KAIYŌ

Omakase · Marylebone, London

KAI YŌ

An omakase of ten seats.
One season at a time.

Two pieces of salmon nigiri arranged on a dark ceramic plate

一期一会 — one meeting, one chance

There is no menu at Kaiyō. There is only the morning's market, the season's brief argument, and a chef who listens to both.

Shun — the few weeks when an ingredient is most itself. We serve nothing outside of it.

A chef's hands carefully finishing a plate at a restaurant counter

The Counter

A single slab of hinoki.
Ten chairs. Nothing else.

The counter was cut from one cypress tree and finished by hand in Kyoto. It is sanded, never varnished. Each guest sits within arm's reach of the cutting board — close enough to hear the knife.

Two seatings each evening. Six o'clock and nine. The room holds no clock.

Seats
10
Courses
18
Hours
2

The Journey

Eighteen courses,
told in order.

The progression below is from a recent spring evening. Yours will differ. It should.

  1. Chawanmushi

    Warm egg custard, first of the snow crab.

  2. Hirame

    Flounder, aged three days, yuzu salt.

  3. Akami zuke

    Lean bluefin, marinated in soy for twenty minutes.

  4. Chū-toro

    Medium fat, torched on one side only.

  5. Kohada

    Gizzard shad, cured the old Edomae way.

  6. Uni, Hokkaido

    Bafun urchin, no nori, a breath of wasabi.

  7. Anago

    Sea eel, simmered soft, brushed with tsume.

  8. Tamago

    Sweet egg, prawn and yam. The chef's signature, and the end.

A chef at work in a dim kitchen, composing a dish with full attention

Itamae

Sato Kenji

Nineteen years at a three-seat counter in Kanazawa. Four more buying tuna at Toyosu before dawn. Chef Sato moved to London in 2021 and spent a year looking for the right room before he found this one.

“I do not invent. I subtract, until the fish is all that is left.”

— Sato Kenji

Sake

Four pours, chosen nightly.

Tonight's sake pairings
Sake Prefecture Served with
Dassai 23 Junmai Daiginjo Yamaguchi The white fish, early courses
Kokuryū Ishidaya Fukui Tuna, three ways
Tedorigawa Yamahai Junmai Ishikawa Uni and anago
Akishika Bambi, aged Osaka Tamago, the close

A non-alcoholic pairing of teas and infusions is offered with equal care.

Reservations open on the
first day of each month.

Ten seats, two seatings, thirty days at a time. The counter is £185 per guest, paid at booking. We hold two seats each night for those who write to us directly.

Request a seat

Seatings at 18:00 and 21:00 · Tuesday to Saturday · Dietary notes welcomed at booking, within reason — this is a fish counter.