Omakase Xi is a sushi restaurant located in Lujiazui business district in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area, with a net indoor area of about 82㎡. Chef Jiang studied sushi making as an apprentice with a Japanese sushi master and wanted to run his own Omakase in Shanghai after returning to China, named Xi (which means little creek in Chinese), and that became a key inspiration for our design. Chef Jiang wants the sushi restaurant to be simple, rustic, and adopt the style of a traditional Japanese sushi restaurant. We learn from the spatial composition of a traditional Japanese house.
From the entrance façade to the indoor landscape area and then to the main dining area as well as the Japanese room, we create a spatial sequence from humble arrival winding to warmly welcome. The entrance design is very simple, with the façade painted with a white textured Japanese wall paint. The entrance is followed by a black-toned landscape corridor. Dim light reflects on the burnt cedar wall to create a deep and quiet atmosphere. To the left of the entrance hangs a shoji window, revealing a giant black stone suspended on the shallow pool. In this small restaurant, this corridor greatly prolongs the arrival process of guests. We hope that through this winding path, guests can separate themselves from the hustle and bustle of the outside world, return to their inner peace, and also experience a feeling of visiting an old friend. When guests enter the main dining room, light hinoki and beige textured walls lit by warm lighting make the atmosphere open up and create a pleasant sense of comfort.
The elements of the creek are expressed through different materials and craftsmanship: the hinoki panel door sign embedded in the wall at the entrance, the black stone wall with a concave and convex texture behind the obsidian, the white wood background wall carved with water ripples in front of the board and inside. The use of this series of elements allows the sushi restaurant to break away from the style of traditional Japanese houses and give it a more modern, abstract expression. We did not intend to move Tokyo to Shanghai, but rather to create a local expression that belongs to Xi itself in this specific site. We designed several niches, which also became the highlights. On the wall to the right of the entrance, at the end of the landscape corridor, within the main dining room and the Japanese room, Chef Jiang has carefully selected Japanese ornaments to place inside the niches, hoping guests can discover some exquisite surprises during the dining process.
