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 […]
Much-travelled Aussie chef Scott Hallsworth opens the second permanent venue of his pan-Asian project, Freak Scene, in Balham, south London, next week. Freak Scene Sushi & Grill launches on Thursday 18 January, and follows the first permanent Freak Scene in Parsons Green, which opened last spring in “fine form“, according to the 2024 Harden’s guide. […]
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 new sushi restaurant opened in Mayfair this week charging what is thought to be the UK’s highest price for a meal. A meal Sushi Kanesaka, in Mayfair hotel 45 Park Avenue, costs £420 for 18 courses – with optional sake or wine pairings adding from £150 a head. Sushi master Shinji Kanesaka opened his restaurant […]
A high-end Japanese omakase restaurant with a Middle Eastern twist is scheduled to open in Marylebone by the end of September. Mayha, in Chiltern Street, is the first UK opening from Beirut’s Nothing But Love group, although chefs Jurek Wasio and Yuichi Nahayo have both previously worked in London’s Yashin Sushi and Ocean House. The […]
A high-end hybrid Oriental restaurant combining Chinese and Japanese cuisines will open next month in the new Four Seasons hotel at Ten Trinity Square in the City of London. Mei Ume, a name bringing together the Chinese and Japanese words for “plum”, launches on June 9, joining star French chef Anne-Sophie Pic’s La Dame de Pic […]
One of London’s leading Japanese restaurants since it opened in Marylebone in 2006, Dinings is to launch a sister venue in Knightsbridge next month. Dinings SW3 aims to fuse Japanese tradition with European seafood bar culture, offering plateaux de fruits de mer fresh from Cornish dayboats, plus robata-style cuisine using a Josper grill, with a seasonal sake list […]
One of central London’s longest-established Japanese restaurants, Matsuri in St James’s, has closed down after 23 years to be replaced by an updated new establishment from the same owner. The teppanyaki and sushi bar has inspired pretty solid feedback for its “authentic” feel from the Harden’s Survey in recent years, but little in the way […]
It was supposed to be the restaurant that would launch yet another international brand for the Hakkasan Group. But instead its Japanese fine dining affair, Chrysan, closed after six months and the group is now selling off the site. The 100-cover restaurant, located at Broadgate West in Snowdon Street, is now on the market. It is […]
