A Glitzy LA-Based Sushi Restaurant Is Opening Its First NorCal Location

Sushi Roku’s first Northern California outpost opens at the end of the month in Palo Alto.

A glitzy new sushi restaurant arrives in the heart of Silicon Valley later this month. Sushi Roku, known for its menu of rolls, sashimi, and other upscale Japanese fare, will be located at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto and opens on Thursday, April 30, marking the long-running restaurant’s first expansion into Northern California. The restaurant rolls out with dinner service beginning at 5 p.m. seven days a week and plans to add both happy hour and lunch in the coming weeks.

Diners of a certain age may remember when West Hollywood’s Sushi Roku seemed to draw celebrities through its doors like flies to honey. The stylish restaurant, which first debuted in Los Angeles in 1997, even appeared in a handful of reality TV shows that were popular in the early aughts including The Hills and Rachel Zoe Project. Currently, Sushi Roku has seven locations (including the upcoming Palo Alto outpost) spread across California, Texas, and Nevada. All are owned by Innovative Dining Group, the Southern California-based team behind Boa Steakhouse, Katana, Robata Bar, and a handful of other restaurants.

Chef Jason Shimizu, who comes to Sushi Roku after working at San Francisco restaurants including the Shota and Ozumo, will head up the Palo Alto kitchen. On the menu, expect non-traditional Japanese cuisine such as toro carpaccio, octopus crudo, and baked cod with sweet miso. And while the menu does offer sashimi and nigiri, there’s also a list of rolls like the White Lotus, which features popcorn shrimp tempura, avocado, and asparagus and comes topped with albacore, crispy onions, and wasabi truffle soy. Fitting for health-conscious Bay Area customers, the menu also offers dishes for vegetarian and vegan diners including savory cauliflower with red date and pine nuts, though carnivores can look forward to dishes like bacon-wrapped shrimp and Jidori chicken with teriyaki glaze.

There’s a full cocktail menu to go along with all the food. On top of both domestic and imported beers, sake, and wine, the bar will have a cocktail list featuring a selection of drinks such as the Ueshima Old Fashioned made with espresso-washed WhistlePig rye whiskey, orange demerara syrup, and chocolate bitters. For gins of a clear spirit, the Sundown on Sunset blends Monkey 47 gin, sake, blood orange, apricot brandy, and grapefruit bitters.

LA-based TAG Front Architects designed the 4,500-square-foot restaurant, which features textured Japanese brick tile on the exterior and interior details including an accoya wood screen, live edge walnut bar tops, and textured glass panels. Innovative Dining Group co-founders Lee Maen and Philip Cummins say they hope the restaurant draws diners from both Silicon Valley and the Peninsula and are excited to be a part of the area’s legendary tech community. In 2022, the company also shared plans to open a location of Boa Steakhouse in Palo Alto, though details of that project’s future have yet to be announced.

Sushi Roku Palo Alto at the Stanford Shopping Center (180 El Camino Real #700a, Palo Alto) opens on Thursday, April 30. The restaurant will open at 5 p.m. seven days a week and closes at 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 p.m. Friday through Sunday.