Two H Mart Food Court Stalls Are Closing in Austin

Austin restaurants Japanese stall Roba Katsu and Korean fried chicken stall Donkey Mo’s have closed their respective locations within H Mart’s food court Market Eatery this month in the Lakeline neighborhood. Both closed at 11301 Lakeline Boulevard on Sunday, March 21.

The shutters are happening because of what Min Choe, the CEO of the restaurants’ parent company CKN Hospitality, describes as “disagreements” with the management of the international Asian supermarket chain. “It’s been a difficult relationship, and we’re happy to move on,” he shared in a press release.

Eater asked Choe for further clarification, but he declined through a rep. Eater also reached out to H Mart, but hasn’t heard back yet.

The H Mart location had been Roba Katsu’s sole location. Donkey’s Lakeline Mall food court location remains open for takeout and delivery. CKN wants to eventually reopen Roba at some point, and it’s currently looking for a new Donkey’s location somewhere in East or South Austin too.

The first-ever Austin H Mart opened in 2018 with its then-first-ever food hall court. The court at the time touted two stalls from Eater Young Gun 2015 and San Francisco chef Deuki Hong: an expansion of his established Korean fried chicken restaurant Sunday Bird; and then a new Korean barbecue restaurant Sunday BBQ. It looks like the barbecue restaurant never opened, and the Korean fried chicken restaurant closed within a year — Donkey’s actually took over Sunday Bird’s location (the San Francisco location is still temporarily closed because of the pandemic).

CKN also operates the new Korean barbecue restaurant Jjim on South Lamar, which opened in February.

Update, 10:30 a.m.: This article, originally published at 9:55 a.m., has been updated to reflect that Donkey’s location at H Mart has closed already.

• All Coverage of H Mart [EATX]