Is he really?

yes

The loss of all three stars by Araki seems correct.

Restaurant never made sense to me. Have had sushi that's 10x better for more than half the price.

That's a huge loss. Most restaurants just drop 1 star at a time.

Generelly very sceptical how a sushi-place shall earn 3 stars. Also many seem to lost every sense for reality regarding prices. Often price is justfied with rare fish, something I not even wonna support.

They have reset based on Araki-san's return to Japan. I think that's fair.
Based on reviews, pictures and price I won't be dining there.
With only 10 covers it's no surprise they charge what they do.

I've been to the nearby 2* Umu which is a very different experience. Kaiseki rather than just sushi. I didn't feel it merited those stars but that might have been because of my meal choices. They have *a lot* of seats in comparison and about half the price.

IMO sushi only places *can* be deserving of 3 stars. I've been to a few and at least two of those were (again IMO) clearly 3*. If you took someone there who didn't know about the stars they would say "That was amazing" in a stunned manner at the end of the meal.

Why can’t sushi be 3 stars places? Not sure I understand the reasoning here

Don´t say it can´t but I´m sceptical. I can´t see very much cooking with classical Sushi.

Yes, not much cooking aside from some specific items like abalone, shrimps, eel, .... but it takes just as much skill to be a good sushi chef as any other types of chef. Think fish selection (sardine season now in Japan so which port has the best sardines?), aging (most fish are aged for a few hours to a few days), rice preparation (which type of vinegar and which type of rice, some chef use different types for different fishes), fish cutting (which part to serve and how to cut, how thick and how large), course progression (which piece first?), seasoning (shoyu, wasabi, ginger, scallion, shallots, ....), .... There are so many factors going into fine dining sushi!

They have to get there by different means.
There are plenty of 3* places that have got there by a sense of theatre, some who have got their primarily because of the room and service as much as the food. The only way you can do it with Sushi is by ingredient selection, craft in rice preparation, knife skills and a few special touches that set you apart from the competition. Cheffy presentation on 'not plates' with foams and pearls is one thing, but it's not what makes me personally rate a place.
Sushi Yoshitake in Tokyo and Sushi Shikon in Hong Kong are both excellent.
I haven't been to the former in a long time, and I haven't been to the latter since it's recent move but I never regretted the cost of those meals.
[Shikon was supposed to be going to a bigger venue but the Mandarin Oriental must have convinced him to keep the traditional counter + 1 private room format. I'm glad. The price has remained the same as when he was in the Mercer which was a bit of a hole really.]
I do agree though that there are some massively over-hyped and over-valued sushi places. It's all a matter of personal taste and preference in the end, and 'advertising' affects us all, generating expectations, promising experiences...
Some of the photos I've seen on TripAdvisor for the recent sushi at The Araki London were quite poor IMO. Even the arrangement of the ingredients in the boxes prior to prep seemed slack. You wouldn't ever see that at the places I mentioned. The theatre and precision of the prep is part of the experience.

I'm still looking for the perfect roast chicken. Can French Onion Soup, Roast Chicken and Creme Brule ever make a Michelin meal? I live in hope. Bouillabaisse has made it. Bao of various descriptions have made it. Food done to perfection will always be worth a special trip for me :)

At the Mandarin, Kaki-San is running both Shikon and the new kappo restaurant. Tbh, I prefer Sushi Masataka over Shikon and haven’t tried Shikon at the new location yet. But will have to soon since Masataka himself left the restaurant and hasn’t opened up his new place yet. So I am out of a fine dining sushi place. Uehara is also very good in HK

Thanks for the info
From the photos they look very similar, very similar price as well, so that might be backing OPs point rather than opposing it :)
Not heard of this place before. It does look good, but I wouldn't put the presentation at the top level. We're getting into esoterics here. A gaping knife slice here, an imbalanced presentation there. I have no reason to believe it is not as delicious as the other places we've talked about. It's also a bit out of the way for a lot of folks. But thanks for the recommendation, I don't mind travelling for good food.
I can't see their pricing. I presume they're not HKD 3500?

Given I'm not based in Asia, I'm having to think would I be better heading to HK and the new Saito or just push on to Japan and the more numerous and cheaper top quality options there. If there was ever a body of people to give an informed opinion on that question I think I'm in the right place :)

It is about half that price so some of the deficiencies are forgiven. It is also the place where the Japanese expats go for good sushi

London: Core by Claire Smith 2 stars
 

Claire Smith was in the past chef at Gorden Ramsey at Hospital Road were she was awarded with 3 Michelin stars. I visited in 2012 and really enjoyed my meal. So I was really excited to try her own restaurant Core which received 2 Michelin stars.
The restaurant is located at Notting Hill. We entered the restaurant and were first seated at the bar till our table was ready. As the restaurant was mostly empty this time not really logical. This bar seating seems to be a new trend which I don´t like.
The first restaurant room is split in 2 parts. One is a big table which acts as chefs table. Behind a glass wall is the open kitchen.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8d9083c27c.jpg
The second room is the main dining room which is furnished mainly in white colors. The table were very nicely decorated.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...33861a46bb.jpg
Our meal started with beautiful looking small bites which also tasted very good.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6f53685250.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f29687d1e8.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9bf7637ee5.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f86fa00e66.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...61253b91eb.jpg
Butter
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9a6687dca9.jpg
We decided to take the Core Classic menu (125 GBP) and contained no meat this evening.
Isle of Mull scallop tartare
sea vegetable Consommé
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...54eb3473b9.jpg
'Cheese and onion'
alliums, aged cheddar and onion broth
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...47f4eb6a6e.jpg
‘Potato and roe’
dulse beurre blanc, herring and trout roe
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...789271afa5.jpg
Roasted monkfish
Morecambe bay shrimps, Swiss chard, brown butter
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...62a219cfe7.jpg
I can´t remember what the following 2 courses were excactly.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c75414089e.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...98d2f87cfe.jpg
‘Core apple’
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ddbfa673b9.jpg
Pear and verbena
poire Williams sorbet
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...a73fe9560a.jpg
Petit fours
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7e814f859c.jpg
The meal was really really god, in my eyes the best I had in London this time. Without saying too much About my upcoming meals at Gordon Ramsey and Alain Ducasse I can´t understand the 2 star rating here while the 2 formentioned hold 3 stars. The food at Core was in my eyes simply better. I can absolutely recommend Core, it´s a very good restaurant.

Core does look exactly my kind of fine dining from reviews and from seeing your photos. I actually tried to go on a recent trip to London, but it's understandably a bit too popular for one of my usual last minute trips. I ended up at Sketch Gallery (the newly 3* minted Sketch library was unsurprisingly full) which has unfortunately gotten uncomfortably "instagrammy" since I was last there and is no longer such a fun place to hang out and just enjoy the scenery. So. Many. Girls. With. iPhones.