Austin Japanese restaurant Sazan Ramen is opening its new restaurant in the West Campus neighborhood this week. Daiboku will open at 609 West 29th Street starting on Wednesday, May 17.
The new restaurant will include both omakase and casual counter services. For the former, the varying five-course menu will include two different kinds of ramen and a variety of dishes with optional beverage pairings. This will be served at the 10-seat ramen bar. It's $39 for the food menu, with additional pricing for beverage pairings to come.
Then there's the casual counter-service menu, which will focus on shoyu and miso-style ramens and other Japanese dishes. This includes smoked chicken shoyu ramen and spicy miso ramen with pork shoulder chashu and a habanero-lime slaw. There's also a bar stocked with Japanese whiskey, sakes, beer, and wine.
The physical space includes that ramen bar plus family-style tables. Initially, the restaurant will run with limited hours and menu in the evenings from 5 to 10 p.m. The omakase service will start later on Friday, June 16, with booking information to come later. General expanded hours and menus will happen later too.
Behind both Sazan and Daikboku are Darrel Oribello (managing partner and chief operating officer), Taiki Wakayma (chief executive officer, who operates a bunch of East Coast Japanese restaurants), and Kris Hammond (chief kitchen officer aka chef). Wakayama and Oribello opened Sazan in the summer of 2020 with then-chef Shun Shiroma, who eventually left.