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Iconic Sydney restaurant Tetsuya’s closing in July after 35 years

After attempting to relocate his famous venue from its Kent Street base, chef Tetsuya Wakuda has made the “very difficult decision” to call time.

Scott Bolles
Scott Bolles

Chef Tetsuya Wakuda at his Kent Street restaurant in 2018.
1 / 7Chef Tetsuya Wakuda at his Kent Street restaurant in 2018.Peter Braig
Tetsuya’s dining room on Kent Street overlooks a tranquil Japanese garden.
2 / 7Tetsuya’s dining room on Kent Street overlooks a tranquil Japanese garden.Christopher Pearce
Tetsuya Wakuda and his then wife, Pauline, in their original Rozelle kitchen in 1989.
3 / 7Tetsuya Wakuda and his then wife, Pauline, in their original Rozelle kitchen in 1989.Bruce Milton Miller
Tetsuya’s signature dish, confit ocean trout.
4 / 7Tetsuya’s signature dish, confit ocean trout.Fairfax Media
Tetsuya Wakuda at The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2013 awards, where Tetsuya’s received the Diners Choice Award.
5 / 7Tetsuya Wakuda at The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2013 awards, where Tetsuya’s received the Diners Choice Award. Marco Del Grande
Tetsuya Wakuda at Waku Ghin, his restaurant at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands casino complex.
6 / 7Tetsuya Wakuda at Waku Ghin, his restaurant at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands casino complex.
Peter Gilmore (left) and Tetsuya Wakuda, whose restaurants Quay and Tetsuya’s were both included in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2008.
7 / 7Peter Gilmore (left) and Tetsuya Wakuda, whose restaurants Quay and Tetsuya’s were both included in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2008.Domino Postiglione

Tetsuya’s, the eponymous Sydney fine dining restaurant that launched its owner-chef Tetsuya Wakuda into a global food brand, will shut its doors permanently on July 31, ending a 35-year run.

“Our plans to relocate Tetsuya’s to a new site after it closes at the end of July have unfortunately not worked out and I have made the very difficult decision to permanently close the restaurant,” Wakuda said in a statement.

“We have spent the last 18 months planning the move and the new restaurant so this was not an easy decision, but sometimes things just don’t go to plan.”

The exterior of Tetsuya’s restaurant in Kent Street.
The exterior of Tetsuya’s restaurant in Kent Street.Louie Douvis
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Wakuda hoped to relocate the restaurant from Kent Street, a site that has been slated for development since it was sold in 2018. In recent years, the chef has been spotted touring sites in Chippendale, then linked with potential moves to Darling Harbour and Circular Quay. In 2022, he announced Tetsuya’s would close, only for it to get a short-lived reprieve.

Wakuda arrived in Australia in 1982 as a backpacker with little food experience but plenty of ambition. He worked for Sydney chef Tony Bilson before opening Ultimo’s in 1987, and then striking gold with the launch in 1989 of Tetsuya’s in Rozelle.

The combination of produce and technique from East and West impressed the critics of the time. The Sydney Morning Herald’s then food critic, Leo Schofield, anointed the newcomer as near the top of the Sydney dining tree.

“Tetsuya Wakuda fuses refined Japanese and classic French cuisines in this small but impeccably run and maintained Rozelle restaurant,” he wrote in October 1989. Schofield declared the food “as good tasting as you’ll find in any of the city’s best BYOs, with the exception of Claude’s”.

As the restaurant grew in stature and collected a trophy cabinet of awards, Tetsuya’s – and its signature confit ocean trout – became internationally recognised as part of Australia’s new breed of food temples.

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It also made Wakuda a global culinary figure. He opened a short-lived restaurant in London in 2001, before a more successful and lasting push into Singapore with Waku Ghin.

Influential Spanish chef Ferran Adria and Tetsuya Wakuda cruising Sydney Harbour in 2008
Influential Spanish chef Ferran Adria and Tetsuya Wakuda cruising Sydney Harbour in 2008 Marco Del Grande

In recent times, he has opened the spin-off Wakuda eateries in Singapore and Las Vegas. Earlier this year, he added Sagetsu in Dubai to his restaurant portfolio.

Wakuda, who was awarded an Order of Australian in 2005, retained links with his adopted country, but was increasingly stretched managing interests that span the globe. The strain was evident at his mothership Sydney restaurant, which was knocked off the summit of three hats in The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2011. It retains a credible two hats.

With Wakuda tight-lipped with staff about the restaurant’s future and a lack of clarity on any relocation, executive chef Josh Raine called time on his six-year stint at the Sydney fine diner in February. Others held on for a relocation, which sadly didn’t transpire.

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Scott BollesScott Bolles writes the weekly Short Black column in Good Food.

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Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/goodfood/sydney-eating-out/iconic-sydney-restaurant-tetsuya-s-closing-in-july-after-35-years-20240513-p5jd9e.html