Taking inspiration from an imaginary forest clearing in some magical corner of Japan, leading designer Kenneth Cobonpue has shown again his brilliance in designing space with the opening of Akira Japanese restaurant in Makati.

 

Cobonpue achieved his vision by combining several elements symbolizing nature: polished raw concrete floor to represent the earth, and a series of tall wooden elements that mimic leafless trees of varying heights during fall.

 

In lieu of artworks and fancy lighting fixtures, Cobonpue maximized the limited area’s high ceiling by making a canopy of “dancing” leaves as his focal point.

 

Made of silk in such autumn colors as reddish brown and shades of plum and orange, each leaf is attached to a network of nylon strings that radiate from a central “tree” to various points above the restaurant’s dining area.

 

“It’s always a challenge to design space for a restaurant,” said Cobonpue. “The budget, of course, is limited. Then, you also have to come up with a concept that’s new, unique and timeless.”

 

The designer and his collaborators also had to make last-minute adjustments to the tree branches and leaves after building owners decided to install an air-conditioning system that now runs across a part of the unit’s high ceiling. It wasn’t part of the original plan.

 

Cebu-based Cobonpue has designed restaurant spaces before, but all of them abroad. The Z Bar, a project he did a few years ago in Cebu, is more of an after-six lounge than a full-service restaurant.

 

“When you think of Japan, one of the most beautiful times of the year there is when green leaves start turning into shades of red, plum and orange,” he said. “I wanted to capture that moment and suspend it up in the air. That moment is special and frozen in time.”

 

The hanging arrangement is much more beautiful in the evening, he told the lunchtime crowd. Since the nylon strings are barely visible at night, all you can see are leaves that seem to float into space.

 

The theme, he added, is in keeping with Akira’s original concept of providing customers with an ideal dining venue for lunch and supper, and an after-hours lounge for busy office people.

 

“Maximizing space is always an important consideration,” said Cobonpue. “You have to do that without making the place look too crowded. At the same time, you have to have pockets of privacy. I did that by putting trees to shield diners.”

 

Located on the ground floor of the partially opened Alphaland City Club (at the corner of Malugay Street and Ayala Avenue Extension), Akira Makati is the fourth restaurant of its kind under SumoSam Restaurant Concepts led by actor Marvin Agustin and businessman Ricky Laudico.

 

Yoda chairs

 

Equipped with a teppanyaki table and sushi bar surrounded by Conbonpue’s iconic red Yoda chairs, the 155-sq m restaurant can easily seat 80 people.

 

The designer also did the rest of the restaurant’s chairs, which are made of raw rattan poles and maple wood in soft, natural shades of sand.

 

Cobonpue modified the chairs from an earlier design he did to fit the restaurant’s interiors. Soft elements come in the form of seat cushions in muted tones of taupe.

 

But unlike the three other company-owned Akira branches, Akira Makati is owned by businessman Gilbert Go.

 

As the restaurant chain’s first franchise owner, Go was free to choose anyone to design his first baby. He didn’t go far—he tapped the services of Cobonpue, a good friend and a fellow Cebuano.

 

Go even renamed Akira’s Unagi Kyu Maki to Cobonpue Roll in honor of the designer. The dish, a personal favorite of Cobonpue, is made of soft-shell crab, Japanese cucumber and tobanjan mayo rolled in sushi rice and white sesame seeds. It is then topped with a blow-torched unagi teriyaki, teriyaki wasabi mayo, fish roe and spring onions.

 

But SumoSam remains in charge of hiring people, including a Japanese chef and several Filipino sushi and teppanyaki chefs, as well as the restaurant’s day-to-day operations.

 

Dubbed by its originators as the “art of sushi and teppanyaki,” Akira takes pride in its variety of authentic Japanese meats—from Matsusaka to Kobe beef, Japanese to US wagyu—flown almost daily from Japan.

 

“We can cook all kinds of meat in front of you,” said Nikki Nicolas, SumoSam corporate chef. “Any dish that is authentic Japanese uses 100-percent Japanese ingredients. Even our rice and the salt we use for some of the steaks are imported from Japan.”

 

Since its soft opening a few months ago, Akira Makati has been attracting a fair share of the Central Business District’s office crowd. Families from nearby condominiums make up the bulk of its weekend clientele.

 

Go hopes the weekend crowd would further pick up in the coming months as Alphaland, one of Makati’s newest residential towers, becomes fully operational.

 

One of Akira’s attractions is the presence of young, good-looking teppanyaki chefs who do “clean and simple tricks” in front of diners while whipping up a dish or two on the hot iron griddle, said Nicolas.

 

“I guess another thing that sets us apart from other Japanese restaurants is the size of our bento boxes,” she added. “They’re really big and meant to provide diners with more choices and bigger servings.”

 

So, why was there a need to hire a designer of Cobonpue’s caliber to do Akira’s interiors? Won’t the restaurant’s food suffice?

 

“The food in Akira is spectacular,” said Go. “But I also wanted to add an element of design in the restaurant scene, which I think is lacking nowadays in Makati.”

 

As far as Go is concerned, Akira is one of the few restaurants in the area that put considerable thought in space design. But its dishes, he said, will still be the restaurant’s main attractions.