New Houston Sushi Restaurant With a Big-Time New York Chef Suddenly Shutters After Just Six Months: Mysterious Car Accident Hovers Over Closure

Sushi restaurant Kukuri has rolled out of Houston. The abrupt departure for a spot with grand expectations comes as as a shock and may even have its staffers still scratching their heads.

The somewhat mysterious, big name chef Japanese restaurant made its debut just a little more than six months ago in early August. It’s now shuttered, but that hasn’t stopped the social media frenzy and speculation. Kukuri management has yet to comment on the Washington Avenue restaurant’s abrupt closure.

There is a “For Lease” sign in Kukuri’s window. According to a notice from landlord Lovett Commercial posted on the restaurant’s door, the lease at 1902 Washington has been terminated, and the locks have been changed.

Kukuri came in with high potential. It was helmed by chef Shimao Ishikawa, a sushi star with more than 40 years of experience. Ishikawa was the longtime chef of Michelin-starred Jewel Bako in New York City.

But it looks like the chef may have had less of a hand in the restaurant in recent months. On January 1, a Yelp reviewer commented that “the old chef is gone and you can tell the drop in quality of both food and service.”

In a case of he said, sushi said, a Kukuri manager himself responded to this review. He confirmed that “Chef Ishikawa is out due to a car accident.” He also noted that Ishikawa “still does the ordering and menu prep for omakase, the chef-driven tasting menu that is the chef’s specialty.

Kukuri is listed as closed on Yelp and its website isn’t loading. In a mysterious turn, the restaurant has continued to update its social media accounts. It posted food pics to its Facebook and Instagram on March 14 and March 16, spurring comments like “Hey are you open again?,” “Where are you???” and “Hey stop posting if you are closed. Or at least let people know when you’re opening on your Facebook page.”

Still, the posts on Instagram have garnered more than 20 likes each. It’s unclear if the staff are continuing to post in real time or if the posts had been scheduled on a dashboard and are going up automatically.

Either way, Kukuri wasn’t exactly on a roll. The restaurant drew mixed reviews from the start. Pros consisted of authenticity and flavor, and cons came in the realms of service, portion size, menu variety and cost.

For a Michelin-starred chef to come and go in only six months in Houston is a remarkably strange tale, though. You could even say it’s fishy.