With the opening of Akoya Omakase and Anjin, Kansas City’s Japanese dining scene is raw, refined and heating up the metro

In 2023, I wrote about the new sushi wave rolling through Kansas City. Around that time, the Plaza’s Kura Sushi started delivering sushi on a conveyor belt, Sushi Kodawari marked KC’s first true omakase restaurant, and the excellent Kata Nori opened its hand roll bar. But two years later, it’s clear that our chefs are pulling inspiration beyond nori and fish. Kansas City isn’t just having a sushi awakening; it’s embracing various styles of Japanese dining, from intimate omakase experiences to convivial izakaya-style gatherings. And thank goodness.

Since that article, chef Johnny Leach has brought the tamago sando to XO, a moody Japanese listening lounge in the West Side. Kenichi Ota crafts the noodles of his home country at KC Craft Ramen. At Noka in Martini Corner, flakes of togarashi are dusted on and infused in many of its dishes. The diverse landscape of Japanese cuisine is thriving here if you know where to look. Most recently, that’s Akoya Omakase and Anjin, two restaurants that opened within weeks of each other. One serves some of the best nigiri in town, the other one of the most unique open-kitchen dining experiences in the city. Together, they signal that Kansas City is no longer just embracing Japanese cuisine but helping define what it can look like in the Midwest.

Akoya Omakase

“When I was younger, I hated making sushi,” says Peter Hoang of his early days working in his father’s restaurants, one of them being Sakae Sushi in Parkville. At just 13, he found the pressure of preparing sushi, especially in front of customers, nerve-wracking. Ironically, carefully shaping layers of rice, fish and nori is now what he does nearly every day behind the bar at his own restaurant, Akoya.

Located inside downtown’s Hotel Phillips, Akoya is the second omakase restaurant to open in Kansas City. Diners can order à la carte, but the real magic happens when you opt for the traditional omakase experience (Japanese for “I leave it to you”) and place your trust in Hoang and his team. For him, it’s this personal connection with the diner that changed his attitude toward sushi-making all those years ago. He describes constructing sushi with his bare hands, giving it to the customer and watching them take a bite seconds later as “intimate.”

If you sit at Akoya’s 10-seat bar, you’ll watch Hoang and his chefs press rice into perfect ovals, tuck in freshly grated wasabi and lay silvery slices of fish over the top. Each piece is placed directly onto your plate, meant to be eaten in one bite. The textures and flavors—like creamy Tai sea bream, rich yellowtail and silky Atlantic salmon—melt in your mouth. Trust them, and let it roll around your palate. By the end of the meal, there’s no question: Akoya is serving some of the best fish in the city.

That quality doesn’t happen by accident. Hoang has built lasting relationships with top-tier fish purveyors during his years working in sushi restaurants from New York to Jackson Hole. He’s meticulous about sourcing and handling and personally picks up fish from our city’s airport, routed through Los Angeles and Denver, to ensure everything arrives in pristine condition. It’s neither convenient nor cost-effective, but it’s worth it to him—and to the diner.

Beyond the bar, Akoya has a sleek, quaint dining room. Although Hoang has worked in traditional edomae omakase spots, where fish sourcing is rigid and seating is strictly bar-only, he knew he wanted his restaurant to feel more relaxed. “Those places can be intimidating,” he says. “I know a lot of people here might be trying things for the first time. I want them to laugh, to ask questions, to feel welcome.”

If you’re new to omakase, start with the Umi dining option: two sets of sashimi, eight pieces of nigiri, a hand roll, miso soup and dessert (on one of my visits, I had a delicate chocolate crepe cake). The nigiri are thoughtfully sequenced from lightest to richest—from mackerel to some of the best silky fatty tuna in the city—making for a beautifully paced experience. You can opt for wine or beer, but you must prioritize a glass of sake to pair with your meal.

Akoya is built for discovery. As Hoang puts it, “We’re both being vulnerable, me and the customer. All this is is building a community between great food and great people.”

GO: 106 W. 12th St., KCMO. akoyaomakase.com. Akoya Omakase is open Monday through Saturday from 11 am to 2 pm for lunch and 5 to 10 pm for dinner. 

Anjin

Pop into Anjin in the Crossroads at 10:30 pm on a Monday night and you’ll witness something rare: chef and owner Nick Goellner and his team weaving through a tight kitchen, firing off dishes for a dining room that’s still full and buzzing. Kansas City doesn’t have much of a nightlife—and certainly not when it comes to elevated food options. But at Anjin, you can sit at the 20-seat U-shaped bar, order flights of sake, juicy pork sandos, tender bites of yakitori and steaming bowls of goat stew until midnight. 

The energy of the open kitchen is contagious no matter when you visit. Servers polish glasses. A cook fans coals to flame the makeshift yakitori grill. “Yes, chef” echoes throughout the space. It’s a tightly choreographed scene that feels electric and surprisingly intimate all at once.

The bar and kitchen take up about 90 percent of the dining room, a layout that nods to Japan’s izakayas—casual pubs where locals gather for small plates and sake. Anjin leans into that spirit with its compact, functional design: House-made loaves of shokupan and fresh produce from Greenwillow Farms are tucked into windowsills while bamboo framing lines the walls. It’s a refreshing pivot from Goellner’s other restaurant, the more modern American Antler Room, a longstanding pillar of KC’s fine dining scene. Goellner says Anjin was inspired by the kind of place he and his wife, sommelier Leslie Goellner, would want to visit themselves—somewhere with an open kitchen, where you’re close to the action and feel a part of the choreography.

Taking your order and serving you Japanese beer (you can’t go wrong with a juicy Orion) might be industry veterans like the incomparable local chili oil legend James Chang and Drew Little, who co-owns Anjin with the Goellners. They’ll walk you through the small menu recommending dishes. But let me save you the trouble: Order one of everything.

The cabbage salad was one of the most interesting dishes I’ve had in recent memory: a chaotic mix of mint, fried sardines, Ginko nuts and glassy shards of caramel (a byproduct from the nuts). I took bite after bite just to understand it. The salad’s bounty of textures is one of chef Goellner’s signatures and often seen at the Antler Room. That said, the marinated eggplant salad with blistered shishito peppers, fried shiitake mushrooms and an avocado-sansho pepper purée holds its own.

There are three dishes you must order. First: the skewered meats—fatty chicken tails and hearts and tender chicken oysters mostly sourced from Barham Family Farm in Kearney. Second: the tempura fritters of black tiger prawns, mushrooms, corn, leeks, shishito peppers and pickled red ginger. They’re incredible. “Rip it and dip it,” Chang said as he handed me the plate. Eat it with your hands and drag each piece through the bright tentsuyu dipping sauce. Third: the fried and breaded pork collar sandwich. On a return visit, the pork was subbed with tiger prawns, which was good but no match for the original—gloriously juicy fried pork nestled between white miso egg salad and crunchy Taiwanese shredded cabbage.

After that, you’ll be feeling plenty full, but you must charge ahead. There’s a towering swirl of soft serve to close the meal (black sesame and mango, on my visit). Get both flavors swirled together, and lean into the one “omakase” option at Anjin—letting the server surprise you with a scatter of Japanese candy toppings.

GO: 1708 Oak St., KCMO. anjinkc.com. Anjin is open Thursday through Sunday from 5:30 pm to 11 pm and Monday from 5:30 pm to midnight.

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