Every bite was better than the next. Finally a proper omakase experience in London. Attentive staff, great quality sushi. Deserves every one of its three Michelin stars.
Always on the hunt for good sushi (and especially in London), The Araki fell on my radar sometime late last year. When I was looking into it, it definitely wasn’t cheap, but considering it has two Michelin stars (and it skipped there without even getting one!), it must be something amazing, right? So I mentioned it to some friends, and they really wanted to come along. Unfortunately, one of them had recently become pregnant, so my original plan of going for my birthday this year fell by the wayside as she was VERY interested, and wouldn’t be able to go until later in the year. (Luckily, I filled my birthday sushi quota with a booking at Umu instead.)
There are very few restaurant openings in London which excite me. The restaurant trends seem to be gravitating towards casual/ small plates concept rather than serious high-end, haute cuisine. If a big name chef is involved in a restaurant’s opening, then this is usually with a more junior chef doing the cooking (e.g. Celeste) or simply on a consultancy base (e.g. Tokimeite). As such when I heard that Mitsuhiro Araki had decided to close his sushi-ya in Tokyo and open up in London I initially received it with plenty of scepticism. Would he be cooking here for a short period of time, train up a more junior chef before heading back to Japan? Nearly a year and half after opening, Araki-san is still in London, serving up his interpretation of Edo-mae sushi during every dinner service.
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