Restaurant News is sponsored by The Kitchen Porters Club
The team behind Maki & Ramen is set to open Maki Nori in Soho this April, launching a new handroll-led concept designed to bring quality, speed and theatre together in a Japanese dining format. Opening on Old Compton Street on 3 April, the 60-cover restaurant marks the group’s latest evolution, with a model built around made-to-order sushi, premium ingredients and an experience-led approach tailored to London’s fast-paced dining scene.
Positioned around the idea of freshness above all, Maki Nori has been developed to offer a focused, high-quality handroll experience without the formality or price point often associated with premium sushi. At the centre of the concept is its ’15-second roll’ proposition, with sushi chefs slicing, rolling and presenting handrolls to order in seconds, ensuring each one is served and eaten at its freshest.
The restaurant has been designed to put that process front and centre. A 20-seat sushi counter will act as the core of the setting, giving guests a direct view of the chefs at work, while the wider restaurant will also feature tableside service elements, including a roaming sushi cart. Together, these formats are intended to create an interactive model that balances operational pace with a distinctive customer experience.
Ingredient quality sits at the heart of the Maki Nori offer. Seafood is sourced from leading fisheries, including scallops from Hikido in Japan, sea urchin from Japan, bluefin tuna from Spain and salmon from Scotland. The team will also dry-age fish on site, with a dedicated dry-age fridge positioned at the entrance to the restaurant as a visible marker of the kitchen’s craft-led approach. Hydroponically grown herbs, cultivated in the restaurant and used within the handrolls, will further reinforce the brand’s freshness credentials.
Maki Nori has been created to meet growing demand for experience-led dining that still delivers clear value. With an accessibly priced menu, a central Soho location and a format built around both counter dining and restaurant service, the concept is designed to appeal to a broad mix of diners, from dedicated sushi enthusiasts to those looking for a more engaging introduction to Japanese food culture. Reflecting this, the upstairs space takes on a more relaxed, playful energy, moving away from traditional sushi conventions. A curated soundtrack of low-beat Japanese hip-hop runs throughout, shaping the atmosphere and giving the restaurant a distinct cultural identity, where handrolls, music and social energy come together in a way that feels as influenced by nightlife as it is by tradition.
Teddy Lee, Founder of Maki & Ramen and Maki Nori, said: ‘My approach to Japanese food has always been rooted in discipline, precision and respect for ingredients, values that were shaped early in my career and deepened during my training in Tokyo. With Maki Nori, we wanted to create a concept that puts those principles into a format that feels focused, energetic and accessible: premium seafood, handrolls made to order, and an experience that lets guests see the craft up close. While Maki & Ramen introduced our broader take on Japanese comfort food, Maki Nori is much more specific in its focus, built around freshness, speed and the theatre of handroll dining in the heart of Soho.’
The opening marks a strategic next step for the team behind Maki & Ramen, whose existing restaurants have built a following through a relaxed, modern approach to Japanese dining. With Maki Nori, the group is introducing a more tightly defined concept focused specifically on handrolls, combining premium seafood, operational simplicity and strong experiential hooks in a format designed for one of London’s most competitive restaurant markets.
Restaurant News is sponsored by The Kitchen Porters Club
