Project details
Address
20 Petrovka Street, Building 1, Moscow
Status
Completed
Year
2024
Area
85 m²
Seating capacity
26
Scope of work
Concept design · Detailed design and tender documentation · Custom-designed pieces · Mural designs · Design supervision · Antique sourcing
Team
Project authors: Mikhail Esenin, Kristina Esenina, Alexandra Kozyreva
Project team: Ekaterina Khoroshavina, Yulia Afanasyeva
3D visualisations: Arman Kashkenov · Photography: Sergey Volokitin
Project team: Ekaterina Khoroshavina, Yulia Afanasyeva
3D visualisations: Arman Kashkenov · Photography: Sergey Volokitin
About the project
OSHI Izakaya, located on Moscow’s Petrovka Street, was conceived as a jewel box of an interior, bringing together Japanese traditions and European aesthetics.
The concept draws on the imagined story of a Japanese emperor’s son raised between two cultures, embracing European influences while remaining connected to his heritage. This dialogue unfolds through hand-painted surfaces, antique furnishings, rich textures and symbolic details.
Despite its intimate scale, the restaurant brings together a remarkable variety of materials and finishes, from raw concrete to antique lacquered façades inspired by Chinoiserie. Each area reveals a different layer of the narrative, creating an intimate, richly detailed interior where Japanese and European influences meet.
The concept draws on the imagined story of a Japanese emperor’s son raised between two cultures, embracing European influences while remaining connected to his heritage. This dialogue unfolds through hand-painted surfaces, antique furnishings, rich textures and symbolic details.
Despite its intimate scale, the restaurant brings together a remarkable variety of materials and finishes, from raw concrete to antique lacquered façades inspired by Chinoiserie. Each area reveals a different layer of the narrative, creating an intimate, richly detailed interior where Japanese and European influences meet.
Publications and awards
Magazine
«MV»: cover project · No. 5, 2026
Magazine
«Gallery of Interiors» · No. 11, March 2026
Website
LUXURY HOME · January 2026
Award
ADDAWARDS, season 11: shortlist · «Restaurants and cafes»
Website
Eatweekguide.com · August 2025
Magazine
«INTERIOR in Detail» · May 2025
Visualisation and reality
As designed, as built
Left: the project visualisation. Right: the same view after completion.
01
Main hall
Visualisation
Built
02
Bar and open kitchen
Visualisation
Built
Completed project
Project photos
Photography: Sergey Volokitin
3D tour
Walk through the restaurant
The tour opens right on this page. On a phone you can view it with a VR headset.
Portfolio
Other projects
Moscow · 272 m²
Moscow · 330 m²
Moscow · 118 m²
Project story
«OSHI Izakaya Emperor» Restaurant
20 Petrovka Street, Building 1, Moscow · 2024 · 85 m²
OSHI Izakaya on Petrovka is an exquisite “jewel box” of a space where the Japanese philosophy of simplicity meets European refinement. The interior concept draws on the image of a Japanese emperor's son raised in Europe: a symbol of dialogue between cultures, who grew up between two worlds and united them in himself.
The key interior composition is built on allusion: wooden slats set against smooth plaster recall Japanese shoji screens, yet create a European sense of monumentality. The ceiling carries a painting in which oak elements emerge among branches of European ivy, a motif of chimeric transformation that echoes the philosophy of the Mendeleev bar one floor below.
The theme of transition and metamorphosis runs through the whole interior: in the gold paintings, buds turn into birds, and by the staircase a fish leaps out of a shoal, a metaphor for the eternal cycle and inner growth. The space is filled with “mediator materials”: handmade glass, antique furniture, warm oak and bold red velvet, where Japanese minimalism of form meets the European love of luxury.
We created a space that looks minimalist for all its decorative richness. This was achieved through precise colour accents that run through the interior, from the red curtain in the cloakroom and the restrained sofa to the red glass that forms the backdrop for a vintage sideboard. These elements tie the interior into a single canvas, adding rhythm and depth.
In the end, OSHI becomes more than a restaurant: it is a space-metaphor where cultures are not set against each other but interwoven, creating a new aesthetic that is harmonious, rich and deep, like the story of the meeting of East and West itself.
OSHI Izakaya on Petrovka is an exquisite “jewel box” of a space where the Japanese philosophy of simplicity meets European refinement. The interior concept draws on the image of a Japanese emperor's son raised in Europe: a symbol of dialogue between cultures, who grew up between two worlds and united them in himself.
The key interior composition is built on allusion: wooden slats set against smooth plaster recall Japanese shoji screens, yet create a European sense of monumentality. The ceiling carries a painting in which oak elements emerge among branches of European ivy, a motif of chimeric transformation that echoes the philosophy of the Mendeleev bar one floor below.
The theme of transition and metamorphosis runs through the whole interior: in the gold paintings, buds turn into birds, and by the staircase a fish leaps out of a shoal, a metaphor for the eternal cycle and inner growth. The space is filled with “mediator materials”: handmade glass, antique furniture, warm oak and bold red velvet, where Japanese minimalism of form meets the European love of luxury.
We created a space that looks minimalist for all its decorative richness. This was achieved through precise colour accents that run through the interior, from the red curtain in the cloakroom and the restrained sofa to the red glass that forms the backdrop for a vintage sideboard. These elements tie the interior into a single canvas, adding rhythm and depth.
In the end, OSHI becomes more than a restaurant: it is a space-metaphor where cultures are not set against each other but interwoven, creating a new aesthetic that is harmonious, rich and deep, like the story of the meeting of East and West itself.