Yoshitomo opened in a former Subway restaurant at 6011 Maple Street in Benson in 2017, the first of three highly acclaimed restaurants from chef and owner David Utterback. Ota is Yoshitomo’s intimate omakase counter, tucked into a small side room inside the restaurant, while Koji is a Japanese izakaya restaurant in Countryside Village.
Utterback is an Omaha culinary legend with national recognition from The Washington Post, which called one of his sushi restaurants one of America’s best. He has been a James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef: Midwest multiple times, including 2023, 2025 and 2026.
It didn’t start out that way.
Utterback got his first sushi job more than 20 years ago after a roommate told him a local restaurant was hiring. He figured it would be a way to make a little money and get some free food. He had no idea it would become a career.
Yoshitomo dining area
Photo by Jennifer Corey
“I took my first trip to Japan, maybe two or three years in, and I thought, you know, I didn’t know anything about nice restaurants or fine food,” Utterback said. “And I thought that I kind of knew everything about sushi. And so on this trip, I Googled ‘best sushi restaurants in Tokyo,’ as a true professional does.”
He wound up eating sushi at the counter made famous by the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, an experience he said blew his mind.
“I’d never had fine food before,” Utterback recalled. “I’d never been in a fine dining restaurant. I’d never eaten food by somebody who had chosen that profession before. And it just sort of changed everything.”
Making sushi at Yoshitomo
Photo by Jennifer Corey
When Utterback returned to Omaha, he committed himself to becoming a cook. He went on to join Flagship Restaurant Group, where he helped open more than a dozen restaurants. He learned how to build teams and run kitchens before deciding it was time to do his own thing. A few months later, Yoshitomo was born.
Utterback describes Yoshitomo as casual fine dining, a bridge between a sushi restaurant with a menu diners have come to expect and a more intentional experience. The back of the menu is traditional sushi, while the front of the menu is where the restaurant gets creative.
Snacks, bites and plates allow sushi to be a starting point rather than a fixed set of rules. Even the sushi rolls are developed with intention. They come with their own sauces, meant to be eaten as composed and not drowned in soy sauce, as I’m guilty of doing.
Yoshitomo table setting
Photo by Jennifer Corey
During our tour of the menu, we heard a couple of servers mention the hotate XO, from the snacks portion of the menu, as the dish Utterback is preparing for the James Beard reception. Utterback said it began as a larger plate inspired by carbonara with scallops standing in for pasta, yuzu yolk in place of egg and XO sauce filling the role of cured pork.
While the plate eventually needed to come off the menu, Utterback restructured the dish as a small bite, turning it into a tartlet, so he could keep the sauces in the restaurant. Now, Utterback and his team are preparing to make 1,000 of them for the reception.
Speaking of the menu, let’s start with cocktails.
Five-spice old fashioned
Photo by Jennifer Corey
The five-spice old fashioned has Japanese whisky, Szechuan liqueur, fennel, walnut bitters and orange. It’s a playful old fashioned with ingredients that come together to taste like boozy gingerbread in all the right ways. It’s slightly sweet, moderately bitter and completely delightful. The whiskey’s warmth lingers on the finish. I’ll certainly be back for another.
Yoshi highball
Photo by Jennifer Corey
The yoshi highball is bourbon with lime-ginger syrup and sparkling water. This is a refreshing cocktail, where the bourbon blends well with the lime-ginger syrup. It’s gently sweet and carries a touch of heat with the ginger. The bourbon remains the star in this delicious spritzer, and it paired beautifully with fish.
Seji cocktail
Photo by Jennifer Corey
The seji is made with tequila, grapefruit and yuzu. It’s another light, refreshing cocktail with a prominence of grapefruit that plays well with the agave of the tequila. The yuzu adds aromatic citrus that gives this sipper a beautiful vibrancy. It’s also an excellent pairing with seafood.
Yoshitomo foienagi
Photo by Jennifer Corey
The foienagi is smoked eel with foie gras and cherry boshi. The eel is warm, fresh and gently smoky. The foie gras and cherry boshi (sweet, fermented cherries) add a sweet and savory element. Everything combines as one incredible bite that’s a lovely blend of sweet, tart, salty and smoky.
