Kena by Akiro: Marbella’s New Nikkei Rooftop

Marbella gets a new restaurant opening every other week in summer. Most of them come and go. Once in a while, though, something opens that makes you rearrange your plans, and Kena by Akiro is one of those. It landed on the rooftop of El Fuerte Marbella on July 3rd, and I went with a group of six this past Monday to see what the fuss was about.

Short version: book a table.

A seat on the water

The first thing that hits you is the setting. El Fuerte sits right where the old town meets the beach, and from the seventh floor rooftop the Mediterranean fills your whole field of vision. There’s no road between you and the sea, no row of buildings, nothing. You’re sitting on the water, or near enough that it makes no difference. We arrived just before sunset and watched the light go soft over the bay while the first cocktails came out.

The space works as two things at once. One side is the restaurant proper, open from 6pm to midnight. The other is a cocktail bar that runs from 5pm to 1am, with a serious champagne list and music that stays at conversation level. You could come for a full dinner or just drift up for a drink after a walk through the old town. Both work.

What we ate

Kena is Nikkei cooking, the Japanese-Peruvian fusion that grew out of Japanese immigration to Peru over a century ago. If you haven’t tried it, think Japanese precision with Peruvian heat and acidity. Raw fish, citrus, ají peppers, soy. When it’s done well it’s one of the most exciting cuisines on the planet, and here it’s done well.

The ceviche was the table favourite, bright and sharp and gone in about four minutes. The dish that really stopped the conversation, though, was the cortaditos, a selection of different fish cut sashimi style, each one dressed its own way. Impressive is the word everyone kept using. The hand rolls, the signature of the Akiro concept this restaurant grew from, came wrapped in crisp nori and filled to order.

And I’ll say something that sounds odd: order the edamame. I know, it’s edamame. These were genuinely very good, and that tells you something about a kitchen. When the simplest thing on the menu gets that much care, the rest tends to follow.

We ate generously, six of us, and came out at no more than 80 euros a head. For cooking at this level, on that terrace, in Marbella in July, that’s fair money.

The chef behind it

Kena is the work of Luis Arévalo, and his name is the reason expectations were high before a single plate was served. Born in the Peruvian Amazon, he started out in a Lima sushi bar in 1997, then built his career in Madrid with the Kabuki group before opening a string of his own restaurants. He’s widely credited as the chef who brought Nikkei cuisine to Spain in the first place.

There’s a story here too. The original Kena opened in Madrid in February 2014, Arévalo’s first big personal bet. It closed four years later, and by his own account the idea of bringing it back never left his head. Eight years on, this rooftop is the return. Knowing that, the evening makes even more sense. This isn’t a hotel hiring a name for its terrace. It’s a chef reviving the project he cared about most, in the best spot he could find for it.

Kena is born from Akiro, the world’s first Nikkei hand roll bar, which already has locations in Madrid, Barcelona, Chicago and Milan, with Dubai and Zurich on the way. Marbella is where the concept stretches into a full evening: restaurant, cocktails, rooftop, sea. It’s the most complete expression of what Arévalo does, and he’s chosen our town to do it in.

One for the celebrations

Here’s where I’d file Kena: special occasions. Marbella has plenty of good dinners, but very few places where the setting does half the celebrating for you. Birthdays, anniversaries, a deal that finally closed, the night you get the keys to a new home. If you have something worth marking, this is the table to mark it at. Our group left already planning the next excuse to go back.

Good to know

Kena by Akiro is on the seventh floor rooftop of Hotel El Fuerte Marbella, Calle El Fuerte s/n, a short walk from Plaza de los Naranjos. The restaurant serves from 6pm to midnight and the cocktail bar runs 5pm to 1am, daily. Reservations at kenanikkei.com or on +34 951 562 004, and they’re on Instagram as @kenamarbella. Book ahead, especially for sunset slots. Marbella in summer doesn’t leave tables like this empty for long.