Shoryu Ramen founder Tak Tokumine is launching a high-end Japanese restaurant in Mayfair this year, M&C understands.
The restaurant, to be called Sakagura, will open in September with a strong focus on sake and wagyu, Tokumine told M&C.
The restaurant will be on the same level as Zuma and Nobu, and is a joint venture with Tokyo stock exchange listed sake brewers Gekkeikan, Tokumine said.
The Crown Estate site’s refurbishment will be designed by B3 architects, cost around £1m to execute, and will bring more Japanese authenticity to the London dining scene, he said.
Gekkeikan are also a minority shareholder of Shoryu, and Tokumine said together they would also be opening another sake-led Sakagura site in Paris.
The Paris site would also have a strong retail focus and the team had earmarked $500,000 for its re-fit, he said.
However, due to licensing limitations, only sashimi and sushi would be served from the Paris site, Tokumine said. “Paris is a bit more complicated.”
Tokumine also confirmed there will be three new Shoryu openings this summer; on Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch, at 35 Great Queen Street in Covent Garden and in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester.
Tokumine said he paid a premium for the Grade 2 listed building in Covent Garden and they were waiting for planning consent to be approved before they could begin planning alterations.
Meanwhile, a second Ichiryu restautant – the udon concept Tokumine launched last month on New Oxford St – would be launching in Brewer St in Soho, he said.
“We’re still negotiating, we haven’t had anything confirmed so I can’t say anything yet.
“If everything goes through we will possibly open in September.”
Ichiryu’s lunch trade had been building steadily, and overall the site was trading “just below, more or less, break-even,” he said.
Shoryu’s EBITDA for the past year was around £1.5 million and across the Shoryu portfolio LFLs were up 10%, Tokumine said.
“That is why we are opening three new restaurants before summer.”
The London-based Japanese restaurant group currently has Shoryu restaurants on Regent St, in Soho, in Carnaby, on Liverpool St, and operates its Shoryu Go concept on Air Street.
Tokumine also told M&C that he had just signed off on another Shoryu site in Oxford.
The site will open at the end of 2017 if work was completed on time, he said.
Negotiations were also underway for Shoryu sites in Brixton and Birmingham, he said
