Habibi Sushi, City of London, London

We came here last night for a friend's birthday party and the service was very good and courteous. The waiters were attentive and very polite. The food is delicous and with the current 30% off makes a fantastic meal value for money.

The quietness can be construed as a drawback but as we had a fairly large party it gave it a great opportunity to make the place our own without overhearing other people's conversations.

I can see the concern of quietness with the above comment and glad to see they do well during lunch trade. With delicious food and good service we will come back and be spreading the word to others.

I’ve been here a few times at lunch and am slightly surprised by the first comment.

Being a few minutes from Liverpool Street station means there is no shortage of hungry people at lunchtime - the queues in most of the cafes, shops and restaurants at lunchtime are testament to this. The odd thing is that Habibi is never busy, it’s always a bit quiet. I wondered why so I paid a couple of visits.

There is a wide selection of sushi available to eat in or take away. The thing is, the place doesn’t feel as clean as it should be. The lids covering the sushi often seems a little… musty and if an item is too large for the plate (typically the stuff on skewers) it drags across the display of soft drinks in the middle (check out all the missing pain on the cans!)

To add to this general feeling of uncleanliness, there were a lot of little flies in the restaurant which would occasionally land on the uncovered plates on the conveyor belt. It seems the electric fly catcher, situated right next to the Miso soup pot, isn’t doing its job well enough.

Given the place has been so quiet on my few visits, the staff weren’t really that attentive and you had to shout to get their attention.

I did notice that a few people came in for takeaways during my lunches. I felt a bit sorry for them, as during my second visit the chef was taking unsold sushi from the plates and boxing this up for takeaway.

It could well be that both my visits were uncharacteristic and believe me, in a world of homogenised dining brands such as Yo!, I strongly want to support the independent restaurateur, but I think they need to smarten their act if I’m to ever consider going back.