Kanpai Japanese Restaurant Milan Building, Izakaya Milanese Dining Photos, North Italy Food

Kanpai Japanese Restaurant Milan Design

New Izakaya Gastronomic Venue North Italy design by Studio Vudafieri-Saverino Partners, Architects

20 Mar 2018

Architects: Studio Vudafieri-Saverino Partners

Location: Milano, Italy

Kanpai Japanese Restaurant Milan Building

Food & Design

The new Japanese contemporary cuisine lands in Milan.

Here comes Kanpai: at the edge between design and gastronomic innovation.

Photos by Santi Caleca – Aromi

Kanpai Japanese Restaurant in Milan

Designed by the architectural Studio Vudafieri-Saverino Partners, the restaurant recreates the typical Izakaya Japanese atmosphere.

Milan, Italy. A corner of contemporary Japan appears in the heart of Milan. Named Kanpai it proposes the Izakaya rites and atmosphere, with dishes from popular Japanese cuisine. Kanpai brings to Milan a mix of food, sakè and Japanese culture, no sushi and an oriental-style cocktail list: a place to eat and drink late into the night. The interior project is by the milanese Studio Vudafieri-Saverino Partners.

Kanpai transports in Milan a sensation of contemporary Japan: it could inhabit one of the many lively side streets in one of the Japanese metropolitan cities, with installed screens which transmit pop images typical of today’s technological, urban Japan.
Its 150 sqm are structured over three rooms, with diverse colours and aesthetic atmospheres.

The bar area welcomes customers with a large counter built with radical simplicity: the metal elements fuse with bamboo wood; a wide selection of sakè and spirits is on show. At the centre a peculiar lampshade stands out, made from an antique French bottle rack, into which magnums of sakè have been inserted, which become diffusers of light filtered by the bottles and the labels’ ideograms.

In the second room a large mural by the young street artist Alessandro Di Vicino, in art Gaudio, has been painted, even visible from outside through the windows. The work has its fundamental part in the presence of the screens in which videos flash by, recreating Tokyo’s typical neon light street atmosphere.

Lastly the third room introduces blues shades, which render indefinite the perception of the depth and on which 50 Japanese lanterns have been left to float. A small cameo in the bathrooms, in which the atmosphere of the Yamanote Line has been reproduced, Tokyo’s famous circular Metropolitan line, including the original stop announcer’s voice, to create a perfect Tokyo ambience.

Japanese conviviality is expressed around the table, and every dish is the fruit of centuries of knowledge and heritage. The Kanpai cuisine is part of this tradition: the desire to recreate in every recipe Japan’s most authentic spirit through a contemporary and innovative hand. The dishes are simple, yet at the same time the fruit of complex, never banal, preparations.

No sushi on a menu which instead contemplates many different cooking techniques and many dishes to share together.

Kanpai’s other soul is linked to the world of mixology and good drinking, with an oriental-style drinks list. Particular attention is paid to the world of sakè thanks to an accurate selection of many labels, but also to Japanese whisky and gin.