Tucked into an industrial corner of Germantown, O-Ku brings a refreshing update to Nashville’s sushi scene.
Jen McDonald
One of several O-Kus across the Southeast, the chic, Japanese-inspired space is owned by The Indigo Road (Oak Steakhouse). The kitchen crafts inspired Asian dishes with an emphasis on super-fresh sushi and nigiri—they have seafood flown in weekly from markets like Honolulu and Tokyo’s Tsukiji, but also source from local farmers and purveyors to craft innovative nigiri, makimono, and composed small plates.
Marked by cream-white pendant lights, suede banquettes, and bare tables, the wooden-and-brick room is effortlessly cool but still casual. You’ll be comfortable enough in jeans, or bringing a pair of adventurous kiddos.
Jen McDonald
Chef Eric Hill, originally from Oregon, has cooked in and helped open other O-Kus. His first culinary gig was with a Japanese bistro in Salt Lake City, where he was taught by long-time sushi pros who made him chop cucumbers for months before allowing him to touch the fish. There, he met his fiancée, originally from Kobe, Japan. They’ve traveled extensively through her home country, giving Hill an appreciation for the culture.
“It’s really invigorated my own cooking, and inspired me to put my own twist on it here,” he says.
“There’s flexibility in the dishes,” he says, meaning they allow themselves to add Southern elements and ingredients. Take the tebasaki, or crispy fried chicken, a crowd favorite. He uses Belle Meade Bourbon in the Korean barbecue sauce, adding a layer of smoke and a local connection. The Nash Vegas roll, true to its name, is an over-the-top fried roll combining crab, spicy salmon, and goat cheese mousse.
There are chef specialties, like a butter-poached lobster temaki handroll, oysters topped with ponzu, and miso Hamachi tacos. Under robata-yaki, look for the hotate scallop, wrapped with a bit of sage and miso butter in a skin of prosciutto, or the kamo-negi, a sliver of spiced duck breast in a plum barbecue sauce. O-Ku nigiri, meanwhile, are bite-sized compositions of flavor, like unagi dabbed with spicy aioli and a candy walnut crunch, or tuna topped in a tonnato sauce—a doubled dose of the firm-fish flavor.
Jen McDonald
O-Ku plays to both the adventurous and the classically minded. Some makimono are flavor bombs: a Playboy roll gets loaded with crab, wagyu beef, herb aioli, and goat cheese mousse; the 808 rolls up tempura softshell crab with mango, cucumber, radish, and a poke tuna salad. They also offer the standard-bearers: California, spicy tuna, shrimp tempura.
Pro tip: All rolls are half-price during happy hour from 5-7 p.m. three nights a week.
There’s plenty of sake to drink, including premium bottles like Two Cranes, a daiginjo that’s swimming with gold flecks. If Japanese whiskey is your jam, try the Music City Momo, which gets a kick of heat from an ice cube studded with red chiles—as it melts, the heat of the cocktail builds.
Non-seafood lovers will appreciate Japanese mushroom farro risotto, chicken donburi, or, even better, the tableside tobanyaki, or slices of well-marbled A-5 wagyu beef cooked over a hot stone. It’s a splurge, to be sure. But for those seeking out fun at the table and fresh, thoughtful seafood, O-Ku delivers.
O-Ku, 81 Van Buren St., 629-900-0021; okunashville.com.