It’s elegant, it’s trendy and it offers you a perfect gourmet experience. It’s what you’ll find at IYO Restaurant, a sophisticated Japanese restaurant in Milan.
In a city like Milan, which has become a fully-fledged international capital of gastronomy, the IYO restaurant occupies a special place. In fact, it combines excellence in traditional Japanese cuisine revisited in a creative and contemporary way, with a taste for beauty that is so typically Milanese.
Founded in 2007 by Claudio Liu’s visionary intuition, the restaurant ‒ which earned a prestigious Michelin star in 2015 ‒ was completely renovated in 2024. The main purpose of this renovation? Responding to guests’ need for maximum comfort, making the restaurant not only a place where you can eat, but also a place where you can spend a few hours in complete relaxation, feeling perfectly at ease. In this regard, the restaurant is also equipped with a soundproofing system to reduce intrusive noises ‒ which is so important if you want to enjoy your dinner without being disturbed by others’ loud conversations.
For the restaurant renovation project, “signed” by architect Maurizio Lai, materials such as wood, marble and stone were used, while the armchairs have an oak frame covered in fabric, perfect for your comfort.
To provide you with even greater privacy, there are two private rooms, equipped with the most advanced technological solutions, for special dinners, business lunches, or other events. And the new, elegant cocktail bar reflects the cosmopolitan habit of enjoying a drink before or after dinner.
And the type of cuisine? IYO can be described as an innovative sushi restaurant serving contemporary Japanese haute cuisine.
The restaurant is equipped with a robata counter for open-flame cooking and a section dedicated to steam cooking. In order to enjoy food in the typical Japanese style, a wide selection of dishes is placed at the centre of the table.
The restaurant’s menu includes Uramaki, ranging from classic international favourites to original recipes; Gunkan, which is a special kind of sushi resembling the shape of Japanese boats and containing fish tartare placed on top of rice and wrapped in nori seaweed or slices of vegetables; Ika Somen, where squid is sliced so thinly that it looks like Somen noodles; and Hotate Usuzukuri, consisting of Breton scallop carpaccio, yuzu vinaigrette, umeboshi and red shiso powder.
Needless to say, the ingredients chosen to create these amazing dishes are top-quality and are carefully selected from farmers in the Milan area that grow without using chemical additives. Fish is organically farmed, salmon is Norwegian and organic-certified, and prawns are purchased directly from boats that fish exclusively in Italy.
IYO’s wine, spirits, beer and sake list is extensive, carefully selected and designed to satisfy the requests of a very diverse clientele. It includes over 750 Italian and international wines, with focus on France and Germany, ranging from big names to small and very small producers.
And sake? You’ll find 30 different varieties, including some very rare and precious bottles.
IYO restaurant is the perfect choice if you want a very special dining experience in Milan.
IYO Restaurant
Via Piero della Francesca 74, Milan
Tel +39 02 45476 898
For opening hours, visit
www.iyo-restaurant.com
This post was all about IYO, an absolutely amazing Japanese restaurant in Milan.