Eat This: Uchiko's Grilled Sea Bass Is the Best Meal for Two in North Texas

Uchiko recently opened in Plano, one of the new ventures from Hai Hospitality, led by James Beard Award-winning chef Tyson Cole.

Cole started in the service industry as a dishwasher and never had sushi until he worked at a restaurant. He became fascinated with the cuisine and trained for 10 years under sushi masters in Austin, New York and Tokyo.

In 2003, Cole opened Uchi in a converted house in South Austin. In 2005, Food and Wine named him one of the nation's 10 best new chefs. In 2009, Bon Appetit crowned Uchi one of the top 10 sushi spots in the U.S. In 2011, Cole won a prestigious James Beard Award for Best Chef Southwest. Hai now has restaurants in seven cities across the country.

The Hai Hospitality dossier includes Uchi (Japanese cuisine and sushi), Uchiba ("ba" meaning bar, for a more casual yet intimate experience) and Loro (a parlay of Central Texas barbecue and Japanese fare). There's an Uchi in Uptown and Uchiba is just upstairs from it. Loro opened in East Dallas in 2021 and was an instant entry on our restaurant rotation.

Uchiko opened in 2010 in Austin, with a second spot in Houston and, finally, in Plano this year. It is the fire and smoke iteration of the original concept and an anchor tenant in the Legacy West complex of shops and restaurants, which was bustling on sizzling hot Wednesday evening recently.
Uchiko is uncluttered and mellow. With its dark wood, the modern space is like a pair of tailored jeans that can be dressed up or down: flip-flops or loafers; heels or Stan Smiths.

The menu has close to 100 offerings, from daily specials to oysters, sashimi, sushi, caviar and cold tastings. Almost every table in the house orders the grilled edamame, but just skip that. (It's literally at every table.)

As for service, our server knew every ingredient of every dish top to bottom. Used plates were whisked away with a touch of tyranny. Service is lean, quiet and squeaky clean. Like brand new Stan Smiths.
We started with a pair of East Coast oysters dressed in a shiso mignonette and shiro (hear us out) creme fraiche. Impossible, you say? Brilliant, as it turns out.

A plate of hama chili comes with a light ponzu dressing and Thai chili over slivers of orange, all blessed with golden tobiko. Every bite a delight. Please, skip the edamame.

The menu is large, so the best strategy is to start with the From the Hearth section, the hot soul of Uchiko that sets it apart. Consider that home base, then branch out. We dove to the bottom of the list past the hearth-roasted lobster, New York Strip (wagyu, of course) and hama kama to the post oak grilled sea bass ($65) with a brown butter dashi and fennel.
The chef tells us the sea bass is dried out overnight prior to grilling, rendering a crispier skin. The whole fish gets a spray of sake as it's cooking, imparting more flavor and caramelizing as it blisters over the embers. Fire-kissed and served with a heap of fresh herbs, this is one of the most enjoyable dishes we've shared in a long time. A feast. The server told us there's a limited number each day, so arrive early to make sure you snag one (better yet make that reservation early, the house was packed on said hot Wednesday). Too bad they don't take reservations on the sea bass.

Use either chopsticks or a spoon (or your hands) to flake apart pieces of the fish soaking in the brown butter dashi (sigh), grabbing herbs along the way. This meal is resplendent and, considering there's more than enough for two, at $65 it's a humdinger of a deal for an elevated night out.

We ordered sides of Japanese sweet potatoes ($15) made with more brown butter and vinaigrette and that light creme fraiche. A bowl of furikake rice also helped soak up more of the dashi lying under the fish (sigh). With a couple of cocktails or a Sapporo (but no edamame), this is a $100 meal we'd gladly soak up any day, inflation, interest rates or soft landing be damned.

Uchiko, 7801 Windrose Ave., Plano. Sunday – Thursday 4–10 p.m.; Friday – Saturday, 4–11 p.m.