With this interactive map, you will find all the nearby places to fish and boat. 24 guests per night with seatings of 12 people.(please wait a second for the map to load) There are two seatings per night at 6 and 8:30 p.m. The meals are $175 per person with a la carte drinks. Patrons are then ushered into the 12-seat omakase dining room, where they’re greeted with cute cat chopstick holders and cat plates for the oshibori. During recent preview meals, the team made items like bluefin tuna tartare atop a nori tart, madai crudo, and nigiri like hirame, hotate, and wagyu.Ĭraft Omakase’s physical space includes a back-of-the-building entrance with an entry lounge for the bar where guests check in and receive welcome cocktails. Drinks include sake-based cocktails like the Paola with prosecco, thyme, and lemon and the Hachiya Akarui with persimmon, hibiscus, grapefruit, and migori. That ethos is spread throughout the 20-course meal that includes nigiri, raw tastings, cooked dishes, and a dessert. Craft Omakase The lounge of Craft Omakase. The omakase dining room of Craft Omakase. “We don’t want to make the food to a point where we’re losing the essence of what Japanese cuisine is,” he says. Of the latter, Wang explains how “in the modern era of Japanese foods, there’s so many things going on on top of the dish.” Instead, at Craft, they want to make sure that they’re not doing that. The three have built Craft Omakase with five foundational principles: balance, comfort, seasonality, technique, and, as Wang describes, “the most important part,” tradition. “It lit a desire in me to be able to slow down and provide our guests with a really handcrafted customized experience.” Their collective previous restaurant experiences trained them well when it comes to higher-volume dining, but it made Boyer realize he wanted something different. “We really feel humbly confident that we can provide our guests with a one-size-fits-one experience,” he says. “We want to focus on the craft,” he says, “the basic fundamentals of every single element of fine-dining, not just the food but the service.”īoyer echoes that sentiment. “In fine dining, we noticed this pattern where price points increased because everything increased,” says Wang, “yet the level of execution and service didn’t increase along with it.” That’s why they wanted to operate as a small team and be involved with every aspect of the restaurant and its operations.

Craft Omakase Prepping a nigiri piece at Craft Omakase. And the North Lamar location and space was perfect for what they wanted to do.Īn oyster dish at Craft Omakase. “I guess when you put it out into the universe, it throws it back to you.” He continues: “We’re literally in the shadow of the biggest sushi restaurant in town,” but what they’re doing is different service-wise since it’s only omakase. During the planning process, Wang and Nguyen would joke that “if Uchiko doesn’t work out for us, maybe we’ll open a restaurant down the street,” Wang tells Eater. The fact that the restaurant is within blocks of their former employer is just a funny coincidence. The trio had been wanting to open a restaurant of their very own, self-funded without any bosses or investors. Rounding out the Craft team is general manager Julianna Fry, who worked at Sushi|Bar ATX with Wang and previously had been the bar manager of Kemuri Tatsu-ya and shuttered Eastside Showroom. Both Wang and Nguyen had been head sushi chefs, while Boyer worked front-of-house positions. Craft Omakase will open at 4400 North Lamar Boulevard, Suite 102 in the Rosedale neighborhood on Wednesday, December 6.īefore embarking on Craft Omakase, co-owners and co-partners Charlie Wang, Nguyen Nguyen, and Tim Boyer worked at Uchiko for eight, nine, and 12 years, respectively.

A new Japanese omakase is opening in Austin this December, run by three former staffers of popular restaurant Uchiko.

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