Former Uchi chef’s eye-popping sushi is the star at a new Grand Prairie restaurant

Grand Prairie has got a new sushi star in town.

Thi Tran, former sushi chef at Uchi in Dallas, has opened Omakase To Go at Asia Times
Square, serving fish straight from Tokyo’s world-famous Tsukiji Fish Market.

Tran’s road to restaurant ownership happened during the pandemic, when he began making
elaborate omakase sushi platters from his Arlington home.

“I was making 70 platters a week by myself,” Tran, 28, said. “Three months later, I have
2,000 social media followers.”

With his early success “inspired by COVID,” he started looking at opening a storefront
despite the pandemic creating a surge in the price of fish.

“It used to be, you could order five pounds of bluefin tuna,” he said. “Sushi restaurants
started closing due to the price of fish going up.”

When Tran realized ordering such small a quantity would not be an option, he teamed up
with his friend, Steve Frechette, the owner of Chihiro Sushi & Bar in Euless, and the two
began combining their needs into larger orders.

Tran’s menu is unique and features unusual-for-this-area fish. This weekend’s menu has
Otoro (a type of fatty tuna) and Hokkaido Uni (sea urchin) as well as vegan and vegetarian
options. Tran explains his style as a fusion of raw fish and what he calls “junk-food,” fried
sushi.

“Most restaurants separate the two on their menus,” he said.

Here, you can find the Kyoto (tuna, yellow tail and crunchy potato strings) and the Striking
Cobra (shrimp tempura and spicy tuna) among other eye-catching, healthy (and maybe-notso-healthy) items.

And as for those Instagram-worthy omakase platters? Tran said he lost a little sleep
deciding whether to continue to offer them but ultimately kept them on his menu.