Yoshitomo Hotate XO James Beard reception bite
Photo by Jennifer Corey
The hotate XO is scallop, XO, Parmesan, yuzu yolk and a nori tartlet. This is an incredible bite. The scallop is pristine, and the yuzu yolk with Parmesan adds a savory, salty element that complements its natural sweetness. The nori tartlet adds a final crunch and briny edge that makes each bite delectable.
Oni egg
Photo by Jennifer Corey
The oni egg is deviled with mentaiko (the salted, spiced roe of pollock fish), trout roe, yuzu togarashi (a vibrant Japanese blend of chili spice and yuzu) and potato salad. The egg is as delicious as it is beautiful. The potato salad has little bits of salmon and chunks of crisp vegetables. It’s savory but light and vibrant. The egg filling is delightfully umami, and the potato salad tastes like a refreshing version of the familiar side. There’s a lot going on in this small snack, and everything works together exquisitely.
I need to pause here, because the last thing I was expecting at a casual fine dining sushi restaurant was potato salad. My mother made one of my favorite potato salads of all time. It’s the one against which I measure all other potato salads. Utterback’s potato salad took me home to a time when I’d sneak a spoonful from our fridge before it had the chance to properly chill. The oni egg is elegant and bougie, yet it’s built atop one of the humblest of side dishes. When food takes you to your childhood, you’ve found something special.
Prairie tuna
Photo by Jennifer Corey
The prairie tuna is imperial wagyu with uni butter and nigiri soy. It’s wagyu beef cut like sushi—a beef nigiri. The beef is incredibly tender, a hearty substitute for fish. There’s a nice note of char and the sauce has a slight sweetness and prominent umami. This was another wonderful surprise, as beef isn’t traditionally a sushi ingredient, though it’s becoming increasingly popular. My only regret is not ordering more, something I’ll certainly rectify in the near future.
Speaking of sushi, from the makimono menu, we tried the rangucci and simba.
Rangucci makimono
Photo by Jennifer Corey
The rangucci is shrimp tempura, crab rangoon mix, jalapeno and pineapple sweet chili. The chili sauce has a tropical edge with the pineapple and a mild heat from the jalapeno and chili. The tempura on the shrimp adds a welcome, gentle crunch. It’s abundantly fresh and undeniably delightful.
Simba makimono
Photo by Jennifer Corey
The simba is crab, cucumber, avocado, spicy salmon, spicy mayo and eel sauce. The crab is fresh, and the spicy salmon brings a gentle, vibrant heat. The eel sauce adds a touch of sweetness, while the spicy mayo adds moderate heat and a welcome creaminess. Altogether, it’s a delicious roll.
For nigiri, we tried the hamachi, which is yellowtail over rice. The yellowtail is abundantly fresh, and the rice isn’t overbearing. It’s a fantastic nigiri – clean and delicate.
Yoshitomo hamapon plate
Photo by Jennifer Corey
The hamapon, from the plates menu, is yellowtail, orange, gold tobiko, Thai chili and crab butter ponzu. The ponzu is a delightfully complex sauce, savory and umami—the kind that warms your soul. The yellowtail is ridiculously fresh, further invigorated by the citrus from the orange. Everything works together, each ingredient elevating the other. Jennifer and I made sure there wasn’t a drop of ponzu left.
Utterback has more projects in motion, one of which is a distinct detour from sushi. Shredders, a pizza joint coming to the former Mootz Pizza space in Countryside Village, is expected to open soon, with a grand opening likely sometime in mid-June.
You wouldn’t know Utterback has drawn such national attention in the culinary world by talking to him. He’s humble, laid back and has an excellent sense of humor. Mostly, he’s excited about what his national attention means for Omaha.
Japanese samurai armor display
Photo by Jennifer Corey
When I asked if there was anything he wanted people to know, he said, “Just my sincere and deep, humble love and affection for the dining community here. I’m living a dream right now, and it’s because of the city. It’s really cool that I get to do these fun things, because the city supports them. I try to thank everyone as much as possible, but I have a hard time expressing exactly how lucky I am to be able to do stuff like this.”
As far as the menu goes, let me just say that I didn’t miss my usual mix of soy sauce and wasabi. Utterback’s sushi stands deliciously on its own. It’s a similar lesson to “don’t salt your food until you’ve tasted it.” Of course, if you ask, Yoshitomo will oblige any diner who asks for soy sauce. Utterback joked they have to ask twice. I won’t dare ask once.
