Popular Los Angeles Sushi and Steakhouse Restaurants Are Coming to Austin

Two popular Los Angeles restaurants are making their way into Texas in the downtown Austin area next year. First, there’s the Japanese restaurant Sushi Roku, which will open on 405 Colorado Street starting sometime in 2023. Then there’s the American restaurant BOA Steakhouse, to open on 300 West Fifth Street in spring 2023.

Sushi Roku focuses on what it deems as “non-traditional” rolls, as well as sashimi, and nigiri. Then there are appetizers like skewers, crudos, and baked cod, as well as entrees like teriyaki-glazed salmon that is served with grilled asparagus and mashed potatoes. Drinks include sake, Japanese beers and whiskys, wines, and cocktails.

BOA’s steakhouse menu includes all sorts of steaks, including dry-aged and wagyu options, as well as salads, lobster tails, and baked potatoes, alongside cocktails, beers, and wines.

Sushi Roku and BOA’s parent company Innovative Dining Group decided on expanding into Austin because of its rapid growth as a major tech city (BOA is opening in Meta/Facebook building). Downtown was appealing because of its mixture of offices and nightlife (which also falls in line with the appeal of BOA among influencers).

Along with these first-ever Texas locations, Innovative Dining Group is also opening new locations of both Sushi Roku and BOA in Manhattan Beach in California in October 2022, and both in Palo Alto in 2023.

Also under the hospitality group’s umbrella is Japanese restaurant Katana, Japanese pub bar Robata Bar, Los Angeles airport restaurant B Grill, and third-party delivery restaurant BOA Burger. There are a total of five current locations of Sushi Roku and BOA in the greater Los Angeles area, and Sushi Rokus in Las Vegas and Scottsdale, Arizona. The first Sushi Roku opened in Santa Monica in 2001, the first BOA in 2017 in West Hollywood.

This isn’t the first Los Angeles sushi restaurant to open in Austin semi-recently. Los Angeles chef Phillip Frankland Lee and pastry chef Margarita Kallas-Lee opened their LA omakase Sushi|Bar on East Cesar Chavez first as a pop-up in late 2020 and a permanent restaurant in the summer of 2021. Since then, the couple left the Austin restaurant (which still retains the same name) and opened a new sushi restaurant in Cedar Park under the new branding Sushi by Scratch (as well as an Italian tasting menu restaurant and a to-come omakase in the Hill Country).

Rendering: Sushi Roku

Update, 2:43 p.m.: This article, originally published at 1:32 p.m., has been updated to correct when Sushi Roku is expected to open.