Chiharu Sushi & Noodle Spot Opens Close To Brookline High

BROOKLINE, MA — There's a new sushi and ramen place in town. Chiharu Sushi & Noodle opened last week at the corner of Route 9 and Cypress Street just around the corner from Rifrullo and where the old Chinese takeout restaurant used to be.

And Thursday afternoon the small restaurant was full of customers. One family was celebrating a birthday, a father and his young daughter were celebrating a lunch after they read about it opening online, and some friends were walking by the area and just happened to see the spot was open and popped in for lunch.

"We'll have to make this our regular spot," said Kate Shamon after she and her friends stopped by on a whim. "It's just delicious." (Want more yummy news like this? Sign up for the Brookline Patch Newsletter)

Chiharu’s owners Qun Li and Mei Pan have experience in the food industry: Li worked at Mix-It in Cambridge and was the head chef at Haru near Copley for the past nine years, and was once named one of Boston's top 10 sushi chefs. Pan was the owner of Allston’s now closed May’s Cafe. They began renovations earlier this year and had hopes to open the small noodle joint by April, but renovations took longer than they anticipated, said Pan.

For the past two decades Li has worked as a chef. He came to the US from Beijing and picked up the skill here he told Patch. He fell in love with it and dreamed of some day owning his own place.

He has hosted sushi making classes to folks who wanted to learn, garnering him much support.

"We always knew he wanted to have his own restaurant and it would be great, and now here it is!" said Jasmine Shi, who took one of his classes and raved about him.

Pan said after owning her own restaurants she went in a different direction and decided to go into real estate. She met Li, who lives in Brookline about a five minute walk from the corner of Cypress and Route 9. He explained what he wanted and she told him about the spot.

"He thought it was so ugly, at first," she remembers. But she saw something else in the spot. It was close to the high school, was highly visible from the street and it was small. Perfect for the cozy comfortable vibe they wanted for his first restaurant.

"It was a hidden gem," she said. Ten months later the restaurant has opened and he couldn't be more proud. There are a few more things they have planned for the space; it's due to get saki and wine "it goes great with fish," explains Pan. And there will be more daily specials soon, too. And Li planed to have his restaurant open for quick grab-and-go breakfast in addition to offering noodles and sushi later in the day, but first the duo wanted to get a feel for how the afternoon business went.

What kind of breakfast? “Simple," he told the Board of Selectmen in January, describing triangle rice balls and steamed vegetable buns that students might grab on their way to school, though at least right away, they will be catering to more of the lunch crowd or after school crowd.

The chef's specialty right now is the Chiharu House Roll for $13.95 it's a tuna, avocado roll with tempura flakes inside for crunch and mango, different colored tobiko and edible gold leaf atop for garnish. It sits next to a drizzle of spicy mayo. Each bite is a bit different on purpose, says Li who noted it's not just a dish for looks. The tuna, sourced daily from Boston area mongers, according to Pan, melts in your mouth and tastes fresh.

They also do shakes like the Blueberry Chia shake with a touch of honey and yogurt. And if you want to order one to to, you can walk out with the mason jar. "Next time you come back, you can get a dollar off," says Pan. "It's better for the environment," she said.

Pan and Li are clearly passionate about their new enterprise. Pan didn't expect to get back into the food industry after switching careers, but she said she's committed to helping this restaurant work. "It feels a little bit like fate," she said.

As for Li, there's a moral in this story. "I want people to know that if you have a dream. You must do it," he said. "This is my dream come true."

Chiharu is open Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. But it's closed on Tuesdays.

Image via Google Maps