Since its opening in early 2023, Noko has become one of the city’s favorite restaurants, receiving kudos from Scene critic Kay West and many Best of Nashville awards. Now the Noko team of John Murray, Wilson Brannock and Chef Dung “Junior” Vo are ready to unveil their second concept. Given that it has just 14 seats (plus a four-seat bar), it will likely be just as hard to nab a seat at Kase x Noko as it has been at Noko.
Kase x Noko will be an omakase restaurant in the storefronts adjacent to Noko in the Shops at Porter East. Likely to open by the end of the year, Kase won’t be Nashville’s first omakase experience. The concept is having a moment in town.
Present Tense in Chestnut Hill, O-Ku Sushi in Germantown, and Sushi | Bar in the Gulch all offer options. But as the team did with Noko, they're taking a different approach for Kase. Omakase, which translates to “I’ll leave it up to you,” is a Japanese chef’s choice offering, a prix-fixe multicourse meal, usually featuring sushi, fresh fish and seasonal ingredients.
It usually shows off the chef’s culinary prowess and offers guests an opportunity to banter with the chef. It’s usually also fairly expensive at $140 per person or more. “I find comfort in omakase in the experience, but not necessarily in the price,” Murray says.
So the Kase 14-course tasting menu will cost $75 per person. The Kase name is a shortened version of the word omakase, but it also loosely translates to “familial connection,�.