Three Michelin-starred Japanese sushi chef Mitsuhiro Araki
(pictured right) will open a restaurant in London this autumn.
The chef is well known for his eponymous Tokyo restaurant Araki, which opened in 2002 and gained the three-star honour in 2011. It had just nine seats and was one of the city’s hardest restaurants
to get into, but chef Araki decided to close it permanently last year, with a move to London in mind.
The London restaurant will be called The Araki and will launch on Mayfair’s New Burlington Street, just off Regent Street. It will be the chef’s only restaurant and it is to offer just nine covers
at a bar-style dining counter, while a private dining room will seat a further six. The chef will personally serve customers across the sushi
counter and dining will be reservation-only.
Araki serves a traditional type of sushi known
as Edomae-sushi, which can often be sweeter and saltier than other sushi. His signature serves have included dishes comprising many different cuts of tuna, as well as sea urchin and grilled fish
skin. Freshness of fish is at the heart of the chef’s ethos, so it will be interesting to find out where and how he sources fish in London.
Araki told Square Meal, ‘London is an exciting place for eating and drinking and I am delighted to become a part of that. It’s a city that pulls together the best from everywhere and there’s
no reason why sushi in London can’t be as good or better than sushi in Japan.’
Clerkenwell’s Sushi Tetsu, which has only seven seats, is currently one of London’s most sought-after sushi
spots. With this addition to London's restaurant scene, perhaps small-scale sushi restaurants are something we'll be seeing a lot more of in future.
Published 28 July 2014