Kanada-Ya team to launch Machiya Japanese restaurant

By Sophie Witts

- Last updated on GMT

Machiya London restaurant to open from Kanada-Ya team

Related tags Japanese cuisine Japan

The team behind ramen group Kanada-Ya are to launch a new London restaurant focusing on traditional Japanese home cooking.

Machiya – named for a style of wooden Japanese townhouse – will launch two doors down from Kanada-Ya’s Piccadilly Circus site in mid-April.

It is the brainchild of Tony Lam and Aaron Burgess-Smith, who brought Kanada-Ya to London in 2014.

“When this site came up we thought we would try something a bit different,” Lam told BigHospitality.

“We have always thought that London is missing out on traditional, affordable Japanese home cooking that you can eat every day, and that doesn’t cost £50-£60 a head.”

Authentic menu

Machiya’s menu will focus on three elements, including gyudon, thinly-sliced marinated beef served with Japanese rice that Lam says is something ‘everyone in Japan will eat once a week’.

There will also be thick deep-fried pork cutlets with tonkatsu sauce, rice and cabbage; and a ‘next level’ Japanese curry that Lam hopes will give London’s Japanese chain restaurants a run for their money.

Desserts will include matcha roll cake, while a 20-cover downstairs bar will serve six house cocktails with a ‘Japanese twist’.

The 23-cover restaurant will be priced slightly higher than Kanada-Ya, at around £16-£25 a head including drinks, and offer full table service.

Future expansion

Lam and Burgess-Smith are keen to roll-out Machiya to the City and across London if it is successful.

There are also plans to expand the Kanada-Ya ramen brand in the UK following the launch of a second site in Hong Kong later this year.

“We are still looking for a third Kanada-Ya site in London so I think we will definitely open one more, if not two, and keep expanding in London and beyond,” says Lam.

Machiya will open on Panton Street on 18 April.

Related topics Restaurant Openings Fine Dining

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