Later this fall, New York City’s Times Square area is slated to get the first U.S. flagship of Sushiro, a chain of Japanese conveyor-belt sushi restaurants, or kaitenzushi.
The brand—a subset of Food & Life Companies, which also oversees the traditional izakaya-style Sakabayashi sushi restaurant chain—has been expanding across Asia for decades. The parent company now has hundreds of sushi restaurants open worldwide, with 325 Sushiro properties open across nine countries and regions.
When it opens, the new property’s exterior will have a fish-inspired design and the overall color scheme will evoke salmon and tuna sashimi. The restaurant will be one of the chain’s largest, covering three floors. The first and second floors will have a combined 150 seats where diners can order off of a 200-item menu. The basement, meanwhile, will have three private dining rooms and “a curated prix-fixe” menu—a first for the brand, according to Yosuke Tanaka, president and CEO of Food & Life Companies USA and the company’s corporate officer for North America.
To order, diners will select their dishes on a touchscreen available at each table. (The screens also provide games and entertainment once ordering is done.) “This technology actually allows us to optimize our kitchen operation behind the scenes as well,” Masahiro Yamamoto, president and CEO of Food & Life Companies, said during a media event held in New York City.
The Food
Sharing the brand’s vision with the media at the event, Yamamoto said that the brand focuses on sushi that is “high quality, but affordable and accessible for everyone.”
The rice—which You Horie, senior executive corporate officer of food product development at Food & Life Companies, said “determines the taste of sushi”—is prepared throughout the day so that it can be served at the correct temperature. Horie emphasized that the fish, particularly the tuna, would not be treated with gasses to achieve a brighter color, and the yellowtail is shipped to New York from Japan without being frozen. “Never freezing ensures a velvety texture,” he explained.
Tanaka said that many of the restaurant’s more popular dishes, such as tuna or salmon nigiri, will cost $5 or $6 per plate, with two pieces of nigiri or sashimi on each plate. More premium items—including the rare bluefin “fatty” tuna—will cost as much as $10 per plate, and specialty dishes can cost $14. The restaurant also serves fusion dessert options such as a yuzu cheesecake and a matcha panna cotta.
The New York City venue will have some exclusive options designed to appeal to American tastes, such as salmon nigiri topped with seasoned cream cheese—the brand’s answer to the popular “Philadelphia” roll served in American sushi restaurants. Trendy items like miso black cod and ramen bowls will also be available for those who prefer warmer options. “We're going to make fun sushi,” Horie said.
Sushiro in America
While many branded restaurants across the U.S. are franchise businesses, Tanaka said that the team “made a conscious choice” to not franchise its operations. When Food & Life brought its Sakabayashi brand to Boston in 2024, “we insisted on 100 percent direct management because we refuse to compromise on the quality of our food,” he said.
“Our ultimate dream is for Sushiro to become more than just a brand name in America,” Tanaka said. “We want to become a verb. We envision a future where people across the nation say, ‘Okay, let's Sushiro tonight.’”