Hikari review: Meditative magic at Moortown Japanese restaurant

And it seems more of us are exploring the country for ourselves. According to figures from Japan’s National Tourism agency, there was a 43 per cent rise in the number of Brits travelling there in April 2025, compared to the same time the previous year.

Anecdotally, too, it feels whenever you speak to people about their bucket list destinations Japan is often at the top. As someone who recently visited this wonderous country (and can now smugly chalk it off my bucket list), it’s not hard to see why so many people are enthralled by its many charms.

Chief among them is its cuisine. Though when it comes to food it feels like the Japanese have been waiting for the rest of the world to catch up. They have been quietly perfecting the art of pickling and fermenting things for centuries, just as ingredients like miso, mirin and kombu have been an integral part of their diets long before social media influencers cottoned on to them.

Whatever the reasons for this surge in interest, there’s no doubt we’re seeing a boom in izakayas (Japanese-style taverns), high-end omakase (sushi bars) and matcha cafes in cities across the country.

Leeds has seen a flurry of Japanese-influenced restaurants pop up in the last couple of years including Hikari, which opened in Moortown back in January. This smart, if unremarkable, suburb might not be an obvious spot to open a sushi and ramen restaurant, but it seems to have been a smart move with Hikari enjoying a raft of rave reviews. Having gone there at the start of the year for a quick bite and been impressed I decided to go back to get a proper feel for the place.

Hikari, which means ‘light’ in Japanese, is small, compact, and a hymn to Japanese design. Everything from the beautiful lanterns and wooden countertops to the display of kitchen knives behind the chefs, took me right back to the restaurants and bars of Kyoto and Osaka. There’s even a porcelain waving cat. People put these iconic figurines, which are ubiquitous over there, in their shops and homes to bring good fortune.

The team at Hikari are led by its founder, chef Kong, who trained in Japan and has 20 years of sushi craftsmanship under his belt.

Though ostensibly a sushi and ramen restaurant, Hikari also does rice bowls, katsu curries and a good choice of hot and cold small plates. We started with a generous portion of edamame beans which came out steaming and sprinkled with salt. For a healthy, tasty snack, you can’t beat them and these were as good as I’ve had. So, too, was the karaage, succulent pieces of fried chicken that came, in this instance, with a wasabi mayo.

Having decided we were going to eat our way around Japan we plumped for a couple of dishes from the small plates section. First up was one of the house specials, the Unagi Tamago roll – a sweet Japanese omelette wrapped around grilled eel and spinach.

I’ve been a fan of eel ever since having a delicious smoked eel and celeriac dish years ago at The Foundry in Leeds (sadly no more). Eel is something of a speciality in Japan and this was up with the best we had anywhere on our travels. The same goes for the shrimp and leek gyozas, thin wheat wrapper dumplings, that were the right combination of soft and crispy.

Next up was another house special, the shadow dragon roll – prawn tempura, encased with rice and topped with grilled eel and a teriyaki sauce – a moreish combination of sweet, salty and umami flavours.

Delicious as this was, you can’t really come here and not try the sushi, so we finished with the deluxe sushi platter which includes different types of salmon and tuna, as well as shrimp, prawn, eel and scallop.

There is something almost meditative about watching a master craftsman at work, whether it’s a stone mason creating an intricate balustrade or, in this instance, a sushi chef cutting slices of fish with a surgeon’s precision and carefully shaping the rice.

If his knife skills were impressive then so, too, was the quality of the ingredients. The sushi we had at an omakase in a Tokyo shopping centre of all places, is the best I’ve ever had, but this wasn’t far behind.

The food at Hikari is top notch – it’s always a good sign when you’re already thinking about what you’re going to have next time before you’ve even left.

It’s also a good place to try sake. People often assume they won’t like Japan’s national drink, but it’s as delectable and varied as wine and here you can get sake flights and pairing sets (which I plan to sample when I return).

The bill for two, including a splendid half bottle of Dassai sake and a couple of halves of beer, came to £103. The service, just as it is wherever you go in Japan, was unfailingly polite and I can offer no higher praise than to say if you stumbled on somewhere like this in a dimly lit alley in Kyoto, or down a side street in Hiroshima you would be raving about it to your friends.

The fact it’s on a parade of shops in north Leeds within walking distance of where I live, not only shows just how vibrant and varied our food scene has become, it also makes me a very happy man.

Ratings:

Welcome – 5/5

Food – 5/5

Atmosphere – 5/5

Prices – 4/5

Hikari, 400 Harrogate Road, Moortown, Leeds, LS17 6PY. www.hikarisushiuk.com