Saw this on YT and it looks interesting. Any thoughts on how this will be received in the US? They say they will open in SF, NYC, and LA first.
I got stuck on this:
If you come here, you can taste various genres of “authentic Japan food”. In order to provide customers with such fun, sushi, Japan cuisine, Chinese cuisine, creative (innovative), yakitori, and tempura will be one unit, and one store will consist of seven member stores.
I think that it may be that they put all their concepts under one building sort of like a food court with each space dedicated to a certain restaurant. So one place will have seven different restaurants for you to try.
Yeah. But I only counted six items - one of which was Chinese cuisine. Or maybe “fun” is its own genre?
so apparently this is still in the works to open by year end? it’s pretty wild to me.
i know a lot of big openings from Japan are slated for NY this and next year, but this is something altogether different. and the plan is LA, NY, and Vegas, then more? wow
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So saito is opening multiple locations?
No this is not really a normal branch, it’s just kind of a satellite in a food hall-like setup. All of the 18 or so participating restaurants seem to be hiring for Round 1 and it doesn’t appear that they’re necessarily sending actual current staff members from Japan. It seems like the participants will have a presence here via that food hall, but that’s not the same thing as a normal branch.
I had a brief conversation with one of the participating restaurants in Japan, but didn’t learn too many details.
Sushi Saito does have multiple branches already - Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, one in Azabudai Hills, etc. This Round 1 hall certainly won’t be “Sushi Saito LA,” but the crazy thing to me is the lineup of participants who are doing this anyway.
For some participants, this will be their first foray outside. Kataori, Takiya, etc. It seems like this will be a food hall like setup around a bar in an entertainment complex; I can’t get my head around that.
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Wow that sounds really weird and also a great way to water down your brand! But will wait to see what happens.
looks like this might be 8 restaurants coming to 8497 Sunset Blvd (cross street La Cienaga)
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Kikuzushi (Fukuoka) and Sushi Koma (Akita) confirmed, amongst others. Yakitori Goichi (Osaka). Sushi Riku (Tokyo) it seems as well, but I will try to ask if I make it there in November.
Looks like a March 2026 opening.
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i went to Riku but forgot to ask.
but no Arai.
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most recent estimate is supposedly July-Sept for LA, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be a little bit after that given the recruitment traiing times. apparently Round1’s high end collection is called “Sora.”
as of a few months ago, the 8 stores plus bar for LA Sora were slated to be:
- sushi: Kikuzushi (Fukuoka)
- sushi: Sushi Koma (Akita)
- sushi: Teruzushi (Fukuoka)
- tempura: Takiya (Tokyo)
- French: Ao (Tokyo)
- washoku: Kataori (Ishikawa)
- wood-fired / yakitori: Makitori Shin-Kobe (Tokyo)
- Chinese: Ginza Jotaki (Tokyo)
bar: Centifolia (Tokyo)
naturally, there are challenges to recreating a restaurant or giving a good representation of it. especially for a place like Kataori. we can be positive and hope for the best..
later, there are plans for more casual food halls in other locations with outposts of restaurants featuring udon, takoyaki, curry, kushiage, tonkatsu, onigiri, etc. for LA, the estimate is early-mid 2027.
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If they can pull off Kataori, I’d be geeked!
it’s going to be quite the challenge…
Kataori-san’s daily roundtrips to gather ingredients from the best of Hokuriku / Noto seem to be kind of a sine qua non to his cuisine. including the specific water.
if you want a glimpse of Kataori’s cuisine, maybe check out Funakoshi in Fukuoka, fairly easy to get in for now and not yet super hyped. Funakoshi-san trained at Kataori for washoku and Kikuzushi for sushi.
my review forthcoming later this month…
i do struggle to understand how Round1 Delicious can pull this off, but i also want them to do well because these restaurants they’ve partnered with deserve a lot of credit and an international reputation. my fear is that if the stores aren’t the representation they can be, people will think they’ve had the cuisine of these restaurants but not really have experienced it. i think it’ll come down to how good the trainee chefs are, which may matter more for some restaurants than others that are more ingredient specific. If Numata is still going through, that is one I can see doing well because Numata-san has already opened up satellite branches.
@adapter18 Sushi Arai is not participating. haven’t heard any updates about Sushi Saito.
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Exactly.
while i think there are challenges to internationally scaling a restaurant that is so tied to its ingredients (e.g. Ao, Kataori), it seems that Sushi Koma (from Akita) is taking things really seriously. for a year and a half now, they’ve been operating a sister restaurant in Akita, simply called Sushiya, as a training grounds for their chefs in prep for the international move.
so while we may not get their local ingredients like their gasaebi, a special kind of shrimp, the hope is that we’ll get some of the creative dishes for which Sushi Koma is known: miso-marinated ankimo, amadai nigiri with fried scales on top, swordfish nigiri with mustard and onion soy, 2-in-1 tall iwashi(hoso)maki with pickles, tsubugai with ume paste, hotaruika nigiri with squid ink rice and kimizu, etc etc. fried wagasaki chip, ayu with its innards cooked in hojicha, they’re testing some interesting dishes. Sushi Koma having a unique, creative style to share makes me more hopeful that a branch can be a good representation.
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Lineup of 8 restaurants + bar confirmed for LA location
Now called Tenshou (no longer Sora). That’s a good move, because Sora has a name with some hotel sushi in Tokyo, so this will help avoid confusion.
Lineup for other locations:
Las Vegas (at BLVD on the Strip, across the Aria and Waldorf Astoria hotels):
- Sushi Koma (sushi)
- Jotaki (Chinese)
- Teruzushi (sushi)
- Suzutashiki (makiyaki)
- Torien (yakitori)
- Numata (tempura)
and Bar Centifolia (cocktails)
New York Grand Central:
- Kikuzushi (sushi)
- Shinohara (kaiseki)
- Naruse (tempura)
- CHIUnE (contemporary)
- Makitori Shin-Kobe (yakitori)
and Bar Centifolia (cocktails)
New York Broadway
- Numata (tempura)
- Goichi (yakitori)
- Teruzushi (sushi)
- Jotaki (Chinese)
- Sushi Riku (sushi)
- Kataori (kappo)
and Bar Centifolia (cocktails)
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I took the liberty to rename this thread to “Tenshou Omakase Japanese Collections,” which is the name of the Round1 Delicious setup in the US. I hope that renaming the thread is OK.
I think the renaming is appropriate because the original title had named Saito and Arai, but they are no longer participating.
The lineup from May is confirmed per their website recently. They’re hiring now so I think the West Hollywood openings will happen sometime this fall.
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interesting. thanks for bubbling this back to the top
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reservations opening up Nov. 1 at least for the Vegas ones (on Tock). it says gratuities are respectfully declined. I think the LA openings are probably not far behind.
surprised there’s been no real media reporting on these openings.
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