A new 14-seat sushi counter is set to open October 20 in downtown Orlando's North Quarter, taking over the same space that recently held Natsu Omakase. Aoba Omakase will serve a 10- to 12-course tasting menu built around wet-aged fish, with prices running $100 Tuesday through Thursday and jumping to $160 Friday through Sunday, not including sake pairings.
The restaurant sits at 777 N. Orange Ave., according to Orlando Weekly, which reports Aoba will be open for service Tuesday through Sunday, with seating times of 4:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Aoba, which translates to fresh foliage in Japanese, is owned by Kenny Sze, Kevin Cao and Andrew Chen, with Sze serving as chef.
The 34-year-old Sze has cooked at Sushi Ta-ke and Kiyotaki Japanese Restaurant in Hong Kong, along with Sakana Omakase and Umami in Philadelphia, before landing in Orlando to build a menu around the specific art of wet-aging fish using both traditional Japanese and modern methods. His stated goal for the new spot is a Michelin star.
How Wet-Aging Turns Raw Fish Into Something Else Entirely
The process starts with washing, gutting and blood-cleaning the fish using the tsumoto method, before Sze applies kobujime, aging cleaned fish between sheets of kombu, a technique that draws out umami in certain cuts. He also uses vacuum-sealing as a more modern wet-aging method, storing the fish in temperature-controlled coolers and refrigerators throughout the process.
Aging times vary by fish. Small to medium-sized fish typically age for one to three weeks, while tuna can age for up to two months. Sze has aged isaki, a type of grunt fish, for three weeks as part of his rotation.
What's on the Menu Beyond the Sushi Itself
Courses beyond the raw fish include shinjo seafood dumplings, chawanmushi steamed egg custard, and uroko-yaki fried fish, rounding out the 10- to 12-course format. The buildout involved minor touch-ups and new kitchen equipment rather than a full gut renovation, since the space was already fitted out for an omakase concept.
That's because the counter previously belonged to Natsu Omakase, which occupied the same 14-seat setup for four months before its run ended. Natsu had opened on the ground floor of the Camden North Quarter building at the same 777 N. Orange Ave. address, a concept Orlando Weekly's Faiyaz Kara described at the time as an exclusive 10-seat sushi omakase from the team behind Seafood Dock in Gainesville, with meals expected to run between $150 and $200 and a stated aim of being innovative, elegant, seasonal and built from the finest available ingredients. A Yelp listing for Natsu Omakase at the address now shows the business as closed, though that status was not independently confirmed beyond the listing itself.
Orlando's Growing Appetite for Tasting Menus
Aoba's arrival adds to a North Quarter dining scene that already includes other high-end tasting counters. Natsu Omakase, now closed, was led by chef Stone Lin, working alongside chef Anthony Esquivel, and offered an 18-bite tasting menu for $195, according to Eater, which notes that most tasting-menu options it surveyed in the city run well over $150 per person, with Aoba's weekday pricing standing out as a comparative bargain in that field.
Eater also points to the Michelin Guide's 2022 arrival in Orlando as a driver of the city's broader tasting-menu boom, noting that eight Orlando tasting-menu restaurants earned Michelin stars in the year the outlet covered. That backdrop helps explain why a new chef opening a 14-seat counter in the North Quarter would frame a Michelin star as the ultimate target from day one.
