Endo Kazutoshi and Christian Onia on omakase dining: ‘I'm worried about it’

‘It was kind of destiny for me. To be honest, I had no choice.’ 

We’ve just asked Endo Kazutoshi, the insanely talented chef behind Michelin-starred Endo at the Rotunda, whether a career as a sushi chef was written in the stars for him. On paper, this seems like a natural path. His father started training as a sushi chef at the age of 15 years old. His grandfather was eight when he first started learning the craft. And growing up in his family's sushi restaurant just south of Tokyo meant that young Endo, quite literally, lived and breathed the lifestyle. Still, it’s nice to hear it from the horse's mouth. Endo’s childhood provided the perfect conditions for him to become a first-rate, third-generation successor for his family's restaurant. That’s why it was a bit of a shock when he announced he wasn’t going to take over the business.

'My parents were not happy. Not happy. Especially since my mum had educated me about being a sushi chef since I was eight years old. They really weren’t happy that I wasn't going to take over the family business.’ 

Instead, he earned himself a masters, before landing a chef role at a Tokyo omakase restaurant, his first experience of the Japanese dining style that would one day score him a Michelin star. It was here, as he started to hone his skills and immerse himself fully in the world of sushi, that his dream of being a specialist crystalized. After a couple more stints working at Japanese restaurants in Tokyo and, shortly, Madrid, he received a call from the owner (Rainer Becker) of high-end Japanese restaurant Zuma, asking him to come and work as the head chef at his Knightsbridge restaurant in London. The opportunity didn’t appeal. 

‘I wasn’t really interested in coming to London before’, Endo explains. But Becker bought him a plane ticket and he decided to make the trip. They met, they talked and the battle was won (by Becker). Endo moved to London, a decision that would change his entire career, and the face of sushi restaurants in the capital, forever. In the years that followed, Endo went on to oversee eight branches of Zuma across the globe, including in the place he now calls home: New York.  

‘At first, I was just thinking about staying for two years. But I worked with him for eight years. It's quite long’, he muses.

'It was weird. No words. Seriously, no words.’ 

But there was something missing for Endo. A voice was calling in the back of his mind to return to his omakase roots. ‘It’s my expertise. It’s my dream’, as he puts it. Endo left Zuma in 2015 to pursue his dream of opening his own omakase restaurant, although as someone who prides himself on becoming a true master of his trade, it didn't happen overnight. He spent the next four years studying, practicing and building up a network of trusted suppliers until he felt ready to open the doors to Endo at the Rotunda. It was met with ferocious praise, and in less than a year he’d already achieved what most chefs spend their lifetime working for - a Michelin star. We ask Endo to tell us about the day he got the news. 

‘I don’t ever cry in front of people’, he begins. Spoiler alert: he did. ‘It happened only five and a half months after we opened [Rotunda]. Michelin gave us the news at the last minute. Ah, it was weird. No words. Seriously, no words. The day after, I called all my suppliers and everybody was crying! Every year, on the 7th of October I always remind our staff. I’m really happy to share it with my guests, staff, suppliers and everyone.’ 

When Endo originally opened at the Rotunda, there were hardly any omakase restaurants in London. Now, they're popping up left right and centre. What are the chef's thoughts on the trend?  

‘It's crazy now. Every month, sushi restaurants serving omakase open everywhere. I really need to be worried about it. There are a lot of good things about it, but I just worry.’

It’s not for the reasons you might think though. Endo has spent his entire life perfecting his craft, proving his loyalty to the art of sushi making and ensuring he's representing it in the best way he can. Omakase, for him, is not a fad but a way of life, and he speaks about it as such. 

‘I'm happy that a lot of omakase restaurants are opening in London. That’s great. Amazing. But I don't know, I don't want it to just be a trend. I don't want people to just open restaurant after restaurant, then after the interest is over that’s it. It’s quite a serious lesson and I try to do my best. I don’t want my sushi to be catchy, not just something that looks good on the plate. I make honest, simple food. That’s really important to me.’ 

Beautiful sushi at SUMI

The amount of time and energy that goes into omakase dining isn’t to be taken lightly. Christian Onia, the head chef at Endo’s most recent restaurant SUMI, explains what it’s like on the flip side of the pass. 

