A chat with Leong and Anna, husband and wife behind Sushi Riot the little sushi heaven in the west end of Glasgow.
Find them in 23 Clarence Dr, Glasgow G12 9QN- Open Tuesday to Saturday 12-8 pm
Instagram: sushi.riot.glasgow
The day I went to visit Sushi Riot it was raining all day, a normal spring day in Glasgow lot of you would say.
Walking from the East end of the city was not easy, the usual fight with the umbrella, sweating, my hair looked like dog hair.
I ended up being upset. After ten years in Glasgow still not used to the weather but British enough to spend 3 sentences complaining about it.
Said that, my mood changed in a second.
I remember Anna's customer service was spotless the last time I visited, this time even more.
I could observe the care she puts in serving every customer and believe me I saw few people with this natural kindness and genuine interest in helping you.
Not something you find everywhere and that I learnt not to take for granted. The first ten seconds in a place, the way you are welcomed make up half of your experience.
"We are here more than we are in the house.
We wanted to give you a welcome like you were coming to take tea with us.
I have been working in hospitality for ages and it is fascinating to know what people do during their day, and their stories. We met so many people in the past two years. We feel so lucky for the relationships we have built with customers, fellow business owners, and in the neighborhood."
Behind the counter, focused on making sushi but listening to the conversation there is Leong, Anna's husband. Their story is funny, deep, and full of real life and laughs.
Culture, food and family.
The complicity you can see among them is contagious, so is their enthusiasm.
Apart from big chains, Glasgow cannot count so many sushi places. Maybe in the last years, some new places opened up but compared to Edinburgh for example, or to London we can say they are still a few and even less that serve only sushi. How the idea of a sushi place was born?
"You better off telling your story of your chef journey- Anna says- What brought you here in Glasgow?"
Listening to Leong is a joy. He let you enter his world almost taking your hand. Every word is a lesson.
"My passion, my ambition. I am Malaysian and back there we have a lot of Japanese culture, there is a strong influence, I grew up fascinated by that.
I wanted to be a chef since when I was very young, since primary school. My friends wanted to be policemen, doctors, teachers. I just wanted to be a chef. I wanted to cook.
I very much enjoyed seeing my mum cooking as well. I used to stand close to her to watch how she made food. I get from there the motivation to make my food as well. That is why after graduating from high school I went to Singapore and did my apprenticeship there. I learned a lot. I started doing the kitchen porter, washing dishes, doing preps, all the normal steps when you start working in a kitchen. It was really tough but was worth it.
It helped me to build strength and to gain the trust of the chefs. Chefs usually do not share their secrets until you prove that you really want to learn.
After ten years time, I felt the busy lifestyle in Singapore was not what I want for the rest of my life and I applied for a working visa in the UK.
I wanted to see a different place and food reality and learn a bit more. And this is how I met Anna."
She continued the conversation then:
"We met in Wudon. In 2009 my sister and I set up Wudon (an Asian Glasgow institution) and we were looking for a Japanese chef as we felt that sushi was something that our customers could have appreciated.
So here he comes." She laughs indicating him.
"At that time I was in London when one of my friends phoned me telling me about this opportunity in Glasgow. London was too chaotic and at that stage in life I wanted a quieter place where to live and grow professionally. So Scotland did not sound as a bad idea."
"The menu at Wudon changed completely. He built a full new menu, including sushi, influenced by his ideas and flavours.
Years working there passed really quick. In a blink of a eye we met, got married, had two kids.
In the same time it was really intense. Working in a restaurant environment with long hours is not easy, especially when you start having a family.
So at one point, even if it was difficult due to the fact this was my wife's family business I decided to leave and try to find a life balance that was good both for me and most of all for my family.
I worked for restaurants like Pickled Ginger and at the sushi dept of some supermarket. It helped me see how ot works in other environments too and to gain experience for our dream shop.
But in my mind I know, after working so hard, I wanted my own place. I needed a change.
And when this unit came to the market we felt this was the right moment, even if many people considered it a crazy move!
It was in 2021, still during Covid.
Why are investing in a business? Please think twice.
was the most common question we were getting.
If our doubts and fears were already not there.
We put all our savings here. We looked at each other sometimes and say: how long do we have until we remortgage our house?
What if we are wrong and everyone else got it right?
And in the end, you were right.
I work hard to define my way of doing sushi. I wanted to bring something unique, something you could not find in Glasgow.
I have been lucky of finding good teachers in my learning path. They taught me lot of things, not only food wise.
One thing one of my teachers told me and that keeps motivating me has been this: do not forget your dream for yourself.
And this was were the passion is coming from. At the end, if it is not going well, what you are going to lose apart of money?
I did not want to live with the kind of feeling you wasted your chance.
We are over 40 now and we said- if we are waiting a little longer we are not going to do it. You want to give your business at least 10 years of your best self, with full commitment.
This was the right time to do it.
Your story (a story on Instagram explaining why their sushi has a more brown color) about the brown rice made me laugh. Your sushi is different from other sushi you see in Glasgow.
I try to use social media to share some information, to educate about the different aspects that are part of our job. Showing the work behind is necessary so the customer can see what you are doing and why you are doing this, what are your products, where you source them, how you cut your fish and to explain food diversity as well.
There is lot of knowledge and experience behind every roll. Sometimes as a customer we don't realise how hard it is.
This is true. But customers notice the work we are doing is different. They notice the amount of fish is so generous compared to the supermarket sushi.
This is just the way it should be. Supermarket cut is very thin, it is a different concept of course, nothing wrong with that, they have to sell, they are a chain that has to do big margin profit. But it is another thing.
You want the balance of the fish and the rice
Everything is about balance. It is not only about sushi, for all the food you want balance, taste, and not over heavy. That is why sushi is so minimalist. Fish- rice fish rice- because in Japanese culture less is more. It is the only way how you deal with it.
Fish and rice that's the magic, it is in there.
If you travel to Japan you can see the rice in so many formulas, so different chefs got their own mindset. This is my sushi, you can't get it anywhere else. Like in Glasgow: vinegar rice is Sushi Riot- it is mine!
It is a combination of all these elements.
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