Jason Atherton has announced plans to relocate Sosharu to either Mayfair or Soho in hopes of increasing lunch trade. The izakaya-style restaurant is currently housed at 64 Turnmill Street in Clerkenwell (formerly Turnmills nightclub) but the chef and restaurateur says the concept is not working at the site.

Atherton told Caterer that although Sosharu is “a fantastic concept that works” there is not enough lunch trade in the area, adding that “being busy on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday is not enough to keep a site going with high rents in Central London”.

The 75-cover Japanese restaurant and cocktail bar, developed by Atherton and chef Alex Craciun, is the seventh London restaurant from Atherton’s Social Company. It opened in March 2016 after months of anticipation (it was first announced in autumn 2015). Unfortunately, for many of our reporters, it simply wasn’t worth the wait with many diners decrying its “overpriced”, “heavy-handed” cooking.

A new site has not yet been confirmed and Sosharu will remain open in Turnmill Street until a new site is found. Atherton has eight other sites in London, including Pollen Street Social, Little Social and, most recently, Hai Cenato at the Nova development in Belgravia.