YO! SUSHI

YO! opened on January 22nd 1997 in London’s Soho in Poland Street when nothing quite like it had been seen, the London restaurant scene was not developed as it is now, Pret a Manger was just 3 stores and had just started selling sushi and Wagamama had opened on Museum Street in Fitzrovia a few months previously.

Within a week there was a line down the block that never went away for the next 3 years and A list film and pop stars mixed side by side with skateboard kids, media folk and ladies who lunched.

Simon who’s only experience in restaurants was eating in them, had brought his showbiz background to the scene  and had hit a nerve in the capital and it was the place to be seen and within a year a second branch opened at Harvey Nichols 5th floor and soon after the food hall in Selfridges.

The scene was set for YO! to blast off around the world.

AA Gill in the Sunday Times hoped it would send all the mystery of the east rollers back to the Oklahoma dole queue with their choppers between their legs, as this was the best sushi in London.