Since Uchi first opened in Austin in 2003, and was catapulted into Texas’ culinary spotlight, the modern Japanese restaurant has become a household name across the state. With the addition of its subsequent counterparts, Uchiko, Uchibā, and Oheya, the budding restaurant brand, under the Hai Hospitality umbrella, has become a place where some of the country’s most talented chefs have been able to showcase their craft.
One such chef is Uchiko Houston’s chef de cuisine, Shaun King, who by a stroke of fate, landed in Houston after opening his own Japanese-New American restaurant with his wife in Portland in March of 2020. The restaurant, called Bar King, debuted at a less than ideal time, and soon shuttered as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Portland’s loss was Houston’s gain, as King became connected with Hai Hospitality and moved to Texas with the intention of opening Uchiko in Houston. “The fact that I was a non-Japanese person working behind a sushi bar—it wasn’t the norm,” he says. “Tyson Cole was the same. I always followed him, and I knew the group was expanding like crazy.”
The Chef
Hailing from California’s Central Coast and growing up on a farm, King had a profound respect for fresh food and ingredients at a young age. He credits his mother as one of his greatest inspirations, as she favored sourcing produce and proteins from local purveyors over grocery stores.
As an adolescent, he got a taste of French and Italian cuisine, and learned the nuances of Japanese sushi-making techniques, through a meeting with his best friend’s grandfather, who was a Japanese-American master chef.
To scratch the itch, he worked his way through various Japanese restaurants in his late teens, before moving to Las Vegas to run the sushi bar as chef de cuisine for chef Rick Moonen’s RM Seafood. Moonen became a mentor to King, and he continued to hone his craft, educating himself on fish sourcing and sustainability.
Further stints at Sushi Samba and Momofuku in Las Vegas, Martis Camp in Lake Tahoe, the Dawson in Chicago, and Mina Group’s Ramen Bar in San Francisco solidified King as one of the country’s rising stars before he became a fixture of Hai Hospitality.
The Restaurant
When embarking on his journey at Uchiko it was the idea of live fire cooking that enticed King. With Uchi and Uchiko bearing similar monikers, as well as both having hefty sushi programs, defining one from the other was a challenge in the beginning. King offers a fitting comparison, “Uchi is yuzu juice, and Uchiko is like fish sauce—a bit more punchy.”
Whereas Uchi puts sushi and seafood at the forefront, Uchiko is more meat-centric. King explains that Uchi translates to “house” in Japanese, and Uchiko means “child of”, but in this case, their roles are reversed. “Uchiko is more mature, and a bit more brooding,” he says.
Beyond their differing aesthetics and restaurant design, Uchiko puts forth more char and smoke, while Uchi takes a soft, clean, and floral approach in its style and preparations. Using Texas post oak to grill meats in the hearth, King showcases a robust steak program at Uchiko, which appeals to many non-sushi diners. And seafood is given equal attention. “The lobster that we make is pretty substantial—it’s a hearth-roasted lobster tail, wrapped in banana leaf, and served with tom kha soup.”
The Takeover
On Thursday, October 9, King will take over DiningOut’s Instagram to give our readers an inside look at a day in his life as chef de cuisine of Uchiko Houston..
During the takeover, King plans to visit Central Market, which he credits as “a great resource for ingredients”, and give an inside look at the process of cold press juicing, which the restaurant relies on for fresh juices for cocktails and various vinaigrettes. He’ll check Uchiko’s dry-ager and explain the process and science behind dry-aging fish. “Aged fish is not a new thing, but it is becoming way more popular these days,” he says.
Since launching lunch service, Uchiko draws a hefty crowd most afternoons. King often works lunch, and says during the takeover, he may find himself behind the sushi bar. He teases the not-so-glamorous hours of his day when he focuses on his administrative duties. “I do a good amount of admin—I reconcile invoices, and run live food costs every single day. It can be a good 6 hours of work,” he says, laughing.
In two months King will depart from Houston to oversee the opening of two new Hai Hospitality restaurants in North Carolina: Uchi and Uchibā in Charlotte. His contributions to the restaurant group in the last five years have been many, and Uchiko’s success in Houston is a testament to his great efforts
Tune in to DiningOut’s Instagram on Thursday, October 9 to watch a day in the life of chef Shaun King, and get the chance to win a gift card for dinner for two at Uchiko.
Uchiko, 1801 Post Oak Blvd., Houston, uchiko.uchirestaurants.com
