Kusshi Sushi at Reston Town Center (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)
A growing D.C.-area sushi chain is settling in at Reston Town Center.
Since opening next to PR Run and Walk at 11909 Democracy Drive on Sept. 19, Kusshi Sushi has been offering 20% discounts on all food items — a promotion that will continue throughout its soft launch.
The Japanese restaurant is currently only open for dinner, but lunch hours will be added within the next week or two, Kusshi Sushi Reston General Manager Jordan Lee says. Late-night hours and online ordering will also be available by the time the grand opening rolls around, though a date for that hasn’t been solidified yet.
Anticipated festivities include a bluefin tuna cutting demonstration and a ticketed omakase event.
“There is a lot of foot traffic and there’s a lot of people in the community that love sushi,” Lee said, describing the response to the soft opening. “We’ve had a lot of frequent diners. We see someone or a couple one day, and then two or three days later, they come right back. So, it’s been a really warm welcome.”
According to Lee, Kusshi wanted to have an extended soft launch for its Reston location “because there are so many new things that we were going to implement,” including an extensive buildout and new menu items.
This is the eighth location overall and the third in Virginia for the company, which got its start at the Pike & Rose shopping center in North Bethesda in 2018. Owner Wesley Yao first expanded Kusshi into the Commonwealth in 2022 with a full-service restaurant in Arlington and a smaller venue at Pike 7 Plaza in Tysons.
In the past, Kusshi has targeted existing restaurant spaces for new locations, but because the previous occupant of the Reston storefront, Cosi, was more of a cafe, it required a full renovation “from the ground up,” Lee says.
While that made the buildout more expensive, it also allowed the Reston team to put their “own stamp” on the roughly 2,936-square-foot space, which can accommodate three times the number of seats as its Tysons counterpart. In addition to featuring a new sushi bar, the design aims for a more “natural” look with an emphasis on wood and earth tones.
“We’re hoping that, using the new space, we can create a new kind of feel for Kusshi that we can spread out across the rest of the area,” Lee said.
Courtesy of head sushi chef Toga, Reston customers will also get treated to a few new dishes, including wagyu fried rice and a panko-breaded wagyu steak katsu that’s still being finalized.
Some additions, such as sushi tacos and a bara-chirashi platter, were first introduced in Tysons — where Toga was previously based — and are getting carried over to Reston. The bara-chirashi don, which offers a chef selection of diced sashimi instead of the usual slices, has been one of the most popular dishes throughout the soft open, according to Lee.
A range of sushi rolls, ramen, rice bowls and other staples of Kusshi’s menu remain available as well.
“We’re just really happy to be in Reston,” Lee said. “It has been a long time coming. We’ve been planning for this the storefront open for … I think it’s been in about two years now. So, to see it finally launching and to see where the space was the first day that we signed the lease and to see where it is now and to also anticipate what’s coming, we couldn’t be happier.”
Dining and Cooking