An ambitious Brazilian/Japanese restaurant opens in Newcastle’s Quayside next week, which its founders believe has the potential for national and international expansion. Nipo takes its name from the Nipo-Brasileiro community of São Paulo, said to the be the largest concentration of Japanese people outside Japan, and is the brainchild of the team behind Newcastle’s Rio […]
Australian chef Scott Hallsworth is closing his peripatetic punk izakaya Freak Scene in Balham this weekend, and replacing it with a more “family-friendly” pan-Asian restaurant called Joe’s Oriental Diner. The former Nobu chef has opened and closed several iterations of Freak Scene over the past nine years, including a site off Parson’s Green in Fulham […]
A vibey Japanese restaurant called Mitsu opens in Shoreditch this week, in the cavernous space formerly occupied by a branch of Nobu. Billed as ‘a new Japanese izakaya shaped by the energy of Tokyo nights and East London’s rhythm’, Mitsu serves a menu of classic Japanese dishes such as nigiri, sashimi and tempura, plus porterhouse […]
The team behind Wild Tavern in Chelsea and Wild in Notting Hill have opened their first Japanese venture – Wild Izakaya on Old Jewry Street in the City, fronted by former Koyn and Nobu head chef Satoru Hashimoto. The izakaya has taken over the former Browns premises opposite Goodman, the steak house opened 16 years ago […]
Romanian-born chef Alex Craciun, who made his name at Jason Atherton’s Sosharu, has returned to London after nine years to open a Japanese-inspired restaurant called Aces Foodcraft in Fitzrovia. The restaurant, which opens tomorrow (1 November), operates on two levels: during the daytime it is relatively casual, with a seasonal à la carte menu, daily […]
A lavish Maltese-owned Japanese restaurant has opened in a Grade II-listed former bank in Marylebone. Converted at a reputed cost of £15million, it features a cocktail bar in what was the underground safety deposit vault. Aki – from ‘akitsu’, an old Japanese word for dragonfly – is a short walk from Oxford Circus in Cavendish Square. […]
Endo at the Rotunda, rated Britain’s No 1 restaurant in the 2025 Harden’s 100 list, is closed following a fire that burned for almost 14 hours in the Helios building – the former BBC television centre in White City – on Saturday. The London fire brigade was called to the scene at 3.15am and brought the […]
A vibey contemporary Japanese restaurant whose two floors are linked by a dramatic poured-concrete staircase opened in Soho this week. Moi (pronounced to rhyme with ‘boy’), in Wardour Street, is the first launch from an ambitious new company, Mad Restaurants, founded by entrepreneur Artem Login of the international café brand L’Eto. Former Gordon Ramsay chef […]
Chef Scott Hallsworth is to install his Freak Scene concept at 100 Wardour Street in Soho for a four-month residency, bringing a funky pan-Asian edge to the Evolv Collection, formerly known as D&D London. Evolv’s new chief executive, Martin Williams, is looking to modernise the group and appeal to a broader, younger customer base. Scott, […]
Veteran Leeds Japanese restaurant Fuji Hiro has been given a new lease of life, and will reopen next week following its closure earlier this year after almost three decades. James Douglas, co-founder of the Red’s True Barbecue chain, stepped in to acquire the lease and renovate the Merrion Centre venue. He said: “Fuji Hiro has […]
