Some counters are furniture. This one is a 200-year-old hinoki, brought over from Kyoto, and it is the only thing between you and the chef. Endo Kazutoshi has moved into a Chelsea townhouse with a famous past, and the first rule of the new room is that nobody gets to see a menu.
A third-generation sushi master, a new chapter
Endo is a third-generation sushi master, and his previous London address was Endo at the Rotunda in White City, where the Red Mullet Sandwich was on the menu. The Chelsea restaurant is billed as the next chapter in his story, and he has tied it to his roots and to the idea of kintsugi. His grandfather opened a restaurant in Yokohama in the 1920s and early 1930s, and that Japan is the reference for the design. The architect is Javier Villar, and Creative Restaurant Group, also behind SUMI and Kioku, is a named partner.
The room and the counter
ENDO occupies the ground floor of the townhouse on Blacklands Terrace that was most recently The Five Fields. The counter is the point: a long run of that 200-year-old hinoki with a raised lacquered ledge for serving, and an open kitchen and robata grill behind it. In published photographs the room is dark and amber, with the pale counter the brightest thing in it.
It suits one person at the counter, or two who would rather be quiet. It does not suit anyone who wants to read a menu: it is omakase only, with no printed list, and dishes are explained as they arrive. The chef has described the aim as surprise and delight.
What arrives
The fish is caught wild in British and Irish waters, mostly through Endo's own fishermen on the west coast. Everything else is chosen with equal care: wasabi from Mochizuki in Shizuoka, grown for three years, nori from Hayashiya at Toyosu Market, harvested in winter, and a dashi built from katsuobushi from a historic Kyoto producer and kombu from a Kobe specialist. The point of omakase is that you do not know what comes next, so expect sushi decided on the night and the chef's say over the pacing.
Rice, nori, wasabi and soy arrive from Japan while the fish stays local, so the counter becomes a conversation between the British coast and Japanese suppliers, with the chef translating.
The honest hedge is getting in. Reports say the restaurant's seats were booked into 2027, with a new booking round to come and a waitlist on the website. Plan early.
Moga, upstairs
The listening bar on the first floor is called Moga, after Japan's modern girls. Its ceiling is a wave of masu, the square wooden sake cups, and custom speakers by Taguchi play Endo's own vinyl, with records chosen alongside Ken Sakamoto of Comme des Garçons. A small private drinking den is decorated with bespoke works by Japanese illustrators.
Drinks are tea-led, developed with Postcard Teas, with a menu that draws on the chef's travels through Paris, Madrid, Milan, Hong Kong and Tokyo. The food is handmade soba, a Japanese-inflected cocido madrileño and the Red Mullet Sandwich, back from the Rotunda. At first Moga is for ENDO diners only. From December it takes its own bookings, and it reads less like a quick-drink bar than a second evening in itself: soba, records, tea and a long conversation about all three.
Reserve the counter, then take the stairs. The evening ends with records and tea.
- The vibe
- Low, golden and hushed; a hinoki counter and a chef you can almost touch.
- The food
- Omakase only, with sushi decided on the night and no printed menu.
- The drink
- Tea-led cocktails at Moga, developed with Postcard Teas.
- A tip
- Book ahead; Moga takes its own bookings from December.
