#hand-roll-bar

#hand-roll-bar

Sakesan, though not at all stuffy or fancy, still works if you want to iron something and run some product through your hair.

Endo Kazutoshi was on the train to Paris when he heard about the fire that had destroyed his restaurant, Endo at the Rotunda, located on the eighth floor of the Helios building. The fire had started on a terrace and quickly spread, affecting the dining room and kitchen, built mostly from 200-year-old hinoki wood.

Sushi Amamoto debuted in the Michelin guide with two stars in 2019, rumored to be due to inspectors being unable to get a table before then.

Katsumi has transformed into a vibrant destination with plum velvet couches and pink neon, appealing to a trendy crowd, especially on weekends with DJs and cocktails.

CeCe's is pure old-school glamour, bedecked with copper panelling, green velvet banquettes, palms, orb lighting, table lamps, an impressive central bar, and mirrors absolutely everywhere.

Tenon Vegan Sushi at 329 Flatbush Avenue dishes out an entirely plant-based menu of Japanese rolls and Thai bites, featuring inventive proteins that mimic chicken, duck, and beef.

"We were able to make friends and memories that we couldn't even imagine when we first immigrated here," the owners Ikuko Miura and Paul wrote on a notice on the door.

Sushi Easy was opened by former employees of We Be, so the spirit lives on. They've dolled up the place, too, adding whimsical wall décor of nigiri and sashimi so that visions of fresh fish dance above your head.

Hiroshi Hiraoka, one of the most respected ramen chefs in Japan and the chef-owner behind Sapporo's Japanese Ramen Noodle Lab Q, is heading to New York City this month for a series of limited-time pop-ups at two Manhattan restaurants. The events will bring his refined "tanrei" style ramen, rarely experienced outside Japan, to diners at Towa in Flatiron and nonono in NoMad.

All the restaurants in the Bay Area serve the same items, pretty much. So we just added some fusion items, and then just wanted to be different from other people.

Living in Japan in the early 2000s, Fralick fell in love with an Italian restaurant in the city of Shizuoka, where he ate Italian food, but with Japanese influences, like pastas made with uni and the fermented soybeans known as natto. "It really reminded me of home," says Fralick, who grew up in upstate New York and started his cooking career in Italian fine dining.

Domo Hospitality Group is crossing the East River and planting a flag in Williamsburg, bringing Konya by Konban, a compact hand‑roll and izakaya concept, to a busy stretch of Kent Avenue. The new spot is set to take over a 1,850‑square‑foot ground‑floor storefront at 235 Kent Avenue, under a 10‑year lease, and will include a small outdoor patio. It will be Domo's sixth New York City location and its first in Brooklyn.

The caviar, uni, and egg dish has been in Akiyama's repertoire since he worked at the now-closed NYC restaurant Lan. It's presented as a rich chawanmushi, topped with generous uni and caviar. The nigiri course comes with three pieces, including the aori aka, in which the bigfin reed squid is chopped and intricately layered; the texture was far creamier than I ever expected squid to be.

Some chefs pride themselves on blurring the lines between food and art. For Executive Chef Andrew Oh, Momoya SoHo has become revered for putting beauty on plates, such is the case for the restaurant's beautiful wine glass parfaits. However, Oh is known for sushi creations that are equally impressive. We asked the chef for tips on sushi-making (known as one of the most difficult culinary techniques to master) so that our next batch of caterpillar rolls look more professional than problematic.

That said, there's an excellent alternative to lengthy pro-level sushi creation: A no-roll version called inari, or commonly, inarizushi. It's named after the Shinto deity Inari Okami, the god of rice, agriculture, and prosperity. Traditional inari bypasses the usual seaweed and raw fish, opting instead for seasoned sushi rice tucked inside a sweet and savory "aburaage" pouch made from fried tofu.

That was Temaki, a small counter spot inside Brixton Village that we loved for its great quality and great value temaki sets. Owner A.M Dupee, who is relocating the restaurant to a larger central London site this March, sees the "huge potential in the growth of handrolls in the UK", saying that "handroll bars give operators the ability to give customers the balance of high quality produce in a convivial atmosphere without the price tag of an expensive sushi or omakase meal."

Pizza toast is a throwback snack popularized in Japan's classic kissaten coffee shops. The first kissaten to serve pizza toast - milk bread topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella and pizza toppings, toasted until the cheese is melted and bubbling - is reportedly Cafe Benisica in Tokyo, in 1964, which is still operating. The key to this version is to first make toasty garlic bread, and I use marinara instead of the yoshoku ("Western-style food") tradition of making a ketchup-based tomato sauce.

When it opened in 2021, Brixton Market's Temaki quickly became a hit with the city's sushi aficionados. The restaurant, which was London's first dedicated to handroll sushi, received a Time Out reviewer's praise for its 'triple whammy of expertise, exceptional produce and classy execution'. Alas, the south London Temaki wasn't to last. The California-style sushi joint shut its Brixton outpost last summer. Now, however, Temaki has announced a grand return to the city - this time in central London. A new location will open on Mayfair's Maddox Street

Tse was not raised cooking Japanese food and, in preparation for opening The Azuki Room, travelled to Tokyo to train at the Japan Culinary Institute. He told me a bit about this process, but where his resilience has really been tested is in London. The Azuki Room was due to open in 2025 but suffered a series of unfortunate events: the site was occupied by squatters, the premises were damaged, stock and equipment were stolen, and the specialist sake Tse bought in Japan was consumed.

The restaurant group behind Goodman, Beast, Pinna, Chelsea Grill and Wild Tavern, has added a Japanese izakaya to its roster with the opening of Wild Izakaya in the City. Inspired by the establishments found all over Tokyo, Wild Izakaya features an open kitchen with counter seating, larger tables for groups, classic Japanese films on a projector, and a drinks list including Japanese beers, sake and cocktails.

New York's pop-up pizza calendar just got a serious international upgrade. From February 24 through February 28, cult-favorite Tokyo pizzeria Seirinkan will temporarily swap Shibuya for the Bowery, taking over the kitchen at modern Japanese restaurant Sake No Hana for a five-night residency that blends neo-Neapolitan pizza with Lower Manhattan energy. If you're deep in the pizza rabbit hole, the name Susumu Kakinuma probably rings a bell.