Popular sushi restaurant to add third location — with a twist
The new Highland express restaurant will look similar to Red Koi’s Poplar Avenue location (above), with orange walls, a black ceiling and dome lights. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)
A popular local sushi restaurant is betting its food will be good to-go.
Red Koi Japanese Cuisine, which specializes in sushi and other Japanese dishes, already has two locations, one in East Memphis and one in Bartlett. Now it plans to open another location, near the end of this year, at 431 S. Highland St. in the University District.
The restaurant, called Red Koi Express Japanese Cuisine, will have a few tables for people who want to eat there but will mainly be a take-out location.
“I strongly believe to-go will be very successful (in the University District),” said Liedy Handoko who owns all three restaurants with his sister, Lienda Novita, and a family friend, Ockky Wibisana. “There’s a lot of demand.”
Handoko, Novita and Wibisana all worked in the restaurant industry before opening their first Red Koi in 2012 at 5847 Poplar Ave. Six years later, they added a location in Bartlett, at 2946 Kate Hyde Blvd.
The Poplar location is the busiest, Handoko said, but the Bartlett restaurant also generates a lot of traffic, especially on nights and weekends.
“Our sushi and hibachi are the main things people love,” added Novita.
The owners are proud that Red Koi makes all its own sauces, including its spicy mayo, and Handoko said the restaurant chain trains its employees according to “our style, the way we like it.”
“I strongly believe to-go will be very successful (in the University District),” said Liedy Handoko who owns all three Red Koi restaurants with his sister, Lienda Novita, and a family friend, Ockky Wibisana. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)
The new Highland express restaurant will look similar to Red Koi’s Poplar Avenue location, with orange walls, a black ceiling and dome lights.
And with the third location already in the works, Handoko said “it’s always possible we will expand to other locations.”
Topics
Red Koi sushi University District Highland Strip Liedy Handoko Lienda Novita Ockky WibisanaMatthew Fite
Matthew Fite is a native Memphian and a graduate of the journalism school at The University of Memphis. He has worked at The Commercial Appeal, as a contract employee at FedEx and as a teacher of English as a Second Language. He and his wife have three children and a rescue dog.
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