Bustle of projects in the restaurant sector after the nightmare experienced during the pandemic. Monster Sushi, one of the most established Japanese food brands in Barcelona, has just opened a new restaurant on Girona Street and, after changing owners, is preparing a
expansion plan that will lead it to open between six and ten more restaurants in the next four years, of which a couple will be under the Robata brand, which belongs to the same business group. Monster Sushi was born in 2010 in Gal·la Placídia square at the hands of the Venezuelan couple Fabiola Lairet and Ricardo Figuera. "I was a Venezuelan living in Barcelona who at the time was not a professional chef and had nothing to do with Japan; I knew how to cook Japanese food, but it seemed dishonest to me to give the place a traditional Japanese name. We opted for a casual brand, Monster Sushi, and designed a fish-shaped logo that looks like a piranha, but is actually a tuna," explains Lairet.
After consolidating the Ga·la Placídia location, in 2016 Ricardo and Fabiola decided to open a second restaurant, with a more traditional Japanese cuisine style and in a higher price segment. This is Robata, on Enric Granados street, where it is common to run into some famous person. Two years later, in 2018, they opened a Monster Sushi on Muntaner street dedicated exclusively to
take away and to home delivery only with its own delivery drivers, as the brand is not present on any of the platforms of
delivery that compete in the city.
The founders of Monster Sushi put their company up for sale in 2019 , but the health crisis delayed the closing of the operation until December 2020, when the three Monster Sushi and Robata establishments were acquired by Umai Group. This is a newly created company owned by
several investment partners who love Monster Sushi's gastronomic proposal and interested in boosting the brand's growth and extending its presence to other Catalan cities and also the rest of Spain, with the priority objective of making the leap to Madrid.
One of the atmospheres of the new Monster Sushi on Girona Street, 68, in Barcelona. ©TNBP Among the shareholders of Umai Group is
family office of
Josep Font ---ex owner of 50% of the Bon Preu group---; the businessman
Salvador Ramon ---president and owner of the Catalan family business selling tuna Frime---;
Jordi Franch and
Jesús Saiz ---former executives of Bidfood Iberia and
Workerbee Capital partners ---; and
Fernando Alfaro and
Marc Conte , partners who manage the day-to-day operations of the company and who will lead the expansion plan. Alfaro, who is the CEO of Umai Group, had previously worked at AT Kearney and Tagus Capital, while Conte, director of operations and development, has extensive experience as an executive in the technology areas of companies such as Bidfood, Lucta, GBFoods, and Accenture. Despite having sold his shares,
the two founding partners remain linked to the company in this new stage , as Fabiola Lairet remains as executive chef of the restaurants and Ricardo Figuera as advisor and key player in new openings. The new Monster Sushi location on Girona street is the first project led by Umai, a name that means tasty in Japanese. Its launch has involved an investment of 700,000 euros; it has an area of 280 square meters distributed in different environments and has capacity for 130 diners. Previously, the premises had housed the Bicnic restaurant. "This opening marks the beginning of an important expansion phase; we want to replicate the Monster Sushi concept in other parts of Barcelona and also in other cities, positioning ourselves as a reference brand in the quality of raw materials and in the excellence of our restaurants," says Fernando Alfaro in an interview with
The New Barcelona Post . According to the executive, the idea is
to open in four years between six and ten new restaurants with the brands Monster Sushi and Robata , although this brand is more difficult to replicate, so only a couple of openings are projected in this phase.
Marc Conte, operations director, and Fernando Alfaro, CEO of Umai Group. "Our model does not involve opening franchises; all establishments will be company-owned to maintain this level of excellence," emphasizes Marc Conte, also highlighting that Monster Sushi does not operate with a centralized kitchen model, but rather all dishes are prepared directly in each location. The expansion plan is expected to be financed with own resources and with a limited level of bank leverage. The goal is
open another Monster Sushi in Barcelona this year and also make the leap to Madrid with the Robata brand. "We are already looking at a couple of locations to bring our premium brand to Madrid," Alfaro says. In the Catalan capital, the firm seeks to establish itself in the upper area and on the seafront, and openings will also be considered in cities in Vallès and in other Spanish capitals. The Umai group's restaurants now have a staff of 110 workers, and in 2021 its three locations (Muntaner, Gal·la Placídia, and Enric Granados)
billed 6.5 million euros "We foresee doubling these revenues with the new openings," says the CEO, who rejects diversifying the group with other brands or entering other types of food. For his part, Conte points out that Umai has no intention of working with the platforms of
delivery because the company "seeks perfection with every delivery and we don't want to risk it." Umai's main fish suppliers are the Catalan companies Arrom and Balfegó, specialists and references in bluefin tuna.
Fabiola Lairet, executive chef of Monster Sushi. ©TNBP A JAPANESE TAVERN WITH LATIN WINK "Our cuisine is honest, we don't want to disappoint; it's simple, but at the same time exotic." This is how Fabiola Lairet, trained in Osaka and Los Angeles, defines the style of Monster Sushi. Its menu offers a wide variety of dishes adapted for all tastes, from cuts of salmon, bluefin tuna or sea bream in sashimi, to gyozas, Teriyaki chicken or Yakisoba noodles. The
Chutoro tuna tataky with sesame and the Crispy Duck, made with duck thighs cooked at a low temperature and then fried to create a crispy coating. Another of the house specialties is Okonomiyaki, a dish also defined as Japanese pizza and prepared with cabbage, pork, and a dough made from the flour of a tuber native to Japan. For nigiri lovers, Fabiola recommends creations such as tuna and caramelized foie. The great specialty of the house are also the rolls, with surprises like the Anticucheros rolls, filled with tempura prawns and anticucho sauce, in a clear nod to Peruvian cuisine (the menu also includes a ceviche). The average ticket at Monster Sushi ranges between 35 and 40 euros per person, while at Robata it is above 50 euros.
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