Kushi-Ya

Verdict

Kushi-Ya is the strongest argument in Nottingham for skipping a formal restaurant and eating at a charcoal grill counter instead. Two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmands (2024 and 2025) confirm what regulars already know: the kitchen here delivers a level of technical precision you would not expect at this price point. If you have been once and stuck to the skewers, you are missing half the menu. Come back, arrive early, work through the specials board.

What Kushi-Ya Actually Is

Most people assume izakaya dining means simple bar food. Kushi-Ya corrects that assumption quickly. The name translates as 'skewer shop', and charcoal-grilled skewers are the centrepiece, but the kitchen runs well beyond that brief. Small plates, a specials board with ingredients like duck hearts and mackerel crudo, a Japanese-Korean prawn cocktail, desserts precise enough to close a much more expensive meal; this is a full cooking operation dressed in a casual format.

The room changed in 2024 when Kushi-Ya moved to its current address at 14a Low Pavement, accessed through a gated walkway off a side street. The setting; blond wood, dark-blue tiles, big windows, an outdoor terrace, suits the food. It feels considered without trying to impress. For context on how izakaya spaces typically work, the approach here mirrors what you find at focused grill restaurants in Tokyo, such as Myojaku or Azabu Kadowaki, where the room is secondary to what comes off the grill.

What to Order If You Have Been Before

If your first visit was built around the skewers, that was the right call. Chicken tsukune with egg yolk and beef with black garlic mustard are both worth returning to. But the dishes that separate Kushi-Ya from any other grill in the East Midlands are elsewhere on the menu.

The prawn toasts are not optional. Small barrels of toast are piped with prawn filling and served with furikake and savoury mayo, technically a snack, but one that stays with you. The pickles plate, red radish, daikon, mushrooms, cucumber, all with sharp acidity, is the right way to start. From the specials, mackerel crudo with shiso and high-grade wasabi is the kind of dish that demonstrates how much the kitchen is doing within what looks like a simple format. On the dessert end, the black-sugar parfait with charred sesame-seed crisp is a well-constructed finish, the matcha cheesecake with lime meringue handles sweet-sour balance better than most dedicated pastry programmes in the city.

The drinks list is short but purposeful: sake in cups and cans, Koshu wine, Japanese whiskies, a cocktail range that includes a gochujang Old-Fashioned built on whisky, pineapple rum, gochujang-honey syrup. It fits the food in a way that a standard wine list would not.

When to Go

Timing matters more here than at most comparable restaurants. Lunch is walk-in only for the sub-£20 menu, which makes it one of the better-value offers in Nottingham, but it fills fast. Get there early or accept that you will be waiting. The outdoor terrace is a genuine asset on warmer days; the East Midlands does not offer many restaurant terraces worth planning around, this one is. Evening visits are more predictable in terms of availability, the full menu is in play, but the lunch format is what gives Kushi-Ya a different kind of appeal in the city's dining week.

Know Before You Go

How It Compares

See the comparison section below for how Kushi-Ya sits against Nottingham's wider restaurant field.

Explore More in Nottingham

Kushi-Ya sits within a broader Nottingham dining scene that ranges from Michelin-starred modern British at Restaurant Sat Bains and plant-forward tasting menus at alchemilla to relaxed neighbourhood eating at Harts and fine food retail at Delilah Fine Foods. For Mediterranean small plates at a comparable price point, Ibérico World Tapas is the nearest direct comparison in format, if not in cuisine. Browse the full Nottingham restaurants guide, bars guide, hotels guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide for a complete picture of the city. For reference points further afield, the kind of precision-to-price ratio Kushi-Ya delivers in its category is comparable to what CORE by Clare Smyth, The Fat Duck, L'Enclume, Moor Hall, Gidleigh Park, and Hand and Flowers deliver in their own tiers, the principle of a kitchen punching above its weight is the same, even if the format and price differ significantly.