A rural village kid with big dreams, our story begins in the 70s when our dad first came to Bangkok with no clue and no experience. 

 

He landed his first job in the big city as a doorman at a hotel where one of a very few (at the time) Japanese restaurant was located. At the time, the Japanese chefs were only from Japan and it was a very exclusive circle. One day, one of the chefs offered him a job as the rice boy - cooking nothing but sushi rice. He worked hard, learnt some Japanese and in 1979, at 17 years old, he was taught to cut his first fish. Since then, his career escalated and so did his knowledge of sushi.

In 1988 he got on his first flight and moved to London, speaking nothing but Thai and Japanese where he worked at Masako, one of three Japanese restaurants in London at the time. He’s since worked with a dozen Japanese restaurants and has created menus for many of your favourites around London.

​

Now, having grown up in the restaurant industry and Japanese food, we're making our dad's dream come true with Kampai. Our own place to share his passion Japanese cuisine!