Videos above are FOX19 NOW’s top stories.
CINCINNATI (WXIX) – A celebrity chef and restaurateur has plans to open a Japanese restaurant in Cincinnati this summer, bringing new, yet traditional flavors to the city.
Owner and Chef Makoto Okuwa has restaurants all over the world from Miami to Sao Paulo to Madrid. Now he is ready to bring his cuisine to the Midwest.
Suzu, located at Madison Square in Madisonville, is set to open in July, making it the first Makoto brick-and-mortar in the Midwest.
The restaurant’s central theme is all about balance, walking the line between tradition and modernity. Customers will be sure to see that in Suzu’s cuisine and interior spaces.
Suzu will offer customers a signature Japanese experience with its 150-guest indoor and 70-guest outdoor dining options. Traditional seating options include dining in the suzuné, a 10-seat Edo-style omakase counter, or inside the tea room, which can be booked for intimate gatherings.
“We want each guest who walks through the doors to feel that sense of warmth, intention, and respect for ingredients and leave feeling that they’ve shared a remarkable experience with our chefs, staff, and the people they dined with,” said Makoto.
Suzu is more than Cincinnati’s newest Japanese restaurant. It is also a reflection of Chef Makoto’s childhood and culture.
“Growing up, my mother and grandmother showed me how much care goes into preparing food for others,” he said. “That spirit lives in every dish we’ll serve at Suzu.”
Those dishes include sushi, rice and noodle options, and Japanese grill items.
For more than 25 years, Makoto has honed his skills and has since become a Master of Modern Japanese cuisine and Edomae-style sushi.
His career started when he was a teenager in his hometown of Nagoya, Japan, about about 215 miles (346 kilometers) from Tokyo.
At 15, he trained under master sushi chefs, later working for world-renowned Master Sushi chef Haruyoshi Matsuda. A decade later, he worked closely with Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.
Today, Makoto owns multiple restaurants across the globe. In just a few months, one of those will be in Cincinnati.
See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.
Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.
Copyright 2026 WXIX. All rights reserved.