A journey into flavour, curiosity and controlled danger

London, 2025:

Bompas & Parr collaborated with Asahi on Seek What Is Unique, a one-night dining experience that placed menu innovation and storytelling at the heart of the evening.

While the wider event transformed an unsuspecting Camden café into a playful convenience-store façade with a hidden passageway beyond, Bompas & Parr were entrusted with creating the complete dinner experience. This included developing the central concept, the full menu and the narrative moments that guided guests through a world shaped by precision, flavour and curiosity.

At the centre of the menu sat Faux-gu, a dramatic interpretation of fugu designed to capture the delicacy and tension of the notoriously dangerous fish while remaining entirely safe and cruelty free. Presented as a sashimi-style flower alongside a karaage counterpart, Faux-gu anchored a menu inspired by izakaya classics and ingredients traditionally considered perilous, reimagined through research, technique and control.

Beyond the food itself, Bompas & Parr crafted the narrative arc that shaped the emotional rhythm of the night. Guests were welcomed into a modern Nomikai, guided by the voice of the pufferfish, encouraged to pour drinks for one another, and drawn into a culminating Pleasure and Peril moment. During the final course, Wartenberg wheels echoed the spiky texture and sensory tension of the pufferfish, turning dining into a moment of playful unease and heightened awareness.

Seek What Is Unique reflects Bompas & Parr’s approach to food-led experiences: creating original menu concepts rooted in story, designing rituals and theatrical beats that bring brand worlds to life, and transforming flavour into emotion through immersive, culturally resonant dining.