Raw but well done

It is not the sort of joint where you can opt for something meaty if you don’t fancy fish. The Araki restaurant off Regent Street in London, which has just been awarded three Michelin stars, offers, in the omakase convention of Japanese sushi, only what the chef chooses: raw fish and rice. This costs £300 a head (drink extra). There is room for nine diners at a time. Since Edomae sushi derives from the instantly available food sold on stalls in the streets of Edo, a former name for Tokyo, 200 years ago, why the breathtaking price? The answer must surely be the chefs’ devotion to doing something simple superlatively well. For it to be worth the diners’ cash, they must at least be ready to learn what they are meant to be enjoying. In that way, a visit to Araki resembles a night at the opera in miniature.