Over the past few years, entrepreneur and restaurateur Chris D’Sylva has put his stamp on Notting Hill. First there was the Notting Hill Fish & Meat Shop, which opened in 2019, followed by independent grocery store the Supermarket of Dreams in 2020. In 2022 came now-Michelin-starred bistro Dorian, then a couple of years later “sushi sauna” Eel Sushi. In between, D’Sylva and his team have run a series of evening residencies in the Supermarket of Dreams: first Urchin, a Japanese bistro, then Robin’s Ramen, which closed in May this year. Now, those two concepts will unite in Nakimushi, a new restaurant in a Notting Hill Gate townhouse led by the chefs behind Urchin and Robin’s Ramen.
Nakimushi opens in September, and will have two concepts set across three floors. On the ground floor, there will be a ramen bar. On the upper levels, the focus will be on “hot” Japanese cooking anchored by a ramen menu. Robin’s Ramen head chef Robin Kosuge (ex-Dominique Ansel Paris, Kouzu) and Urchin’s Yuji Shimokawa Kelly (ex-Umu, Dorian) will spearhead the new restaurant. “We wanted to create a space where people can enjoy our approach to Japanese cooking in two different ways under one roof,” said Shimokawa Kelly in a statement. Both spaces will draw on the group’s network of British producers and suppliers for ingredients.
The ramen bar will offer communal seating in front of an open kitchen, and dish up Kosuge’s signatures noodle soups, including lobster ramen and chashu pork belly ramen with Basque chicken broth and ajitama (soy egg). It’ll also offer a range of starters and snacks, including hogget skewers with yuzu kosho labneh and oregano, and pork and lobster gyoza with cauliflower and chilli oil.
Meanwhile, the upper-level restaurant and bar will also offer ramen, as well as dishes like grilled lobster chazuke – blue Welsh lobsters cooked over coals, then finished with a lobster and tomato oil – and aged black Holstein beef from Yorkshire that’s cooked on the robata grill and plated with artichoke sauce, beef jus, kimizu (a sauce of egg yolk and vinegar) and angel hair fries.
“It’s … an opportunity for our team to explore their own heritage, taking what we do further while continuing to work with the producers we trust,” said Kosuge in a statement.
Nakimushi opens in September at 17 Mall Chambers, Kensington Mall, W8 4DY.
