Craft Omakase.

Craft Omakase

A piece of bluefin sits two weeks in the aging cabinet behind the counter, then goes into a long soy bath, and Matthew Odam says Charlie Wang's version will make you wonder whether akami is your favorite cut after all.5

Why go

Wang, Nguyen Nguyen and Tim Boyer all worked at Uchiko, a short walk from this shopping center, and left together at the end of 2023.5 The counter is small enough that it feeds fewer people in a week than Uchiko feeds in a few hours, which is what buys the room time to cure, cold smoke and dry age.5 About half the sushi is dry aged and the aging cabinet stands behind the chefs.5 Wang tunes the rice himself. When the vinegar mix started running sweet he pushed the red vinegar up until the balance came back.5 Eighty percent of the fish comes from Japan, with a few deliberate exceptions like Baja tuna.5 Both chefs cook their own countries into the run: Wang's gai lan with brown butter, green tea and bonito chili oil, and Nguyen's fish sauce on kurodai and sawara.5 The MICHELIN Guide gave it one star and it is still the only starred sushi room in the city.67

Order this / avoid

• The full run, which is the only thing to order. There is one menu.
• The dry-aged akami, two weeks in the cabinet and then soy.5
• The sake pairing. The standard consists of about four generous pours of sake designed to accompany each round of nigiri.1
• The intermissions, which are where the kitchen stops being a sushi bar: vibrant shrimp aguachile or roasted gai lan with savory brown butter.1
• Avoid: walking in. There is one fixed menu, the counter fills by reservation, and bookings for four-week blocks are released once a week.5

What locals & experts say

• Matthew Odam rated it 9 out of 10 for the Statesman in April 2024, off two visits: Craft Omakase is the best of the new crop of omakase sushi restaurants in town thanks to its sophistication, restraint and, well, craft.5
• Odam's own ranking puts another room first, and he says so in the same piece: My favorite sushi restaurant in Texas is Tsuke Edomae in Mueller, and this is the best sushi restaurant in town where you have a reasonable shot at scoring a reservation.5
• Odam's caveat, and it is the useful one: There's not much explication going on, and the quick pace, as with almost all new omakases, can at times make you feel like you're dining in a business model more than a restaurant.5
• Odam on the restraint at the counter: the chefs use modest adornments that highlight the natural elegance and flavor of each piece, whether it be the soy and lime zest emboldening lithe hirame (fluke) or the punchy akakosho dabbed on a scored cylinder of Hokkaido scallop.5
• Nicolai McCrary scored it 8.6 for The Infatuation, page-dated 13 December 2024, on what happens to the fish before it is cut: most pieces undergoing some level of curing, dry-aging, or probably yoga to bring out different textures and flavors.1
• MICHELIN Guide Texas, One Star, on the guide's own page for this address.6

Good to know

• Booking is the whole problem. Reservations for four-week blocks are released once a week, and the room is small.5
• What it cost in April 2024: $175 plus a $35 service charge for 22 courses, paid when you book, which Odam put at about $230 a head before drinks. Nothing newer has been published.5
• The same partners opened a cheaper sushi room in 2026, built on the same sourcing without the counter's price.7
• Hygiene: no record found, which is not the same as clean. Austin Public Health carries nothing for this venue, and its inspectors were still filing scores at other Austin kitchens through May 2026, so the blank is not an old feed.4

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: "multiple new awards"

Verdict

must-visit — Half the pieces are cured or aged here, and the tuna sits two weeks in the cabinet before it goes into soy, which is what the money buys. Ask questions if you want anything explained, because nobody will explain unasked. If the counter is full, Odam rates Tsuke Edomae above it and says plainly that you will not get in.