Tha Sakai

Seafood discipline brought to the fire

Hiroyuki Sakai adjusts seafood by taste and texture as chef at Tha Sakai in Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, where the counter keeps the hands close to the fire. His base was Tsuji Culinary Institute, where repetition, precision and patience became kitchen habits rather than decoration. In 1994 he became Iron Chef French, a public role that asked technique to read quickly, without losing authorship. Since 1980 he has also been owner and head chef of La Rochelle, a long run that helps explain the controlled plating and seafood attention he brings to this smaller room.

At Tha Sakai, that history meets a different instrument. The restaurant opened on September 1, 2020, with wood fire at the center of the method and Japanese ingredients at the bench.

Wakayama oak and Basque heat

The cooking here borrows from Basque fire discipline associated with Etxebarri, then applies that control to Japanese produce over oak wood from Wakayama. The fire is not a backdrop. It sets the pace of the pass, from the first smoke on shellfish to the final weight of sauce against a grilled surface.

Signature dishes give the method its shape. Sakana comes with tamarind and wild honey, a pairing that asks the skin to carry sweetness, acid and char without softening. River prawns take perfume from coconut husk embers. Other courses have included Nagasaki oysters, Latvian smoked caviar, sakura ebi risotto, bluefin tuna, hand-cut squid tagliatelle with squid strips, and duck cooked for layered flavor rather than spectacle. During truffle season, black Perigord truffles have appeared with stronger fragrance than white. The beverage program stays curated, with sake as the central focus and wine held in support of smoke, salinity and citrus.

Five seats in the hush

The room narrows the restaurant to a counter. Tha Sakai is built around 5 seats, limestone and teak warmed by candlelight, with the soft crackle of the hearth replacing most of the usual dining-room noise. Behind a more casual place called Enca, the entrance gives little away before the fire comes into view.

That scale changes the work. A prawn leaves the heat and reaches the plate before the ember note has faded. A broth can arrive while makrut and smoked clove are still lifting. The counter makes the sequence legible without turning it into performance, and the cultivated hush gives small adjustments room to register.

A counter measured by control

Sakai’s 2009 Gendai no Meikou, Contemporary Master Craftsman, belongs to a career shaped by long practice, not a single dish. At Tha Sakai, the same discipline appears in a narrower register: oak, seafood, smoke, and the small corrections that decide whether tamarind and wild honey sharpen or cover the sakana.