Okku goes green

Dubai’s popular Japanese restaurant Okku will go green and attempt to follow an organic route, according to the brand’s founder.

Markus Thesleff, the man behind the Dubai brand, said that the outlet would take on a policy of ensuring the ingredients used on its menu are sustainable, with the aim of becoming 100% organic.

“Over the last six months we’ve totally removed Bluefin tuna from our menus,” cited Thesleff as an example of the outlet’s green approach.

“We did that before the whole public outcry came as we felt it was the right thing to do,” he added.

“We’re going to be doing everything we can to become as green as possible in the restaurant, including switching over to sustainable fishing methods only.”

Thesleff asserted that this would not affect the restaurant’s high standards, adding that Okku was now serving fish ingredients that come from sources of supply that “are not devastating the environment”.

“When we say sustainable fisheries, we’re not talking about fish farms; we’re talking about how the product is caught.”

Thesleff added that the outlet would also be “going organic” wherever possible.

“We’ve been trying to go organic for a while, but we just cannot get the sources to supply organic here,” he explained. “We can’t even get sufficient quantities of organic tofu here, so we have to make our own.”

The restaurant located in The Monarch Dubai recently unveiled a lunch menu and is in the process of changing its dinner menu.

“For us, it’s still a lot of fun,” remarked Thesleff. “We’re not there yet and we’ve still got a long way to go; we’re probably about half way towards where we want the concept to be.”