Overload of Japanese outlets in Dubai?

 Highlighting the regional trend for Japanese cuisine once again, London restaurant Nozomi has made its Middle East debut this month.

The restaurant, which offers a selection of modern Japanese food, opened its doors at the Habtoor Grand Hotel in Dubai Marina on December 1.

Nozomi founder Marios George said the outlet’s aim was to “re-introduce the much forgotten pleasures of dining, not just eating".

In an interview with Time Out Dubai last week, George explained that the restaurant would “mirror” the original in London.

“If you refer back to the London business, 90% of our clientele is international anyway, and neatly divided between Europe and the Middle East. What we do here will be a mirror of what we do in London.”

George went on to say he believed the Nozomi concept would still stand out from the crowd, despite the recent influx of high-quality Japanese restaurants into Dubai.

“We all do contemporary Japanese cuisine, and we all interpret it in a similar fashion. And a lot of chefs that work for me and the other companies have been in and out of the same kitchens,” he admitted.

“The real difference is that we don’t focus on food so much as the dining and lifestyle experience.

“People who dine at Nozomi make a big effort to dress correctly; they want to see like-minded people. Our restaurant has a club feel to it — it’s a night out. It’s not just about arriving for dinner, paying the bill and moving on to somewhere else.”

Commenting on whether such an ambience might already be present in any of Dubai’s other Japanese outlets, George said: “I’m not too confident to talk about Okku. I visited and wasn’t too impressed.

“Zuma I have respect for; it’s a major player.

“It’s curious to see how they’ve converted from being mainly a restaurant at the London location to becoming a half-restaurant, half-bar here in Dubai. I think they’ve taken a small leaf out of Nozomi’s book.”

Speaking to Caterer Middle East last month, Media One Hotel operations manager Sebastien Noat said he felt the regional trend for Japanese restaurants was symptomatic of Middle East operators’ ‘play it safe’ attitude when it came to new outlets.

“When you look at the biggest commercial successes at the moment, like Japanese restaurants, those restaurants are six or seven years old in the UK and have only just now made it into Dubai. They’re old news in Europe, but here they’re the talk of the town,” he pointed out.

“From a sophistication stand-point the region is right up there, but in terms of the food offerings we’re not on the same level as a lot of other capitals, the reason being that there is no risk-taking.

“People are not going avant garde; they seem to prefer to invest in things with a proven track record.

“If you look at the restaurant owners in San Francisco, or Sydney, people who are restaurateurs do that for their living, they do it for passion. They are dedicated to their concept, they live by it and believe in it.

“Maybe they’ll make a fortune out of it, maybe they won’t — but the idea is they change, they experiment, they try things out, they rework the concept. And in my view, that’s lacking in Dubai.”

For tips on how to successfully introduce a new F&B concept to the Middle East, see this month’s issue of Caterer Middle East.