Michelin-starred Sushi Kimura to close over rent and manpower issues

AS THE casualties in the fine-dining industry continue to mount, the one-Michelin-starred Sushi Kimura has announced that it will close its doors at Palais Renaissance in November, ahead of the expiry of its lease in December.

High rental and manpower costs are the main reasons for the closure, says chef-owner Tomoo Kimura, who opened the place at the end of 2016. It earned its Michelin star in 2018.

Kimura opened the place with restaurateur Karen Cheng – co-owner of Japanese restaurants Ichigo Ichie and Gyu Bar – as a partner.

Cheng says: “On the macro level, the F&B industry is going through a lot of changes due to rising competition, costs and a weakened economy in a saturated landscape.” She adds that the increased outbound travel to Japan has also dampened business.

Sushi Kimura had been “fortunate” to be able to sustain the business, but as the lease is ending, “we felt it was the right opportunity to regroup and adapt our business model”.

Kimura adds that while business has been erratic, with some months racking up losses and other months turning a small profit, the restaurant has been able to get by. He estimates that it would have been able to sustain itself for another year, but “I’m not sure about two or three years from now”.

Besides high rentals, the hiring of Japanese staff has become near impossible because of the strict quotas on hiring foreign manpower, and also because the qualifying salary for a Japanese chef’s work visa is over S$10,000 a month, he says. 

Part of the problem lies in keeping the Singaporean staff required to fill the quota needed for hiring work permit and S-Pass holders, he adds. Local staff tend to command high salaries, but quit when they find a better-paying job elsewhere. It is an issue echoed by exasperated restaurant owners who deal with the work attitudes of Singaporean service employees, and the competition posed by hotels which offer better pay and benefits.

The exorbitant costs of hiring a chef from Japan will have an impact on sushi and other Japanese restaurants here, says Kimura, who believes they will increasingly be replaced by local chefs. The sushi restaurant business is oversaturated, and such restaurants are likely to close, especially the bigger ones.

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With the closure of Sushi Kimura, he will part ways with Cheng and open his own, smaller restaurant. After November, his immediate plans are to continue undertaking collaborations and consultancy work while looking for the right space for his new concept, which he says “will help me survive in Singapore”.

He declines to share details, but hopes to work with a hotel so he can tap its manpower to ease staffing constraints.

Besides his main sushi restaurant, Kimura also opened Shin Yasuke, a small sushi place in River Valley with a lower price point in 2022. It did well in its first year, but “business suddenly dropped because many new super-casual restaurants opened, so it became too tough for mid-range sushi restaurants to survive”. It closed down in July.

He concedes that challenges remain even as he embarks on his next project. While he is sad to shutter the restaurant and invariably the star that goes with it, he is sanguine about the impact of that star.

“It is an honour, but there is no point (to it) in my business.”