This local restaurant has lab-grown salmon on its menu 🐟

Nov 18, 2025
Nov 18, 2025

In Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian novel “Brave New World,” cattle ranches and chicken coops are no longer the source of meat on the dinner plate.

Instead, scientists engineer a synthetic protein in a lab that’s readily available and sustainable.

Now, science fiction has become reality. And that reality is on the menu at Tucson’s Kingfisher Bar & Grill.

Two guys in San Francisco are cultivating salmon from juvenile fish cells to create a sustainable source of seafood, and Kingfisher, at 2564 E. Grant Road, is one of just four restaurants nationwide to offer it.

Chef-co-owner Jacqueline “Jacki” Kuder created a salmon crudo appetizer using Wildtype sushi-grade salmon. The dish was introduced on the fall menu that the midtown restaurant rolled out on Oct. 27.

Two weeks in, Kuder said she had sold 10 orders and gotten mostly positive feedback.

“I just want to do it and see how it goes,” she said. “I feel like we’re going to reach a point where seafood and ocean sustainability is a continuing issue. ... Is it the be all, end all? I’m not sure, but it’s an interesting take on it.”

At Kingfisher, Kuder places thin slices of the salmon on green apple that’s topped with grapefruit sections. The dish, which is served with crostini, is drizzled with a sauce made from coconut, pineapple, ginger and lime.

“It tastes, for me, just like salmon,” Kuder said. “I will say the texture is not like 100% there, but this is just their first version out to market. They’re working on improving texture, and you know, that’s all the crazy science stuff (that is) out of my wheelhouse.”