The 5,500-square-foot former restaurant on East Speedway was stripped to its four walls when Harold Wong and his business partner, William Cheung, came across it last spring.
“It was fully gutted out,” Wong recalled. “There was nothing inside.”
For Wong and Cheung, two longtime veterans of Tucson’s restaurant industry, the building at 3566 E. Speedway that was home for eight years to Izumi Sushi Bar Seafood was the perfect canvas for their all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant.
On Aug. 8, the pair opened Tokyo Sushi, a concept they thought up in a day and put into play 90 days later.
“I started building the menu. He (Cheung) started building the concept, and then we sat back down again,” Wong said.
Wong said the pair’s concept takes all-you-can-eat to “80% closer to a fine dining experience” with a price tag of $27 for lunch, served Sunday-Thursday, and $37 for dinner, served nightly and all day Fridays and Saturdays.
Chef Howard Wong garnishes an order of white tuna with micro greens and an orchid petal for a Tokyo Sushi diner.
The restaurant offers sushi rolls and sashimi as well as a seafood bar with crawfish, mussels, clams and boiled shrimp served with housemade cocktail sauce. Sashimi comes in tuna, salmon, white tuna and yellowtail.
The price also includes a salad bar, six varieties of ramen and a dessert bar.
Wong has 15 years cooking experience, including working as the hibachi chef in Cheung’s Hana Tokyo restaurant on Tucson’s south side, and at Ra Sushi and Benihana.
“Overall, my passion, I love food,” said Wong, who has competed in cooking contests in Singapore and the Philippines and was set to compete in the 2026 Tucson Iron Chef but withdrew to focus on Tokyo Sushi.
Paulina Porter gets her dinner at the newly opened Tokyo Sushi on East Speedway in Tucson.
Tokyo Sushi is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, until 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Details at tucsontokyosushi.com
Also new on Tucson’s Asian food scene: Kirin Asian Bistro & Sushi opened in July in the 5,300-square-foot space at 5884 W. Arizona Pavilions Drive off Interstate 10 and Cortaro Road in Marana.
The space was home to Barro’s Pizza for nine years before it moved across the street in February to the former Boston’s Restaurant & Sports Bar at 5825 Arizona Pavilions Drive; Boston’s closed in 2023.
The upscale bistro opened after a months-long extensive build-out that began last spring.
Kirin blends “the rich traditions of Asian cuisine with a modern twist” in an extensive menu of “masterfully crafted sushi, sashimi and innovative specialty rolls” with a curated selection of classic Chinese, Thai and pan-Asian dishes, according to a description posted on the restaurant’s website.
Kirin is open from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. daily. For more information, visit kirinniasianbistrosushibar.com.
