Hikari Japanese Roots

Nine seats, one menu, no decisions to make — Hikari is worth booking

Picture this: you sit down at a nine-seat counter in a quiet corner of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, before a single plate arrives, the chef addresses everyone in the room at once to walk through what's coming. There are no menus to parse, no choices to agonise over. The work has been done for you. If a focused, chef-led tasting experience is what you're after, book it.

What Hikari does technically

Chef David Rivero runs a single surprise omakase menu with the option to add an extra main course for a supplement. That's the entire offer. There is no à la carte fallback, no mix-and-match flexibility, that constraint is a feature, not a limitation. Omakase, at its core, is a format built on trust: you surrender the decision to the kitchen, the kitchen takes responsibility for the full arc of the meal. Rivero reinforces that contract by briefing the whole room simultaneously, which requires, he does require, punctuality from every guest. Arriving late disrupts the communal timing of the service. Come on time.

The format also suits the scale of the room. Nine counter seats and a handful of tables means this is genuinely small-operation cooking: the kind where the chef is present, the pace is controlled, the difference between a good and a weak execution is visible in real time. For returning guests, the relevant question isn't whether the format holds up (the Michelin recognition suggests it does) but whether the menu has evolved. Because the offering is a surprise omakase, there is no fixed reference point, what you experienced on a first visit will not be repeated exactly, which is precisely the reason to come back.

Compared to Japanese omakase in Tokyo, where venues like Myojaku or Azabu Kadowaki operate within a deep ecosystem of suppliers, traditions, competition, Hikari is working in a very different context. What it appears to offer is a sincere translation of the omakase structure in a city where the format is rare. That relative rarity, the quality signal from the Michelin Plate, makes it the default recommendation for Japanese fine dining in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. There is nothing directly comparable in the city at this price tier.

Who this is for

Hikari is well-suited for solo diners and pairs. The nine-seat counter is the format's natural home for individuals eating alone, you are seated alongside other guests, engaged in a communal experience, the counter removes the social awkwardness of a table for one in a quiet room. If you ate here before and sat at a table, the counter is worth requesting on your next visit: it puts you closer to the action and gives the meal a different character.

For groups, the small total capacity, nine counter seats plus a limited number of tables, makes coordination harder. The restaurant's own guidance recommends booking in advance given demand, a larger group would need to account for the fact that the omakase is timed to the room as a whole. A party of four or five is workable; anything bigger would likely require taking over a substantial share of the dining room and should be discussed directly with the restaurant at the time of booking.

At €€€ pricing, this sits in the mid-to-upper range for Las Palmas. That is broadly comparable to Poemas by Hermanos Padrón and meaningfully below Muxgo at €€€€. Given the format, a multi-course omakase where the kitchen directs the pace and content, the price is consistent with what the experience delivers. If you are comparing on value, the question is whether you want creative Canarian cooking (Poemas, Muxgo) or a focused Japanese-rooted tasting experience. They are not competing for the same appetite.

How It Compares

Within Las Palmas de Gran Canaria's higher-end dining options, Hikari occupies a specific and largely uncontested position: it is the only venue in the city offering a dedicated Japanese omakase format with Michelin recognition. The closest peers by price are Poemas by Hermanos Padrón and Tabaiba, both creative restaurants rooted in Canarian produce and tradition. If your priority is local identity, dishes that connect to the islands' ingredients and culture, those are stronger choices. If you want a format built around Japanese culinary logic, with a chef who controls every element of the meal, Hikari is the only option at this level.

Muxgo at €€€€ is the city's most ambitious creative restaurant and the right choice if you want to spend more and push further into tasting-menu territory with Canarian inflections. El Equilibrista 33 and Deliciosamarta at €€ are worth knowing if you want creative cooking without the commitment of a full omakase at €€€ prices. Neither is a substitute for what Hikari does; they are simply different formats at a lower price point.

For practical decision-making: if someone in your group is sceptical of the omakase format, no menu, no choices, communal timing, steer them toward Poemas or El Equilibrista instead. Hikari rewards guests who are already bought into the format. It is not the place to convince someone that omakase is worth trying; it is the place to go when you already know you want it and you are in Las Palmas.

Explore more in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

• Our full Las Palmas de Gran Canaria restaurants guide
• Our full Las Palmas de Gran Canaria hotels guide
• Our full Las Palmas de Gran Canaria bars guide
• Our full Las Palmas de Gran Canaria wineries guide
• Our full Las Palmas de Gran Canaria experiences guide

Spanish fine dining context

If Hikari is part of a wider Spain trip, the country's tasting-menu scene extends well beyond the Canaries. El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Arzak in San Sebastián, Azurmendi in Larrabetzu, Cocina Hermanos Torres in Barcelona, DiverXO in Madrid, and Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María all operate at a different scale and with significantly harder booking windows. Hikari, by comparison, is approachable, but do not take that for granted and skip the advance reservation.