TOP Japanese restaurant Sushi Kou is set to close on Mar 31 amid a spate of resignations, with most of its current team including its head chef leaving to open a new restaurant with a different investor. It is one of several fine dining closures since the start of the year, including Casa by Remy Lefebvre at Chijmes, and gastro-lounge 1-Altitude - which is closing after 12 years at Raffles Place.

Once the talk of the town with its super expensive (at the time) sushi omakase, Sushi Kou opened at the end of the circuit breaker in 2020 and required bookings up to a year in advance because of its popularity. Last week, it sent out a notice to its customers to cancel all reservations made for after March. The restaurant was uncontactable for comment but it had posted a job notice on its Instagram account to recruit sushi chefs and service staff as recently as Feb 9.

Little is known about the ownership of Sushi Kou, which is registered under a Japanese food import company Edo Sushi Pte Ltd. Previous reports have quoted its founder Aimi Shibuya, who left Singapore for Dubai in March 2021 and is no longer associated with the restaurant.

Before she left, there had been plans to open 2 more Sushi Kou outlets, as well as a Joel Robuchon cafe concept in Singapore. None materialised, however, and chefs who had originally been hired for the new outlets have also left. One of them, Taiga Kanekuni, subsequently took over a space at the Regent Singapore which was meant to house the second Sushi Kou outlet. He now runs his eponymous Taiga Dining in partnership with Shawn Ching, Shawn Ching, executive director of Oxley Holdings, who is making his debut in the F&B business.

BT understands that current head chef Yoshio Sakuta and most of the remaining chefs and service staff are in talks to open a new sushi restaurant together with a new investor - the Singaporean distributor of an ultra high end watch brand.

Apart from Sushi Kou, Casa by Remy Lefebvre had barely opened for 6 months when it closed down abruptly on Dec 31 last year due to disagreements between the restaurant's owners and the head chef Remy Lefebvre.

A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU

Friday, 2 pm

Lifestyle

Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself.

Sign Up

Although business had been slow-going due to Covid-19 curbs restricting dining-in to 2 persons a table with no music allowed, revenue started to pick up in December and was looking very promising, said Alejandro Blanco, managing director of Plan B ventures. The group also owns Mexican restaurants Senor Taco and La Mexicana Market.

He added that the management had been in discussions with Lefebvre over staff complaints about him as well as the menu and operational changes but instead, the chef tendered his resignation.

"He did offer to stay until we could find a suitable replacement but given all the issues surrounding his resignation, it wasn't possible for Plan B to continue to work with him," said Blanco. "The closure was very unfortunate and unexpected for everyone."

However, Lefebvre denied the circumstances around his resignation, and said that he had filed a claim with the manpower ministry for wrongful dismissal. Blanco added that the case is ongoing, and in the meantime, Plan B still holds the lease for Casa's premises at Chijmes, which will reopen as a new concept.

The group has partnered with AC Concepts, run by Spanish chef Jose Alonso, to open a new restaurant called Lumbre in April. Alonso was the original chef of Binomio, and now runs his own eateries including the casual Spanish eatery Kulto in Amoy Street and Kilo in Duxton.

Lumbre means fire, and the new restaurant will focus on meat, seafood and vegetables cooked in direct fire.

In the meantime, 1-Altitude is also set to close on Mar 31 when the lease on its current premises expires. The restaurant is owned by the 1-Group, which runs restaurants including 1-Atico and Monti, and is in the midst of rolling out its new multi-concept 1-Arden project at the new CapitaSpring.