Michelin-starred Yamazato Restaurant Reopens at Hotel Okura Amsterdam

World famous Tokyo-based architects firm KKS designed the new interior for this Michelin star restaurant. And very much in line with Japanese customs has given an even more prominent role to the restaurant's sushi bar. The renovation also included the kitchen and the adjoining reception lounge.

Yamazato Restaurant

Typical Japanese design

Guests dining in this new revamped interior will feel more than ever that they really are in Japan. That feeling begins as soon as they walk in the door and enter the restaurant via the lounge and the enclosed Japanese pebble garden. To create this truly authentic feel, most of the materials architect Tomoko Koyanagi used in her design are typically Japanese, like washi, a type of hand-made paper found in many Japanese interiors. The showpiece of the revamped restaurant is without doubt the sushi bar, with seating for eight guests. The sushi bar is made of hinoki wood, a light, aromatic and high-quality wood from Japan, and has been designed to strict Japanese standards. What this means is that there is no divider between guests and the sushi chef, and guests can now follow the chef's every move as he prepares their sushi.

KKS also designed the interior for Okura's other Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant Teppanyaki Restaurant Sazanka.

Yamazato and its Executive Chef

In 2002, Yamazato Restaurant was the first authentic Japanese restaurant in Europe to receive a Michelin star. Chef Tomikawa came to Amsterdam in 1984. Together with the founder of authentic Japanese cuisine in the Netherlands, Akira Oshima, he aimed to give the Dutch their first taste of Japanese haute cuisine in their home country. In 2002, he returned to Japan to gain even more knowledge of Japanese cuisine and to monitor culinary developments in Japan itself. In 2005, Chef Tomikawa returned to the Amsterdam Yamazato Restaurant. Then in 2010 he was appointed Executive Chef of both the authentic Japanese Yamazato Restaurant and the Teppanyaki Restaurant Sazanka. In November 2014, Sazanka was also awarded its first Michelin star.