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This glowing pink restaurant is an op-art treat

An illuminated pink sushi restaurant because why not?

By Liz Stinson
Pink glowing floors in restaurant Photo: Hip Pop Design via Designboom

In 2019 it’s hard to say—do you go to a restaurant for its food or its backdrop? With the new Shanghai restaurant, Omakase, the answer is, probably both.

Designed by the Shanghai studio Hip Pop Design, the sushi eatery is a rosy dreamworld filled with pink translucent walls, glowing floors, and cherry blossom decals that make the space feel like a Barbie-themed video game come to life. According to Designboom, the design is, in fact, inspired by “sakura rain,” the phenomenon of cherry blossom petals falling to the ground.

A sushi restaurant with glowing pink walls and wooden tables. The walls are decorated with a sakura pattern. Photo: Hip Pop Design via Designboom
The interior of a sushi restaurant with glowing pink walls and floors. Photo: Hip Pop Design via Designboom

The restaurant hosts a series of tables and bars broken up by translucent pink panels emblazoned with cherry blossom flowers. In between the panels, a strip of warm lights illuminate the space, giving the entire restaurant an ethereal glow.

Translucent pink walls decorated with a sakura pattern in a sushi restaurant. Photo: Hip Pop Design via Designboom

These individual seating areas center around a staircase and glassy private dining room that’s also illuminated. With its labyrinthine layout and glowing, gauzy palette, the restaurant brilliantly (and unexpectedly) plays with perception and reality.

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