HOW Many Japanese Restaurants Will There Be in Strongsville?

Another Japanese restaurant is seeking approval to open here, which would make Strongsville a six-sushi town.

The plethora of Japanese eateries has elicited some grumblings from Strongsville Patch readers and others around town.

Kumo Japanese Buffet is seeking Planning Commission approval to open a 9,000-square-foot restaurant on the first floor of the former Bally's building at 14783 Pearl Rd. Its website says it offers a combination of Chinese, American and Japanese food.

It is seeking a conditional use permit and approval for outside site renovations April 28.

Also getting ready to open is in the Plaza at Southpark, next to Five Below.

They will join the popular , 17070 Pearl Rd.; , 15163 Pearl Rd.; Sakura Sushi House, 15040 Pearl Rd.; and , 500 Southpark Center, in the Westfield SouthPark food court.

Brent Painter, the city's economic development director, said he has gotten some calls from residents disgruntled by all the Japanese restaurants and hoping for other types of cuisine to move in.

"I understand, but it's not the city's role to limit competition in any way," Painter said.

In fact, it would be illegal for the city to try to stop a certain business from opening because others already exist.

"We can't say, 'there's too many pizza shops in town, so you can't come in,'" Painter said.

The market will ultimately determine if there are too many Japanese restaurants in town, he said.

There's a rumor going around Strongsville that Melt Bar & Grilled, with locations in Lakewood and Cleveland Heights and other expansions planned, was interested in Strongsville's Plaza at SouthPark but could not work out a deal with the shopping center.

Painter said he could not discuss the rumor. But he said that while there are no plans to open a Melt in Strongsville, he's working on it.

"We keep an open dialogue with Melt," he said.