Austin's best comes to Denver - Award winning Uchi set to open in RiNo this Fall!

If you've ever been to Austin, I'm sure you've heard of Uchi, Uchiko, or Loro. These three restaurant concepts are part of the Hai Hospitality group. The first concept, Uchi, is one of the most popular and unique restaurants in Austin.

The name "Uchi" comes from the Japanese word for "house" and that's exactly what the experience feels like - a warm welcome into a friends home. The restaurant staff is friendly, attentive and extremely knowledgeable on the menu. Chef Tyson Cole even makes an appearance from behind the kitchen now and then.

In the more literal sense of the word, "house", Uchi is actually located in a renovated bungalow in South Austin. Since Uchi's opening in 2003, the restaurant has made such an impression both locally and nationally.

There are quite a few reasons why Uchi is considered to be the best, but the most obvious reason is Chef Tyson Cole. He is an award winning Chef that expresses his love for Japanese culture by carefully curating each dish served at Uchi. Every menu item is unique in the fact that it is non-traditional but simple. You can tell that a lot of thought goes into every menu item and the kitchen staff is thoroughly trained on how to prepare each dish.

Luckily for Denver, Hai Hospitality has decided to expand to Colorado and will be opening Uchi Denver's doors in Fall of 2018. The new restaurant will be located off of 25th and Lawrence in the ever-growing RiNo area of Denver. What does that mean for Denver? That means that an experience some would buy a plane ticket for is right in our backyard.

Location on 25th and Lawrence. Photo Credit: @uchidenver

So, let's talk food. What exactly are we looking at here? Uchi's menu consists of brilliantly unique non-traditional Japanese food. It's colorful, its beautiful and it's unlike anything you've seen before. Uchi does not serve soy sauce like a traditional Japanese restaurant would, they like to use fresh sea salt on their dishes instead.

Each day they have a specials menu that highlights their fresh shipments from Tsukiji, the Japanese fish market. They also have a standard menu where you can find your favorites. You pretty much can't go wrong at Uchi, since each dish is so carefully thought out to bring a delicious & unique flavor that you cannot experience elsewhere.

Here are some of the dishes I experienced at Uchi:

Oysters with honeydew sorbet and thai chili.

Wagyu Maki with beef tartare, fried onion, and fuji apple.

Albacore tuna with crispy garlic, finished with sea salt.

Madai Carpaccio - japanese sea bream, white ponzu, myoga, cucumber. According to our server, this is one of Tyson's favorite dishes.

Foie gras nigiri

As you can see, Uchi's food is out of the ordinary. That is what sets this restaurant apart from just another Japanese sushi place. Not only does the food look amazing, it tastes amazing too.

As we move closer to Fall 2018, stay tuned for more information on Uchi Denver's opening and what to expect.