Omakai Sushi, the Miami-born sushi brand known for its warm-rice hand rolls, is leaving Florida for the first time, announcing two new Chicago locations as part of what the company calls its most significant period of growth. The brand is debuting its flagship omakase concept at 951 W Fulton Market and a separate hand roll bar at 507 N Wells Street in River North, marking its entry into a major metropolitan market outside its home state.
The announcement, detailed in a release from PR Newswire, also confirms new sushi and hand roll bar locations planned for Brickell, alongside Omakai's first signed lease in Orlando, its newest Florida market. Founder and CEO Diego Quijada called the leap outside Florida a defining moment for the company, and credited the community for driving the brand's rapid growth. The Fulton Market flagship will seat 66 guests on its first floor and include a basement bar, while the River North hand roll bar will offer 30 seats at its counter. Both Chicago spots are slated to open before the end of 2026, serving lunch, happy hour and dinner, with exact opening dates, hours and reservation details to be announced in the coming weeks, according to Dana Rozansky, Omakai's director of marketing.
From a Single Wynwood Counter to a Regional Name
Omakai's roots trace back to a single restaurant that opened in Wynwood in 2019, founded by brothers Diego and Pedro Quijada, friend Nicolas Sayavedra, and Executive Chef Aaron Pate. Pate began his sushi training in Hawaii in 1996, studied in Tokyo for three years, and later worked at Shiro's in Seattle, where he met co-founder Diego Quijada, according to CBS News. The brand describes itself as built on the Japanese concept of omotenashi, offering seasonal chef-selected appetizers, nigiri and hand rolls alongside homakase sushi boxes for takeout and delivery through UberEats.
Omakai's first neighborhood expansion beyond Wynwood came in early 2022, when the company opened a full-service restaurant on Mary Street in Coconut Grove, per PROFILEmiami, a move that served as a blueprint for expanding the sit-down omakase model elsewhere in South Florida. The company has since expanded across South Florida to Coconut Grove, Doral, Aventura and Downtown Miami, building the multi-location footprint that preceded this week's Chicago announcement.
A Viral Boost and a Split-Format Strategy
Much of that South Florida momentum can be traced to a July 2024 TikTok review from viral food critic Keith Lee, who posted a glowing take on Omakai's takeout boxes that generated widespread social media visibility just before the brand's expansion push accelerated, as reported by Miami New Times. That attention arrived alongside a deliberate split into two operational formats: full-service sit-down restaurants with chef-selected omakase tasting menus ranging from $26 to $95 per person, and high-turnover hand roll bars with set menus running $15 to $34.
The hand roll bar format itself launched on August 2, 2024, at Solaris Brickell, with a 27-seat counter marking Miami's first dedicated hand roll bar. The concept centers on sushi rice prepared fresh every 15 minutes using a secret recipe, pairing warm rice with cool proteins; diners are instructed to eat their hand rolls immediately to preserve the nori's crispness, the same preparation method now heading to River North. A second hand roll bar followed on November 22, 2024, inside the historic Alfred I. duPont Building in Downtown Miami, featuring a 26-seat, walk-in-only counter.
Testing Markets Before Committing to Real Estate
Omakai's growth pattern has repeatedly relied on testing delivery demand before opening a sit-down restaurant. Its Aventura venue operated exclusively as a takeout and delivery kitchen starting in late 2020 before converting into a 74-seat full-service dining location with an outdoor terrace on September 28, 2024. That strategy culminated on December 20, 2024, when Omakai opened its sixth South Florida location in Doral with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, capping a five-month surge in which the company added four South Florida outposts — a milestone Hoodline previously covered.
For Chicago, Omakai secured a Fulton Market address with its own culinary pedigree: 951 W Fulton Market previously housed Roister, a Michelin-starred restaurant established by The Alinea Group, placing the newcomer directly in a corridor widely recognized as one of the city's premier dining destinations. Whether Omakai can replicate its Florida cold-chain fish sourcing model in a new region, and whether further out-of-state moves will follow the Chicago debuts, remain open questions as the brand pushes beyond its home turf for the first time.