‘You need to be consistent. With omakase you have 10 seats, and it’s really intense because you cannot make a mistake. The energy you need from the time the guests sit down until they leave is a lot. You need to create the ambience for them because they come in and they pass everything over to you, right? They don’t know about the menu; they’re just expecting something amazing. 

'Omakase, to pull it off like Endo-San's doing, is really hard. You might not be doing 100 covers or 200 covers, but it’s more draining because you are the show. People come for your service, for your food and for your ambience. It’s you driving everything. So, yeah, it’s really intense.’ 

'It’s draining because you are the show. People come for your service, for your food and for your ambience. It’s you driving everything.’

Is that why Endo’s latest restaurant SUMI in Notting Hill foregoes omakase dining for an a la carte menu? Well, no, not exactly. ‘It’s because Rotunda is always full!’, Endo cries, only half joking. The more serious reason is that he felt there was a gap in the market in London.  

‘I live in New York where there are a lot of different types of new openings. Sometimes high-end, sometimes very cheap and some in the middle. But in London, everything is the same! Expensive omakase restaurants. So, that’s why my partner and I thought maybe we need to focus on a neighbourhood restaurant, that’s more relaxed. Something a bit more everyday where you can bring the kids, enjoy the food, but that’s still Japanese. That was my first thought.’ 

Endo is very quick to point out that relaxed doesn’t mean casual. Obviously, we’re in Notting Hill, one of London’s most affluent neighbourhoods which is fast becoming a breeding ground for some of London’s hottest new openings and high-profile restaurants. Not to mention the pressure that comes with living in close quarters to so many successful neighbourhood gems - Dorian, Orasay and The Princess Royal, for example. So, yes, SUMI is more relaxed than Rotunda in that guests can choose what they want to eat on the menu, but true to form, its commitment to quality is second to none and nowhere is that clearer than in its ingredients.  

‘If it’s not good, we’re not going to use it’, Christian explains. ‘If the protein is not good, it’s going to be taken off the menu. If the fish market is closed, we are closed. And that alone is a very big part of the quality we offer.

‘We never use frozen fish which, for a restaurant in London, is a very bold move. We are proud of that.’ 

Throughout our chat, both chefs keep circling back to the word ‘honest’ to describe their food, which boils down to exactly what you would imagine: simple food, cooked without unnecessary embellishments, and only using the best ingredients.  

Endo explains: ‘In the beginning, many people would ask me why my menus are so short. And of course, that’s honest food. If you have a lot of types of fish on the menu, that means you have to use a frozen product. But we don't need it. [Our menus] might be super simple, but the flavour is the best.’ 

Christian concurs: 'In here, it’s very simple. We don’t do toppings and everything is just with soy sauce. Just rice, wasabi and fish. I think you don’t need anything else if you get those three things right.’ 

It sounds simple, and in many ways it is, but like many restaurants that opened during the pandemic, the road to success hasn’t always been so straightforward. In fact, when it initially opened, the restaurant was unable to serve anyone inside its beautiful, wood-panelled walls at all. SUMI started out life as a takeaway business, serving a trio of boxes to lucky Westbourne Grove locals. Endo's enterprising mind and ability to adapt came in handy. As a way to support his suppliers, he decided to buy up their fish stocks at a time when prices were low and they were struggling to sell while restaurants were closed. Endo and his team distributed 2,500 bento boxes to NHS hospitals during that time, taking care of every step of the process. 

'With our bento boxes, my wife was driving! We were delivering them ourselves. Many were using a delivery company, but that didn’t make sense for us. We had to do something as chefs.' 

A calming oasis of pale wood and beige hues

This is Endo through and through: caring, hard-working and steadfast to his craft. Now, SUMI is fully booked for lunch and dinner every day of the week, and has already expanded to include room for an additional 20 covers within the first year of opening. We’re sitting in the new space today, which is a calming oasis of pale wood and beige hues. So, what’s next on the horizon? 

‘At the moment we want to focus on us and delivering on expectation.’ explains Christian. ‘Expansion is easy, you know? We want to make sure that we're doing things at the right time and we’re not rushing things.

‘A lot of restaurants open two or three branches in about two years, but the quality goes down and the numbers go up. So, for us, SUMI is not going in this direction.’   

‘Of course, we have ideas for the future’, Endo adds. ‘But at the moment, we have to concentrate on our current situation - for the guests.’ 

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