THE sushi master Endo Kazutoshi is looking pensive. "I am 51 now and I finally know who I am," he says in the private dining room at Kioku, his casual, "Japanese but a little Mediterranean" restaurant on the roof of Raffles London at The OWO. It's an octagonal room at the far end of the terrace; windows point across London and within it guests might eat ramen ravioli or turbot with a smoked sabayon.
Some critics Giles Coren, at least didn't think much of the food. Endo doesn't seem to mind.
"It's okay. More people came; there was more interest. It was very early, we're new, and these places take time.
I'm happy to listen and I'm confident it will do well. Japanese food with a Western twist is different. It's a journey". But we are not meeting to talk about Kioku.
The topic in question is The Rotunda, his one Michelin-star flagship restaurant on the eighth floor of the old Television Centre in White City. It launched in 2019 and is only bookable by Instagram. Tables aren't easily acquired: the place is reserved, near enough, until Christmas.
It closed for refurbishment earlier this year and is to reopen later this month, on September 17. There will be just 10 seats and an 18-course omakase menu, the only option, at £275-per-head. It has been redesigned, reworked, while Endo has looked back 100 years or more to the sushi crafted by his father and grandfather as well as past tutors in Japan in an attempt to take his concept further. In short, he looked back to move forward. If you do bag a booking, don't start taking pictures. Endo is strict.
"No phones, we will say," Endo asserts. "Omakase is theatre; this is not just a restaurant. We make stories together. There's no need for mobile phones.
Before we begin, we will announce it: no photos. It's better if people aren't on their phones." Anything else? "We will ask guests to take off any big jewellery.
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