Les Amis Group ties up with Michelin-starred Tokyo sushi eatery to open Singapore outpost

RESERVATIONS in Tokyo sushi restaurants are getting notoriously harder to get now. But fans of the one-Michelin-starred Sushi Ryujiro will have four days of chef Ryujiro Nakamura personally shaping their nigiri right here in Singapore when his first overseas outpost opens on Apr 29.

The venture is a collaboration with the Les Amis Group, and Sushi Ryujiro Singapore will take over the former Aoki restaurant in Shaw Centre, which closed on Dec 31 in 2023 after the group parted ways with chef-owner Kunio Aoki, ending a 20-year partnership. Aoki is expected to open a new restaurant sometime this year.

Chef Nakamura, who opened his namesake restaurant in 2019, had planned to open an overseas restaurant when the time was right, says Michele Chang, Les Amis Group’s head of marketing and communications. “One of our shareholders had dined at Sushi Ryujiro Tokyo before, and when the space became available, the group reached out to Chef Nakamura for a potential partnership. This took place about seven or eight months ago.”