its'our story

Here’s a true story about how, over two decades, itsu customers created a new and pioneering food place. Thank you to them for their thousands of emails, letters, texts and phone calls along the way.

I first visited Tokyo in the winter of 1994 and fell in love with the harmony and precision of the food; every bento box was a work of art. If beautiful food, fast, was humanly possible, then Japan was leading the way; it’s probably why nearly 100,000 people there are over one hundred years old.

I returned home determined to create a new kind of food place. I had no idea how hard it would be, but itsu Chelsea, London opened in 1997, itsu Soho a few years later.

Over twenty-five years [and 85 test restaurants] later we’ve cracked a health[ier] menu.  Customers call us ‘health[ier]’ because we don’t serve junk food, nor do we punish them with celery sticks. Every itsu restaurant has its own kitchen team making nutritious dishes which are steamed [not fried]. Our menu is protein-packed, fibre’ful, 40% plant-based & full of fresh vegetables and wholegrains.

 

a health[ier] future

We pay our hard-working, proud, professional employees as much as we can possibly afford, rather than as little as we can get away with; their careers, passion and sense of purpose are vital to us all; they are our heart & hope for a bright future. 

We’re thrilled to be health[ier] than old-fashioned fast-food operators. You can search through our dishes, which are made in each and every restaurant, according to calories, plant points, fibre or protein.

We have a half-price sale every evening to tackle food waste and, because there is no ‘planet B’, we will continue to pioneer sustainable solutions within itsu at every opportunity.

Enjoying health[ier] food is more important today than ever before. Perhaps what’s been lacking is education, which is why we invest in itsu’s Community Kitchen Project, teaching better nutrition to kids and young people. 

Health[ier] is obviously better and, with itsu, one step easier to find. I promise we’ll keep listening, learning and staying restless for another 20 years.