Chef Steven Smith, who left the acclaimed Ribble Valley gastropub Freemasons in Wiswell in June, has announced his next move – to head up futuristic Japanese restaurant MUSU in Manchester. Steven transformed Freemasons over 15 years into one of the most commented-on venues in the annual Harden’s survey, which described it this year as ‘a fine-dining […]
Acclaimed Nottingham Japanese skewer-inspired restaurant Kushi-Ya is moving to larger new premises in the city centre next week, with co-head chef Simon Carlin reassuring fans that it will be “same vibe, just more space“. The new address is in Enfield Chambers, down an alleyway off Low Pavement, following eight years in Long Row West. The […]
A Japanese restaurant that has made a big splash in Taiwan and mainland China will open its first UK site in Soho’s Wardour Street next month. Kanpai Classic specialises in yakinuku, with customers cooking meat and vegetables themselves on a table-top grill. The grilling options will be led by a choice of 10 cuts of […]
International Korean chef Akira Back makes his London debut at the new Mandarin Oriental hotel in Hanover Square, Mayfair, next Wednesday, 3 June – more than two years after it it was announced. He will operate two restaurants – Akira Back (pictured), reinterpreting Korean and Japanese dishes, and Dosa, a 14-seat chef’s table offering contemporary Korean […]
Endo at the Rotunda, possibly London’s top-performing restaurant, is to close down for a four-month refurb in mid-March while chef patron Endo Kazutoshi masterminds two new openings. The Yokohama-born third-generation sushi master opened his 11-seater flagship on top of the old BBC White City Television Centre five years ago. It has featured in the top […]
A new restaurant and wine bar combining Japanese-influenced food with natural wines opens today (Wednesday 21 February) in a townhouse on the Deal seafront in Kent – with yoga and treatments also available upstairs. The Blue Pelican is the latest venture from Chris Hicks and Alex Bagner, husband-and-wife team behind The Rose boutique hotel and restaurant […]
Possibly London’s smallest restaurant opens in Notting Hill next week – an omakase with just six seats per sitting called Juno, upstairs at Markus Thesleff’s Mexican-Japanese mashup Los Mochis. Juno will serve a 15-course meal costing £180 in two evening sittings – at 6 and 8.30pm, Tuesday to Saturday – overseen by Los Mochis’ executive chef […]
A new wagyu-specialist Japanese restaurant opens in Mayfair next week which is expected to charge an astonishing £750 per person for a meal with wine. Aragawa, on Clarges Street, is the first European branch of a restaurant that originated in 1956 in Kobe, capital of Hyogo prefecture, and home of the best wagyu cattle – it […]
High-end omakase dining arrives in Hampstead this month with the opening of restaurant Iné, from the team behind Taku in Mayfair. Named after the Japanese for the rice plant before it is harvested, Iné will offer a 15-course omakase (“leave it to the chef”) meal along with a full sushi and sashimi menu at an […]
A ramen bar from a self-taught Indian chef based in Dubai is the surprise arrival in the roster of new outlets announced for the reopening of Harrods Food Hall next month. New Delhi-born Neha Mishra was a successful video producer when she became obsessed with the notion of cooking ramen 10 years ago – in […]
