Japanese Restaurant Group Announces New Restaurant Near Burnside Bridgehead

The Tokyo-based TKS Group has just announced by press release that it’ll open Kuu, a Japanese restaurant at the corner of NE Martin Luther King Boulevard and Burnside. The release does not lay out the culinary vision, aside from saying the food will be rooted in Japanese tradition and feature local ingredients, but Portlanders are already familiar with the group’s style, through its three local restaurants: Shigezo Izakaya, Yataimura Maru, and Kichinto Izakaya.

Kuu is preparing to open summer 2017. It will be located inside the new Slate building, which is also home to Cosube, the cafe, beer bar, and surf shop all rolled into one. TKS Group launched in Tokyo in 1991, and it entered the Portland market with partner Tamio Nojima when it opened Shigezo in 2010. Since then, it has served many of Japan’s most iconic foods, including sushi, ramen, izakaya plates like karaage fried chicken, and yakatori skewers.