Little Japan has developed a serious core audience, but expansion has so far failed, no matter how hard they try. They haven't given up, their new restaurant has opened in Budapest.
Five years ago, Yoshito Hirose opened the first Little Japan restaurant on the corner of Üllői út and Nagykörút streets, under the uninviting arcades. The soft-spoken, smiling man, modest in his profession, had heard about Budapest from an acquaintance, and by then the idea of opening a Japanese restaurant somewhere in Europe had ripened. The recommendation was followed by a flight, and he was happy to note that Budapest was not yet full of Japanese restaurants, so he decided to give it a try.
“It’s so funny that they say ‘Little Japan,’” says the chef with a smile. Initially, Üllői út was smaller than 30 square metres, but they wanted to show the immense culinary know-how that Japan has to offer.
“At first, we attracted locals who were not familiar with Japanese cuisine and were afraid of raw seafood. That’s why we had the vegetable and grilled offering. The regular audience grew quickly, and now we can expand because of this,” says Yoshito.
The place has become famous not only because the chef and his team care about quality in an uncompromising way, but also because a piece of Japan comes to life in front of the guest when he enters the restaurant.
Japan is small, but a little bigger
Now they are preparing to open at another point on the street, near Vígszínház. Thanks to the regular audience, there is no need for advertising, they have chosen the so-called soft opening strategy.
“We didn’t tell anyone we were opening a new location. We had a guest walking down the street who noticed that preparations were underway, and more and more people were asking when we would open.”
However, this is not the first attempt by Little Japan to open a second restaurant. In the middle of the party area, on Kiraly Street, a unit was already opened in 2019, but it was closed in 2021 because the coronavirus brought tourism to zero, so it did not achieve the expected results. Last year, they wanted to open in Lille Square, but during the preparations, the store manager's visa expired and he had to leave the country, which put the project on hold.
The selection at Körút remains 60-70 percent the same as at Üllői út, the new thing is that seafood and à la carte dishes are now more prominent here.
By the way, seafood. In the name of authenticity, Yoshito first tried to import fish from Japan, but the logistics were complicated and the fish lost a lot of its freshness, so the dishes are brought to the plate from the Mediterranean. By the way, freshness is one of the main characteristics of the cuisine, not only of fish, but of any ingredient.
“Usually in sushi restaurants, the fish is ordered in bulk, one month in advance. We pay great attention to freshness, and order small quantities twice a week,” explains the chef. The same goes for the rice, which is stirred every 15 minutes and not allowed to clump.
Yoshita oversees the beginnings on the street, and the chefs rotate between the Üllői út unit and the new location in two-day shifts. By Yoshita’s own admission, he is very grateful that Hungarians are so kind and open to learning about Japanese food culture.
When we say sushi in Japan, we mean nigiri (a hand-shaped piece of fish placed on an oval rice base – Mr. Dr.), while in Hungary sushi lives in people's minds as that round roll,” he explains.
The owner of Kcsi Jápán restaurant was horrified when he saw Hungarians cutting nigiri in half with a knife, for example, or eating half of the rice dipped in soy sauce. While the former is problematic because nigiri loses its shape and tastes different, dipping it in soy sauce is because it is not added to the rice, but to the fish.
“We make the rice so that it melts in the guest’s mouth. If the guest dips it in soy sauce, the rice will fall apart before he eats it.”
For this reason, guests at Little Japan receive a small instruction manual on what, how and why it is worth consuming.
