"Don't expect a parade of nigiri," Hajime Sato told Eater Portland last summer. He was describing Sazanami, his 14-seat counter at 10053 SW Nimbus Avenue. It sits in a shopping center next to a yarn shop and has no tables. A James Beard Award winner cooks at that counter.
Sazanami has one rule, and it shows up everywhere. The chef cooks what the water and the season give him, and the diner eats what the chef chooses. You can see it in the sourcing, the menu, the deposit policy and the no-substitutions line.
Why a West Seattle legend ended up off Nimbus Avenue
Sato opened Mashiko in West Seattle in 1994. In 2009 he made it one of the first sushi restaurants in the country to serve only sustainable seafood. That meant dropping some of the most requested fish on sushi menus, including Atlantic salmon, freshwater eel and bluefin tuna.
Later he moved to the Detroit area and opened Sozai, a small omakase counter in Clawson, Michigan. The Detroit Free Press named it Restaurant of the Year for 2022, and it made Bon Appétit's list of 50 best new restaurants. In 2024, Sato won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes. Eater Portland called it the first win for a sushi chef in that category. He closed Sozai in spring 2025 and said he planned to return to the Pacific Northwest.
He chose Beaverton over Seattle partly out of courtesy. He sold Mashiko to his employees, and it's still running. "I don't want to compete with them," he told Eater Portland. "That'd be kind of rude, right?" He also has friends here, and he said the city's down-to-earth feel reminded him of West Seattle. He also mentioned having Uwajimaya nearby as a perk.
The Oregonian first reported the move in July, in a story headlined another James Beard Award-winning chef just moved to Oregon. In it Sato said, "I'm going to do everything as local as possible." Eater Portland reported the restaurant open on July 27, 2026.
The menu starts at the Oregon coast
Many sushi restaurants buy the same fish, flown in from Tokyo markets. Sato wants local seafood instead. "If people come from New York, or anywhere ... they get to try something unique to Portland," he told Eater Portland.
Here's the Oregon seafood and produce he has said he works with, from that Eater piece and from a September profile in The Adventurist:
- Sea urchin, when it's in season
- Petrale sole
- Salmon, rockfish and albacore
- Black cod
- Dungeness crab
- Spot prawns and Oregon bay shrimp
- Oysters and clams
- Oregon-grown wasabi
The Adventurist reported that he buys from at least six sources. It also said he wants to serve invasive green crab and bycatch, the fish caught by accident while fishing for something else. So far distributors have had little reason to carry them. The goal is bigger than one dining room. He'd like other restaurants and seafood markets to create demand for fish that usually gets thrown away or ignored.
The restaurant's sustainability page lists what it looks at when choosing seafood: traceability, population status, fishing methods and farming practices. The Adventurist profile explains what that means for a diner. You eat Oregon bay shrimp while it's available, and uni when its season comes back. "There is something really special about not having everything all of the time," Sato told The Adventurist.
The counter runs on the chef's terms
Sato doesn't use the word omakase loosely. "Most of the restaurants these days, they say it's omakase, but it's just a coursed meal," he told Eater Portland. He calls Sazanami kappo-style, meaning a counter where the chef talks with guests and cooks for them, "and see how it goes."
"Of course, we're not going to have spicy mayonnaise or California roll."
He described the model with small restaurants in Japan as his reference. Many employ two or three people, seat guests only at the counter, and the chef talks with you while making your meal. The name Sazanami means "ripples" in Japanese. Eater Portland noted that the no-substitutions model may help nudge diners past what they expect sushi to be.
The menu changed in its first few weeks. At opening, Eater Portland reported a nine-course chef's choice of sushi, sashimi and cooked dishes. There were two pescatarian menus, Minato at $170 and the "more adventurous" Chiso at $200, plus a vegan menu at $140. In its September heatmap of new restaurants, Eater described two nine-course options, one fully vegan, along with an 11-course meal and an optional sake pairing. The booking page tells guests to check the menu for dinner pricing. Plan on confirming the current price when you book.
How booking works
The rules on Sazanami's reservations page are strict, and the restaurant says it can't make exceptions.
| What to know | The policy |
|---|---|
| Service days | Typically Wednesday through Saturday, 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. |
| Omakase | Bookable up to 21 days ahead, two-hour service |
| Kigaru | Bookable for the same day only, 90-minute service |
| Deposit | $50 per person, refunded separately if everyone arrives on time |
| Changes or cancellations | At least 3 days before, or the deposit is lost |
| Late arrivals | Parties more than 15 minutes late may be canceled |
| Party size | Four guests or fewer |
| Allergies and preferences | Recipes and methods are not modified |
| Age | Adults only, no one under 21 |
A few of these matter for planning. Because of the three-day cancellation window, a Friday dinner is locked in by Tuesday. The four-guest limit means a birthday dinner for six won't work here. And if someone in your group has a food allergy, the kitchen won't change the menu for it, so pick a different night out for that group.
Kigaru gives the counter a second way in. You can only book it the same day, so it suits a quiet Wednesday when you'd rather decide that afternoon than three weeks ahead. Both services book through the same Square scheduling page, with the same $50-per-person deposit.
Where it fits in Beaverton's food scene
Eater Portland updated its guide to the best restaurants in Beaverton on October 21, 2026, and added two places: Sazanami and Salami Mammi, a fast-casual chicken Parm spot at 12500 SW Broadway. The guide also says well-known Portland names keep opening Beaverton branches, and that James Beard-winning chefs now see the city as a place for new projects.
What sets Sazanami apart from those branch openings is the setup. It's a chef-owned counter in an ordinary shopping center, and the menu follows the Oregon fishing seasons. The main planning step is the calendar. Omakase books up to three weeks out, and Kigaru books the same day.
Sato said he picked Beaverton partly because it reminded him of the neighborhood where he spent decades cooking. At VEN Property Group, we profile local entrepreneurs and organizations on our Spotlight Show. If you know a Beaverton chef, shop owner or maker with a story like this, we'd love to hear about them. Let's Connect.
