A NEW Sushi and sake bar has been launched in Harrogate in a £150,000 new venture.

The 35-seater restaurant, Kaiten Sushi and Sake Bar, is a partnership between restaurateur Cindy Cheung and specialist Japanese chef Tim Yip.

The pair set up the new business in ground-floor premises in Ripon Road with advice from law firm Barber Titleys.

The restaurant has created three new jobs for kitchen and service staff and will serve a range of sake drinks and hard-to-find Japanese vodka. It will also serve rare dishes, such as sea urchin and Hamachi – a Yellowtail Amberjack.

The new venture has grown from weekly Sushi evenings at Royal Baths Chinese Restaurant, which is run by Cindy Cheung and her mother, London restaurateur, Monica Ng and her husband Hak.

Cindy, who originally trained as a beauty therapist in London, said: “The weekly sushi evenings we ran with Tim were proving so popular we realised there is demand for a restaurant specialising in this and other Japanese dishes.

“Regular customers who we have told about this venture are excited by what we plan to achieve and, if all goes well, we hope eventually to move to bigger premises.”

Tim Yip said: “The growth in Sushi is part of a trend for ever-more exciting and exotic tastes and greater awareness of the health benefits of raw fish. We source our products daily through a London-based Japanese importer. Some of the sushi dishes we serve are available in the UK but fish like Uni and Hamachi are very hard to find and will bring a new taste to North Yorkshire.”