Since Japanese-born violinist, conductor, and gourmet Joji Hattori opened his “Shiki” in 2015, the restaurant had offered two distinct concepts: brasserie-style cuisine with a sushi bar at the front, and fine dining with a set menu in the quieter rooms at the back. It was there that the restaurant once earned a Michelin star, which it later lost. Perhaps this was also because, as Hattori puts it, “European food crept in too often.”

In addition, due to bureaucratic obstacles, Hattori was never able to hire a chef from Japan. Following the departure of longtime co-head chef Alois Traint, the time had come to reposition the flagship restaurant. The excellent “Shiki Omakase” concept was added in late 2025.

Together with Head Chef Gerhard Bernhauer, Hattori developed a new, much more “Japanese” menu and did away with the old division into separate zones—everything is now available everywhere.