Turin Sushi Restaurant with the Deepest Calcio Connection

Opening a sushi restaurant in the world’s greatest culinary nation is the bold move of someone not afraid of competition and confident of succeeding.

That could be why Legami, on Viale Francia in Turin and owned by former Juventus midfielder Claudio Marchisio, is thriving.

Marchisio was one of the cornerstones of Antonio Conte’s Juve side in the early 2010s. A jack of all trades, Marchisio graduated from the youth academy to make more than 380 appearances in Juve colours, and won a host of trophies including seven Serie A titles.

He left in 2018 for a brief stint with Zenit St Petersburg in Russia before calling time on his career at the tender age of 33. Several years before retiring, however, Marchisio and his wife opened Legami.

A five-minute drive from Vinovo – where the first team used to train – Legami is a part of a complex with several shops and restaurants.

Japanese elegance and dimmed lighting give the place a cosy feel, yet the tables are spaced out to give enough room. A window looks into the kitchen, where you can see the chefs working away.

The tropical salmon tartare and branzino tartare were first up. The branzino, which cost €16, included raw sea bass, guacamole, burrata cheese and was topped off with pistachio. The touch of burrata just added that extra bit of flavour.

The tropical salmon tasted just as fresh, with avocado, mango and greek yogurt coming together to compliment the chunks of fish. 

Tonno tataki and salmon croccante were next. The tataki, at €19, with raw tuna seared with Peruvian mais, sweet potatoes and cashew cream, was small but delightful. The tuna simply melted in the mouth.

The croccante, costing €16, was a slightly bigger dish, with teriyaki, Japanese spinach and sesame seeds. The salmon was tender on the inside but firm on the outside, while the combination of sesame and spinach worked well together. 

Such has been the success of Legami in Turin, that Marchisio has opened two more, one in Bergamo and the other in Rome. 

If the one in Turin is anything to go by, next time you find yourself in either city and take a craving for sushi, head for Legami. You won’t be disappointed. 

The location

Vinovo, which was built in 2006 with a spectacular view of the Alps in the south-west pocket of Turin, housed stars such as Gigi Buffon, Alessandro del Piero, Pavel Nedved, Andrea Pirlo, Gonzalo Higuain, Giorgio Chiellini and many more until 2018, when the club switched the men’s training to the newly built Continassa facility beside the Allianz Stadium.

With eight regular sized pitches, a swimming pool, media centre, a football tennis court, a sports medical centre, gym, and a physiotherapy, Vinovo is still a top-class facility as it celebrates it’s 20th birthday.

Now used by Juve’s Next Gen youth academy and the women’s first team, Destination Calcio was given a tour in early 2026 and the sun was shining as the women’s side trained on one of the pitches.

Juve established their women’s team in 2017 and won the Scudetto in their first season in existence. A further five have followed, as well as four Coppa Italia titles and five Italian Super Cups. 

The Next Gen, meanwhile, was an evolution of Juve’s youth setup. Initially called Juve U23 upon the reintroduction of reserve sides within the Italian football pyramid for the first time in 40 years in 2018, the club switched its name to Next Gen in 2022 and can count Pirlo and former Juve defender Paolo Montero among past coaches.

Current stars such as Fabio Miretti, Kenan Yildiz and past players Dean Huijsen, Samuel Mbangula, Nicolo Savona and Samuel Iling-Junior received a football education at Vinovo, with the decision to embed sides in Serie C a much better alternative than sending young hopefuls out on loan to Serie B and C sides in the hope they might get some minutes of action.