Miyabi Jr. Japanese Express Chooses Denver for Its First Location

Miyabi Jr. Japanese Express, a quick-service hibachi restaurant from PJ Partners and Capital Japan, opened last month in Tiffany Plaza -- and no, it's not in the space recently vacated by Oshima Ramen, an offshoot of another Japanese group that has a chain of ramen noodle shops in that country...

By Westword Staff

October 8, 2014

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Miyabi Jr. Japanese Express, a quick-service hibachi restaurant from PJ Partners and Capital Japan, opened last month in Tiffany Plaza -- and no, it's not in the space recently vacated by Oshima Ramen, an offshoot of another Japanese group that has a chain of ramen noodle shops in that country.

Koichiro Hirao, founder of Capital Japan, opened the Kyoto Japanese Steakhouse in Charleston, South Carolina, back in 1979. Since then, he has opened seventeen more Japanese restaurants and partnered with PJ Partners on still more eateries across Asia. They chose Denver for the first Miyabi Jr. Japanese Express restaurant, working with a Denver-based operator.

PJ Partners "identified Denver as an ideal target market based on a lack of authentic and affordable restaurant options for Japanese food, along with the young and sophisticated local market," PJ Partners CEO Seiki Takahashi says in a release. "We've very excited to have people come to our first location, and taste why we believe our Japanese cuisine is so much better."

And faster: Miyabi Jr. promises to prepare its hibachi-grilled dishes in an average of five to eight minutes. And if the concept works at Tiffany Plaza, the partners have plans to add as many as five more locations in metro Denver over the next several years. Find out more about Miyabi and see the menu here.

Close by Miyabi Jr., the space that had been home to Oshima Ramen for fourteen years is still empty. India's, which moved here from Tamarac Square five years ago, will also be leaving Tiffany Plaza for a stand-alone building that's currently being constructed -- but according to the leasing agent, that likely won't happen until some time in 2015.

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