters. Then you can have it delivered across the UK by Royal Mail for £7 with 48 hour tracked delivery. We bought one last month and this is how it looks after unboxing. Apart from being aesthetically pleasing, the knife is light and very sharp. In fact, cutting through sashimi with this knive requires little effort and you can create beautiful sashimi slices.

Kai Sashimi Knive Unboxed
Kai Seki Magoroku Unboxed

One more option worth considering is the Japanese Knife Company which has several stores in London and been running for over 20 years. Their JKC Sushi Yanagiba is also single bevel, stainless steel and made in Niigata prefecture in Japan. Since it costs £69 it will qualify for free UK shipping and in case you’ve not previously come across JKC they have some incredible scores on TrustPilot and you can always head into one of their stores to take a closer look at their products in person.


At Best Japanese, we independently select and write about Japanese food and culture we love and think you’ll like too. If you buy a product we have recommended, we may receive a small affiliate commission which in turn supports our work.

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The Best Japanese Team is a community of friends and family living in the UK and Japan. Our main goal is to share accurate knowledge on Japanese food, culture, lifestyle, and travel. We also wish to support Japanese inspired creators and businesses across the world. As we grow we welcome contributions from like-minded invididuals so if this sounds like you please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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