Japanese eateries go head to head
Two Japanese restaurants open in London soon, positioning themselves as rivals to celebrity haunt Nobu.
Sumosan opens in Mayfair on 28 May. The 130-seat restaurant will include a 32-seat basement bar. Owners, the Wolkow family, are German nationals who run four restaurants in Moscow.
The executive chef is Bubker Behlit, who has held the same position at the Sumosan restaurant in the Radisson-Slavjanskaya hotel in Moscow since it opened in 1997.
The London restaurant will employ eight sushi chefs and two teppan chefs. Diners can expect to pay £30 at lunch and about £50 per head in the evening.
Zuma opens on 23 May in Knightsbridge. The restaurant is owned by Rainer Becker and two other private investors. Becker owns five restaurants in Tokyo, including Kozue and the New York Bar & Grill in the Park Hyatt hotel.
Zuma has various dining areas designed around a Japanese garden, including a charcoal grill, two sunken-seated dining rooms, and a total capacity for about 135 people. Lunch will cost from £10 and dinner is about £40 a head.
The restaurant employs 30 staff. Hiroki Takemura, formerly of Nobu, is the head chef.
The site was formerly the Chicago Rib Shack, whose lease has expired. It has undergone a £1.5m refurbishment.
by Ben Walker
