A new conveyor-belt sushi restaurant is about to start spinning out rolls in West Chester Township. Andy Zheng, the owner of Genki Ramen, is set to soft open Kuku Revolving Sushi at 7735 Cox Lane on Thursday, with a full grand-opening celebration planned for Saturday.
Zheng's new venture will take over the Tylersville Corner shopping center space once occupied by Korealistic, a restaurant that closed in September 2025, according to Local 12 News. Zheng signed a 10-year lease on the space back in April 2025, well before the doors open this week, and has since poured $550,000 into the buildout, per the station's report.
The space itself has been described in slightly different terms depending on the source. Local 12 reports the restaurant occupies 3,200 square feet, while a listing from West Chester Development puts the new Japanese restaurant at 3,190 square feet in the same Tylersville Corner development. Either way, it's a sizable footprint for Zheng's latest project in a township that already knows his cooking through Genki Ramen, which the outlet describes as an authentic Japanese restaurant chain with four locations across the Tri-State.
A Growing Lane for Conveyor-Belt Dining
Kuku isn't the first revolving sushi concept to find its way into the region. Kawa Revolving Sushi, which the same report notes was the first restaurant to bring this style of dining to the Tri-State, opened its doors in Symmes Township in mid-August 2023, as reported by WCPO. At Kawa, diners can pick rolls straight off a moving conveyor belt or place orders through an iPad system, with iPad-ordered food delivered by a toy vehicle along a track above the belt and drinks delivered by a robot.
Kawa later expanded with a second Cincinnati-area location in Oakley, opening there the summer before a review of the concept ran, according to CityBeat. That location, along with the original Symmes Township spot, charges $3.25 for each sushi platter or lidded plate pulled from the belt, and lets diners use a tablet to order drinks, appetizers, non-sushi entrees and dessert, the outlet's review found. Some of those appetizer orders are delivered via a small rail system positioned just above the main conveyor belt.
Beyond Cincinnati, a Regional Trend
The revolving sushi format has been spreading well beyond the Tri-State in recent years. Kura Revolving Sushi Bar brought the international chain's first Ohio location near Columbus's Polaris Fashion Place in early 2024, and Hokkaido Revolving Sushi Bar later opened in northwest Columbus at 1466 Bethel Road, officially launching on Nov. 17 after a soft-opening week, according to NBC4i. Hokkaido runs on an all-you-can-eat model with a two-hour dining limit, pricing dinner at $39.95 per adult and weekday lunch at $22.95, with lower rates for children, per that report.
Whether Kuku will adopt a similar all-you-can-eat structure, pricing or menu lineup hasn't been detailed in reporting so far. What is confirmed is the timeline: West Chester Township diners can expect the soft opening this Thursday, followed by the grand-opening celebration two days later, giving Zheng's second local concept its official start in the Tylersville Corner shopping center.
