Moto
Almost everything on the shelf here was bought direct from the brewery, with no importer in the middle, and co-founder Erika Haigh says the list is drawn from producers she deals with herself, north to south Japan, most of it new to the UK market (Restaurant, 2023).
Why go
Brandon Chin and Erika Haigh opened this room at 7 Maiden Lane on 26 November 2019 as a sake bar, a kitchen and an off-licence in one 25-seat space (Hot Dinners, 2019). Haigh was born and raised in Japan until she was 18, worked as a wine sommelier, then took WSET 3 in sake and qualified as a certified International Sake Sommelier; she now judges sake at the International Wine Challenge. That training shows in how the room is arranged rather than in a tasting-menu flourish. The bottles are grouped by flavour family instead of by polishing grade, with aromatic, rich, sparkling and warmed kan-zake styles kept separate, which is how you would find a list built in Japan (Wallpaper, 2024). The name is the fermentation starter used to raise the yeast for a sake brew, and it also means origin.
Order this / avoid
- Order: a flight before anything else. Time Out recorded it as
three different 60ml measures for GBP 15
in 2020, each one landing witha double-sided tasting card filled with stats.
Pair it with the chicken karaage, whose batter is cut with tempura crumbs and sake. Ask for a warmed pour from the kan-zake group if the weather is against you, because that is the part of a sake list London bars usually skip. - Avoid: Monday, when the bar is dark. Do not treat the GBP 15 flight as a current price either, since that figure is from the January 2020 review.
What locals & experts say
- Erika Haigh, co-founder, in Restaurant (2023): on why she moved from wine to sake,
Sake has always felt familiar, it's deeply ingrained within the culture,
andThrough learning about sake, I could reconnect with my Japanese roots and identity.
On how to drink it,There is no one size fits all way of enjoying sake.
1 - Brandon Chin, co-founder, in Hot Dinners (2019): the stated plan was to
bring quality small batch sakes to the UK while telling the stories of the brewers.
2 - Laura Richards, Time Out (2020), four stars:
The room is narrow, just like the Shinjuku hole-in-the-wall of your dreams, with a few seats up at the bar and a banquette that runs parallel,
and on the food,Pick something to pair with the exceptional chicken karaage, its batter made with tempura crumbs and sake.
3 - Neil Ridley, Wallpaper (2024): the buying policy is
all about championing smaller, independent brands, which are virtually unobtainable outside of their native Japan,
and the shelf shows thatMoto has really managed to get under the skin of the culture behind the drink.
4 - Industry recognition: CODE named Haigh in its 30 Under 30 for 2020. The placement appears in her contributor biographies rather than on a CODE Hospitality page, so treat the category wording as unconfirmed.
- Local rec: from Jeff's own list, filed as the sake pick (his note below).
Good to know
- Timing: noon to midnight Tuesday and Wednesday, noon to 12.30am Thursday to Saturday, noon to 10pm Sunday. Closed Monday. Cocktails start at 5pm early in the week and run all day from Friday.
- Booking: worth booking. The room seats about 25 and the bar seats go first.
- The shop half: they sell bottles to take away, and for a lot of them Moto is the only UK route, so the retail wall is the reason to walk in even when the counter is full.
- Dietary: the menu marks dishes V and VG. There is no published allergen or cross-contamination statement, so a celiac diner should ask before ordering the fried plates.
- Hygiene: FSA rating 5, Westminster, inspected 4 November 20256.
Craft signals (sake: seasonality and direct import)
Sake is neither a beer nor a wine list and Untappd has nothing to say about it. The two signals that count here are seasonality and access. The bar shows the seasonality and terroir of what it pours in real time, which in sake means the list moves with the brewing calendar rather than a menu cycle, and the bottles are exclusive imports that have never reached the UK market, so they can be drunk here or in Japan and nowhere in between. The shelf is grouped by flavor style, aromatic through rich kan-zake to sparkling, which is a Japanese convention rather than a UK retail one. The previous culinary score measured the karaage; on the primacy reading it has to measure the sake.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Best sake London" REAL.
Verdict
should-visit — Go for the sake list. Erika Haigh buys direct from small Japanese breweries she deals with herself, so most of the wall has no UK importer behind it and a lot of it has never been sold here before, which is a thing you cannot replicate by ordering off a wholesaler's sheet. She is a certified International Sake Sommelier and judges sake at the International Wine Challenge, and the shelf is organized by flavour style rather than by grade, warmed kan-zake included, which is a working sake list rather than a menu. The food is bar snacks done properly, with the karaage batter cut with tempura crumbs and sake. It is a detour for the drink and the education, not a destination for dinner.