One bar, one knife and twelve chairs.
Kenji Hamada opened Sushi Kawa in 2019 in an old shop on Voorbeeldstraat. Only one thing went in: a bar made from a single piece of hinoki wood, six metres long.
Kenji grew up in Kobe and at seventeen started as an apprentice in a small sushi bar in Osaka. Eight seats, one chef, and an apprentice who was only allowed to make rice for the first three years.
“You think it’s about the fish,” he says. “But you buy the fish. The rice you have to make yourself, fresh every day.” After ten years in Osaka he worked in London and Amsterdam, until he found a building in Voorbeeldstad with just enough room for one bar.
The bar is hinoki, Japanese cypress. Light, almost without grain, and it smells faintly of lemon when you wipe it with warm water. Coen does that twice every evening, before each sitting.
“You buy the fish. The rice you make yourself.”
The three of us behind the bar
- Kenji Hamadachef, opened the bar in 2019
Learned the craft over ten years in Osaka, the first three only on the rice. Stands in the middle behind the bar every evening.
- Loes Oudejanshost and sake
Shows you to your stool, pours the sake and knows which brewery each glass comes from. Tasted her first junmai in Niigata.
- Coen Bosgrasecond knife, in training
Makes the rice every afternoon. He has done so for two years; next year he gets his own knife at the bar.
From the auction to the bar
From Urk and Scheveningen where possible, from Brittany when it’s better. Rice and vinegar from Japan.
- Scheveningen fish auctionMackerel, whiting, sometimes sea bassTue to Fri, 06:30
- Urk fish auctionTurbot, sole, brillMonday and Thursday
- Fisherman in BrittanySea bream and sardine, line-caughtWed and Fri, by refrigerated van
- Rice from NiigataKoshihikari, polished soon after harvestonce a month
- Vinegar maker in AichiAkazu: red vinegar from sake lees, aged three yearsevery spring and autumn
How to book
Four steps, then you’re at the bar.
- 1Choose your sitting
Wednesday to Saturday, at 18:00 or at 20:30. You can book up to eight weeks ahead.
- 2Pay the deposit
€25 per person. We take it off your bill later. Cancel free of charge up to 72 hours ahead.
- 3Tell us your allergies
At least two days ahead. Then Kenji can really cook around it.
- 4Be there ten minutes early
Loes shows you to your seat and pours you something. At six or half past eight sharp, everyone starts together.