When there’s bad news to be delivered, sometimes the best thing to do is just to blurt it out.
Shinji Kurita, one of the city’s most talented Japanese chefs, has left ShinBay. When asked why, Kurita says he’s tired, explaining that he was putting in 80-90 hours a week at the restaurant, something that, as he ages, he’s just not willing or able to do anymore.
Kurita’s partner in ShinBay was Chef Hyunwook Lee of HL Concepts, who owns the Sizzle Korean BBQ adjacent to ShinBay, as well as Nori Sushi, Jin Jia and the original Sizzle, which are all in Desert Ridge. Lee has hired Ken Tanaka of Las Vegas to take Kurita’s place. At this point, we don’t know much about Tanaka and have been unable to reach anyone at ShinBay to confirm where he worked there.
Kurita, as you may recall, has had three iterations of ShinBay. He opened his first restaurant in Ahwatukee in 2001, closing it after five years. In 2011, Kurita resurrected the concept and name at the Scottsdale Seville shopping center, earning James Beard nominations for “Best New Restaurant” in 2012 and “Best Chef Southwest” in 2013. Kurita closed the Seville location in 2016, citing financial difficulties, then re-opened ShinBay with Lee’s backing in Old Town in 2018. In 2022, the restaurant was a semifinalist for the James Beard “Outstanding Restaurant” award.
Kurita has talked to Lee about changing the restaurant’s name, given its indelible association with him, and Lee says that he will. At this point, the website still has Kurita’s name and acclaim splashed all over it.
In my view, Kurita will be hard to replace. He’s beloved for being focused and meticulous, a traditionalist who sources rare fish and incorporates Japanese ingredients such as yamaimo (mountain potato) and gobo (burdock root), which are seldom used in Japanese restaurants in the States.
Kurita says he’ll give some thought to his future in 2024. For now, he’s getting some much-needed rest, maybe even playing Grandpa, given that his daughter had a baby earlier this year.
