KAI Lisbon - Luxurious Japanese Cuisine

Uni, oysters, big fat red roe, and dehydrated egg yolk. These are the ingredients for one dish at KAI Lisbon, an ode to the most luxurious side of Japanese cuisine. It’s unctuous and sumptuous, a flavor bomb served on the half shell and flambéed at the table.

A few bites of pure pleasure, it’s emblematic of the restaurant, at the base of the new Picoas Tower. It’s all top quality and as fresh as can be, as the chefs get their fish and seafood from the nearby Mercado 31 de Janeiro. Many of the international team of chefs themselves, however, were imported from Dubai, where they worked at the popular Morimoto. Japanese chef Henry Park leads the kitchen.

There’s no fusion on his watch, just pure Japanese technique and luxuriant Portuguese ingredients. The surprise tasting menu might include those oysters, chicken gyozas, elegant nigiri sushi, rich toro tartare, or noodles with uni. The executive lunch menu is more down-to-earth, with dishes like chirashi (raw fish on a bed of rice) and katsu don (pork cutlet).

The dining room is sleek and well-lit, especially the subterranean 20-seat sushi counter and handful of tables around it. The look is minimalist, with sake kegs as a main element. It works as both a quick lunchtime spot and an expense-account evening destination for the lawyers and consultants who work at the big-name firms in the building upstairs.