Koi Sakana in Bournemouth mission for 'fine dining without the fuss'

Koi Sakana, which means love fish in Japanese, opened its doors this summer, under the ownership of couple Charlotte Mills, 32, and Dan Morley, 31.

The bar has been a huge success to date, selling more than 4,000 oysters in its first three months. 

The pair are from Bournemouth but met in Australia in 2018.

“Our first date we went to Sydney fish market, which is kind of crazy to think now we’ve opened a seafood and oyster bar,” Charlotte said.

“We returned and it was always a dream of Daniel’s initially, and then I kind of pushed him to do it.”

Dan developed a love for oysters while shucking them in Australia and said the idea for the bar came from combining their ‘favourite combos’.

“I just love seafood and we love drinking wine, basically,” he said.

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“We cooked for friends and they said the food was lovely and we should do something with it and we ran with it.”

The search for premises began last year, and after one unit fell through, they snapped up the site at The Triangle and began working on the bar in January.

All the work to fit out the bar has been done by Charlotte and Dan, except for the plumbing and the electrics.

“With material costs at the moment, we tried to be quirky in that way. We tried to make it different to any other restaurant or bar in the area,” Dan said.

Charlotte added: “We wanted the bar to be the centrepiece. We’ve had people sitting on one side of the bar chatting to people they didn’t know on the other side of the bar, for it be a social place.”

The food at Koi Sakana is all locally sourced, prepared fresh in front of customers at the bar, with an emphasis on celebrating local, including English sparkling wine from the Langham Estate in Dorchester.

“The oysters are from Brownsea Island, the crab is from Weymouth, and then we use local suppliers,” Charlotte said.

“It’s all about small plates, it's reasonably priced, so we love the idea of people coming in and trying something they wouldn’t normally try.”

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Dan added: “Oysters are very typically for the upper classes, people think, but they’re really not, it’s just where you’re eating them. We think here is a great area for people to come in and try things.

“That’s my main thing, is having people try new things. We’ve had a lot of people that have tried things they wouldn’t usually try.”

The pair plan to expand the menu gradually, changing it seasonally to match what food is available and fresh in Dorset.

Since the bar opened in June, it has received rave reviews.

Charlotte and Dan have been really pleased with the feedback they have received so far and hope to expand into towns like Lymington and Christchurch in the future.

“Most people have come and have ended up staying for the majority of the evening, just having more drinks and listening to music,” Charlotte said.

“The feedback that we’ve had has been brilliant. Everyone’s absolutely loved it.”

They said they would like to attend food festivals and events, too, like the Christchurch Food Festival and Christmas Markets.

“We’d like to have a chain of them one day, that would be the ambition,” Charlotte said.

“We need to build this one up more, get this one busier and hopefully continue getting good feedback.”

The Daily Echo is running a mini-series highlighting some of the best achievements and stories from the hospitality sector in and around Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. 

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