The sushi master Endo Kazutoshi is looking pensive. “I am 51 now and I finally know who I am,” he says in the private dining room at Kioku, his casual, “Japanese but a little Mediterranean” restaurant on the roof of Raffles London at The OWO. It’s an octagonal room at the far end of the terrace; windows point across London and within it guests might eat ramen ravioli or turbot with a smoked sabayon. Some critics — Giles Coren, at least — didn’t think much of the food. Endo doesn’t seem to mind.
“It’s okay. More people came; there was more interest. It was very early, we’re new, and these places take time. I’m happy to listen and I’m confident it will do well. Japanese food with a Western twist is different. It’s a journey”. But we are not meeting to talk about Kioku. The topic in question is The Rotunda, his one Michelin-star flagship restaurant on the eighth floor of the old Television Centre in White City. It launched in 2019 and rounds of reservations are announced on Instagram. Tables aren’t easily acquired: the place is reserved, near enough, until Christmas.
