Kibako, billed as a ‘modern Japanese restaurant’ featuring presentation boxes of exquisite small dishes, opened this week in Windmill Street, Fitzrovia. Taking over the site formerly occupied by Rai, Kibako is from the team behind Hot Stone in Islington’s Chapel Market, highly praised in the 2023 Harden’s Guide for its “high-quality Kobe beef, sushi and […]
Ace Aussie chef Scott Hallsworth is reviving his raved-about Freak Scene pan-Asian restaurant once again – this time off Parson’s Green in Fulham. The new venture follows his Double Dragon pop-up, which ran for several months last year in Clerkenwell and also generated much enthusiasm. Freak Scene itself started out as a pop-up in Farringdon, and […]
Next week sees the arrival of crystal sushi in London, with the opening of a new City restaurant from Hong Kong’s Aqua group. Shiro, in Broadgate Circle near Liverpool Street, will be the group’s fifth restaurant in London, following Aqua Shard and Hutong in the Shard, and Nueva and Kyoto on Regent Street. Crystal sushi, […]
Luke Findlay is launching a second branch of his ‘traditionally inauthentic’ ramen concept Supa Ya today, in Peckham’s Rye Lane. The former Berber & Q head chef developed the idea as a supper club in his Hackney flat, mixing Japanese ramen with classic British and European flavours, before road-testing it as a pop-up and opening […]
A new upmarket Japanese restaurant has opened in the middle of Newcastle, following a £600,000 refurbishment. Butakun, which means ‘Master Pig’, is next door to the landmark Hotspur pub on Percy Street – and is Tyneside’s second Japanese opening in a matter of weeks following Miso in Ouseburn. Robert Lao, Chin Teow and Charles Tang (left to […]
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 […]
An ambitious new restaurant combining Japanese izakaya-style dining with low-intervention wines and their equivalent unfiltered nigori (cloudy) sake has opened in Embassy Gardens, the development adjacent to the new US Embassy in Nine Elms which has transformed the area between Battersea and Vauxhall. Evernight is the first restaurant from Singaporean chef Lynus Lim, formerly of […]
Koyn, a contemporary take on the traditional Japanese izakaya will be the fifth opening in Samyukta Nair’s (pictured, above) collection of Mayfair restaurants when it opens on Wednesday 21 September in the former US Embassy building in Grosvenor Square. The kitchen will be run by executive chef Rhys Cattermoul, a New Zealander formerly of Nobu […]
Manga fans will be able to feast in a manga-themed restaurant on a mashup of popular Japanese and pan-Asian dishes when it opens in Marylebone next week. Manga Banga in Lisson Grove is a concept from Guy Holmes, managing director of Captivate Hospitality, a restaurant branding and marketing agency. Based on the idea of the […]
An upmarket Japanese restaurant named Kitten will open at ground level this month in Manchester’s high-rise Deansgate Square development. It will hope to attract customers from the 1,500 new apartments in the square’s four residential skyscrapers – including Britain’s tallest tower outside London. Kitten’s interior is pretty tall itself, featuring eight-metre-high ceilings and a five-metre indoor […]
