Our Story

Why did we want to open our own restaurant?

We often have friends coming over to our home, sharing great food and atmosphere, while also still working for a restaurant. We started to think that we would like to share our home-style dining experience with even more people. Although we’ve been living in the United States for a little over 15 years, we’ve found it hasn’t been easy to find authentic Japanese restaurants to give ourselves comfort. We want to introduce real family-style Japanese comfort food as well as unique foods that we enjoy at our own family dining table at home – from our mom’s and grandma’s recipes; from where we came from.

A bit about ourselves:
Takehiro (Také) Asazu was born in Osaka which is known as the best food culture town in Japan, was raised among not only his mom’s great cooking, but also great local Mom & Pop Japanese bistros. He came to Austin in 1993 for school and relocated to New Orleans and got BFA from University of New Orleans. After his graduation, he decided to take his creativity passion from visual art to culinary art. For the last 15 years, he has been working for great restaurants throughout, Austin, New Orleans and of course Japan. His most recent position before Komé was at Uchi, Austin.

Kayo Asazu was born in Kobe. (where the famous Kobe beef is from) She was raised among real foodie parents, and has always had a great enthusiasm for trying different foods and interesting cuisines. Since her father was always in the food business, she learned from an early age the importance of great service to customers.

Kayo met Také here in Austin in 1996, and since then they’ve always been together.
She also worked for several restaurants in Austin, New Orleans and Japan, as a chef and server.

Passion for our restaurant:
We want to treat every customer as our friend and family. We will offer a casual and comfortable atmosphere and great food with reasonable prices, where customers can come and enjoy their meal whenever they want, without waiting for their next birthday or anniversary. We want to provide great food with safe and fresh ingredients.

About the Komé restaurant interior:
In 2011, we took over an old restaurant and transformed it into a beautiful contemporary Japanese-style dining space. Our longtime friends Kazuya Owada (an accomplished commercial designer) and skilled carpenter Masataka Oki flew here from Japan and did the unique work for us. In November 2017, we moved to a larger location down the road, transforming a former pawn shop. Architect Richard Weiss helped us turn it into an airy open space to allow more customers to comfortably join us. Kazuya and Masataka came back to assist us for this location as well, as did local artist J. Muzacz, who painted the patio mural, as well as the bubble flower mural from our original location. Besides the overall design, there are many small examples of Japanese craftsmanship and detail that you may want to look for throughout the restaurant, such as our growing Manekineko (lucky cat) collection! Because the design was done by our close friends who have known us for a long time, the restaurant interior is a real combination of his style and also it represents us, Také and Kayo. Really, like family!

About the menu:
The food we are serving is not exactly traditional Japanese restaurant food, but authentic home-style Japanese cooking – the food we eat every day, and has many influences from other culture and cuisines. It’s special because it has some of our family history, with our family recipes and reflecting our backgrounds from Japan, New Orleans, and Austin and also traveling throughout Asia. It’s probably more accurate to call our food “Asazu cuisine”! (our last name)

Asazu family businesses throughout the years:

2006 – We started own catering company, Deli Bento, selling Japanese Bento boxes at Sunset Valley Farmers market, and also catered to a number of businesses and individuals.
2009 – We opened a food trailer, “Sushi-A-Go-Go”, where you could get fresh made-to-order sushi rolls by skilled sushi chefs.
2010 – We opened a second Sushi-a-Go-Go trailer, located at Barton Springs Rd.
2011 – Komé Sushi Kitchen opens.
2012 – Our marudori ramen shop Daruma Ramen opens in downtown Austin.
2013 – We teamed up with Motoyasu Utsunomiya of East Side King to open Sa-Tén Coffee and Eats on Springdale Rd.
2017 – Moved Komé to a larger space at 5301 Airport Blvd.
2018 – Ni-Komé Sushi and Ramen opens at Fareground at One Eleven, Austin’s first food hall.
2018 – Second location of Sa-Tén Coffee and Eats opens in Komé’s former building at 4917 Airport Blvd.

We hope you enjoy your meal at Komé!

-Také and Kayo