Buzzy New Japanese Restaurant Makes Its Debut in River Oaks District

Sister to Italian chophouse Marmo, the sushi-focused Azumi is ready to make its mark

The River Oaks District is slowly upping its culinary offerings, giving diners options like Vietnamese, Italian, Mexican, and French cuisine, plus burgers, seafood, steak, and gelato. Today, the outdoor retail and shopping complex rounds out its roster with a new modern Japanese restaurant with one dish the district seemed to lack — sushi.

The Baltimore-based Atlas Restaurant Group opens the second location of Azumi in the District’s former space of its now-shuttered restaurant Ouzo Bay. The upscale restaurant, which has a flagship in Baltimore’s Four Seasons Hotel, offers a menu that focuses largely on sushi and omakase, with fish sourced from around the world for dishes like its scallop tiradito, hirame or flounder crudo, and its crispy rice that can be served with spicy tuna or truffle avocado. But the restaurant, helmed by executive chef Timur Fazilov, will go beyond seafood, with dishes like a wagyu short rib, Yakisoba noodles, and favorites from the Baltimore flagship, including its Flaming King Crab roll, miso black cod, fried rice, and chicken gyoza.

Diners can pair their sushi with picks from Azumi’s beverage list, which features more than 60 sakes, 16 rare bottles of Japanese whiskey, and signature cocktails, like its Origami Angel, made with shochu, nigori sake, calpico, strawberry, cacao, and lemon, or the refreshing Two Moons, a mix of vodka, Midori, elderflower liqueur, cucumber, and yuzu.

The space itself plays off the restaurant’s roots, theme, and location. Baltimore-based designer Patrick Sutton incorporated warm, natural materials that lend to Tokyo’s dining scene, along with traditional gray tiles that are often used in decor in Japan and white oak as a nod to River Oaks. Japanese calligraphy and traditional silk Shoji screens can also be found throughout the space.

Azumi hosted a grand opening party on June 22, inviting diners in for a sneak peek of what to expect. The restaurant, which seats 80 in its dining room, 11 at its sushi bar, and 20 at its cocktail bar, was buzzing and packed with people as servers passed out small bites of sushi and nigiri and glasses of wine and sake. Throughout the evening, chefs could be seen behind the sushi bar, breaking down a massive tuna (that was allegedly swimming earlier that morning) and assembling sushi bites for diners.

Brian Kennedy

Azumi is the third local restaurant for Atlas Restaurant Group, whose portfolio currently includes Loch Bar in River Oaks and Marmo in the Montrose Collective. Its restaurant Ouzo Bay, known for its Mediterranean-style seafood, closed in 2023 after around three years in business.

Azumi is open for lunch and dinner from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 11:30 a.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Catch happy hour from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Reservations can be made online on OpenTable.