Nihonbashi opens at Port City

President Ranil Wickremesinghe was present on April 24  to cut the ribbon to open Nihonbashi, Chef Dharshan Munidasa’s flagship Japanese restaurant in its new home at Port City Colombo. 

Since its inception in 1995 at Galle Face Terrace, Nihonbashi has been at the forefront of bringing authentic Japanese cuisine to Colombo. It was the first restaurant from Sri Lanka to be featured on ‘Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants’ list, ranking consecutively from 2013 – 2018. 

The evolution of Nihonbashi continues as it moves to its new home at Port City Colombo. The restaurant takes great pride in sourcing most of its ingredients locally, given the access to the best fish markets, reserving imports for those exceptional ingredients not found in Sri Lanka. Similarly, Dharshan designed Nihonbashi at Port City Colombo applying the principles of prioritising local materials, championing local sourcing and the use of sustainable materials. 

“As a chef would walk the shoreline and farms in search of ingredients, I walked the quarries and bamboo forests to reverse engineer this ‘Japanese design by DNA’ restaurant. We handpicked stone boulders, quartz sand, bamboo and local timber with great care, to create this space that celebrates “和 – Wa” (the same “Wa” found in washoku and wagyu, meaning Japanese). This space is an ode to Japanese design, Japanese philosophy and to the beauty of perfect imperfections: Wabi-Sabi,” Dharshan says.

The restaurant features 8 private dining rooms with a mix of Japanese tatami style seating and western style seating: Chikurin (Bamboo Forest), Bonsai, Ikebana, Samurai, Whiskey, Wine, Sake room and Tachinomi Bar, drawing inspiration from Dharshan’s Japanese heritage. The location exhibits an outdoor bar concept, along with what is possibly the largest Yakitori Grill in the world.