Japan-based conveyor-belt sushi chain plans Boulder location

Oct 14, 2024

A high-tech conveyor-belt sushi restaurant chain — famous from Tokyo to Los Angeles to Jersey City — plans to open a location in Boulder in the fall of 2025.

Like similar concepts around the world, Kura Revolving Sushi Bar serves sushi in small trays that wind their way past tables on a conveyor belt. Customers can select what they want off the belt and pay by the plate. At Kura, which has 650 locations across Japan, Taiwan and the United States (where there are 67 with 12 on the way) there is typically also a touchscreen to order other kinds of food that don’t arrive via the revolving belt, and even robots who deliver drinks.

But one of the most novel gimmicks — at a place that is filled with them — is a toy dispenser that automatically awards diners with prizes if they eat at least 15 plates of food. The prizes are often anime figurines or keychains, magnetic bookmarks and phone mounts.

“The number of diverse restaurants in Boulder suggests that local residents, students and visitors have a sophisticated multi-cultural palette and that aligns perfectly with where Kura Revolving Sushi Bars perform best throughout the country,” said Robert Kluger, the chief development officer for Kura’s U.S.-based subsidiary, in a statement provided by Kura Sushi USA. “We are excited to share our authentic Japanese dining experience and look forward to being a part of Boulder’s thriving restaurant district and becoming a part of the community’s dining traditions.”

Kura will be in the Twenty Ninth Street shopping center at 1710 29th St. in Boulder.

Kluger said the company is “actively” searching for locations for two more Colorado restaurants, but hasn’t yet identified where they will be.

Colorado only has a few conveyor-belt sushi restaurants. A small homegrown chain, chef Jeff Osaka’s Sushi-Rama, closed four of its five locations earlier this year.

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