Star chef Akira Back debuts his namesake DFW restaurant with a Michelin-star mix of Japanese and Korean cuisines

Michelin-star chef Akira Back has set an opening date for his first DFW restaurant, also named Akira Back: Friday, May 6.

When we broke the news in 2017 that Back had secured a space for his restaurant in Warren Buffet’s new Grandscape development in The Colony, no one (including us) had expected a five year delay.

“I love Texas and I love Dallas,” Back told me five years ago in Las Vegas, where he helms Yellowtail at the Bellagio and revealed he’d soon be opening a restaurant in Dallas. “I can’t wait to get back to Texas and cook there again,” adding that The Colony location would be his first namesake restaurant in the U.S.

The Korean-born chef is known for cuisine that blends Japanese and Korean elements; standout dishes on the Dallas menu include octopus carpaccio drizzled with yuzu-soy and parmesan, smoked Japanese A5 wagyu tataki, dozens of sashimi and nigiri, jidori chicken, and king crab fried rice.

Back emigrated from Korea to Aspen, Colorado, with his family when he was a child. In Aspen, Back spent seven years as a professional teenage snowboarder. Back said he wasn’t particularly interested in cooking but took a job under sushi master Kenichi Kanada in Aspen because he thought Kanada looked cool serving customers and wanted to be like him.

Now the Korean-born chef oversees restaurants in 20 locations including Paris, Las Vegas, Dubai, Beverly Hills, San Diego, Seychelles North Island, Toronto and Singapore. Ten more restaurants are slated to open in the next two years, with a spot in Houston on the list. He began his culinary career at Kenichi in Aspen, later moving to run Kenichi kitchens in Austin and Kona, Hawaii.

Akira Back (the restaurant) will be open 5 days a week Tuesday through Saturday.  Reservations can be made direct through restaurant website.

Here’s the opening menu: