Nikkei Restaurant serves up a global culinary journey in the heart of Georgetown

Why book a trip to Japan or Peru when the soul of those two countries is simmering right on Sandy Babb Street, Georgetown?

With Restaurant Week in full swing, Nikkei Restaurant – a cosy, one-year-old restaurant that offers a Peruvian-Japanese fusion – is doing more than just passing more than pot spoons around the circumferences of pots. It’s bringing the rich, vibrant flavours of Japan straight to Guyana’s doorstep.
The managing director of this top-tier restaurant, Yannick David, spoke about this restaurant in a recent interview with this publication.
The restaurant, he explained, has an executive chef trained in Japanese and Peruvian cuisine.
“So, the company decided that it would introduce a Japanese and Peruvian concept to Guyana — especially because it’s similar herbs and spices that are used in the remedies for Japanese foods that are also used in Guyana.”
According to him, the restaurant foresaw that both Guyanese and expats would appreciate and enjoy this type of food as the first of its kind in the country, and the public agrees.
“It’s been exceptional… We’re full almost every day. People really enjoy the flavours, they enjoy the presentation, and they enjoy the customer service. The reviews have been more good than bad.”
Still, even with the buzz and the sizzles emanating from the restaurant, there have been hurdles along the way.
“There are definitely some very important ingredients that we need for our meals that have to come from overseas… especially the sauces because it’s not something that’s widely used, so just getting some of our ingredients was quite challenging.”
He also acknowledged that it’s still a bit expensive to source some of the speciality items.
“But we continue to overcome those challenges,” he assured.
“Other challenges include getting the Guyanese culture used to their style of presenting their restaurant.”
Another challenge, he highlighted, is that diners must reserve a slot and respect a fixed seating time.
If persons book, there’s an allocated space of time that they have to sit and have their meal.
This, he noted, is because it’s a small restaurant — so every table has to do two or three sittings in an entire night.
With that in mind, he shared that it’s not a restaurant where persons can come, have dinner, and relax afterwards at night.
Amidst this minor challenge, he revealed that overall, the restaurant has been doing pretty well.
With Restaurant Week bringing even more anticipation, Nikkei is preparing a special treat for its guests.
“We have a lot of people anticipating this week here… What we’ve done is we’ve extracted the most Peruvian dish we have on our menu, which is the Lomo Saltado, and we really want to give people a deep dive into the complexities of that dish. It’s a very interesting dish.”
Additionally, he mentioned that the dish is also laced with a Peruvian-style fried rice and stir-fried beef over wedges that comes in a very thick sauce.
Most customers would think that it can’t get better than this; however, it does.
The restaurant is serving up a mixture of appetisers and an intriguing coconut ice cream for dessert. “People will really… be like a journey, a culinary journey when they have the meals to eat in the restaurant,” he added.
“Try it,” he urged. “It’s something new. It’s something Guyana has never had before.”