Hajime Sato Opens Sazanami, a Sustainable Kappo Counter in Beaverton

Hajime Sato is back on the West Coast, and this time the counter is in Beaverton. Sazanami, his new 14-seat omakase room at 10053 Southwest Nimbus Avenue, opened at the end of July in a strip-mall space near Washington Square. The name means “ripples” in Japanese. The bet is that a small suburban room can still move how diners think about sushi.

Sato won the 2024 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes at Sozai, his Clawson, Michigan, counter. Before that he spent twenty-five years at Mashiko in West Seattle, where in 2009 he was among the first American sushi chefs to commit the menu to sustainable seafood. He sold Mashiko to longtime employees in 2019, opened Sozai in 2021, closed it in 2025, and looked for a Pacific Northwest home that would not compete with the Seattle room he left behind.

Sazanami is reservation-only, counter seating only, and adults only (21 and up). Parties stop at four. Sato has told local press not to expect a parade of nigiri. The format he wants is closer to kappo: a nine-course chef’s choice that mixes sushi and sashimi with cooked kitchen plates, adjusted in conversation with whoever is sitting in front of him.

Two pescatarian tracks have been reported around $170 (Minato) and $200 (Chiso, with more adventurous choices), plus a vegan omakase around $140. Treat those numbers as soft and confirm on the booking page before you plan. Hours have been listed Wednesday through Saturday for dinner, with reservation start times rather than a walk-in clock. Sake pairings are available as an add-on.

Sato’s sourcing pitch is local whenever he can make it work: petrale sole, rockfish, albacore, black cod, Dungeness crab, spot prawns, oysters, clams, local uni, and Oregon-grown wasabi among the names he has floated. He has said he would rather serve what is unique to this coast than fly in the same Tokyo-market checklist every other counter already uses. Sustainability remains the through line from Mashiko to Sozai to Sazanami, even if he prefers not to lecture about it unless a guest asks.

Beaverton won out over downtown Portland and other leads because the space fit a small counter budget, friends were nearby, and the everyday feel reminded him of older West Seattle. Mashiko is still open under its employee owners, and he did not want to open across town from them. For diners, the useful facts are the Nimbus Avenue address, the reservation requirement, the adults-only rule, and the style of meal: a short counter, a flexible kappo progression, and Oregon seafood ahead of bluefin theater.