A new modern Japanese restaurant from an esteemed local restaurant group with big Michelin cred is coming to Odessa.
Toro, from owners Eric and Adriana Fralick, will open at the Shoppes at Starkey Crossing, at 2290 Gunn Highway. The spot, which will focus on specialty sushi and ramen, could debut as early as this fall, Eric Fralick said this week.
Fralick and his team are behind several celebrated Tampa restaurants, including the Michelin-starred Koya, Water Street’s modern Japanese restaurant Noble Rice and the Italian-Japanese fusion eatery Kinjo in Hyde Park.
Toro, named for the prized fatty tuna belly, will follow a more casual format than their other restaurants, Fralick said, but will offer a sushi and nigiri selection similar to Noble Rice, with fish sourced at auction from Tokyo’s famed Toyosu Market.
This means guests can expect the same high-quality selections of fish found at Fralick’s other restaurants, including bluefin tuna otoro, uni (sea urchin), kanpachi (amberjack), shima aji (striped jack) and madai (a Japanese sea bream). In addition to ramen bowls, specialty maki (rolls) and other dishes, there will be a big focus on “takeout done right,” Fralick said.
The restaurant will feature a menu of sushi and ramen, similar to Tampa’s Noble Rice, but more casual and with an emphasis on takeout.
The chef, who spent several years living and cooking in Japan, opened the flagship location of Noble Rice with his wife in a tiny Hyde Park space in 2016. The restaurant upended the local sushi and izakaya game, ushering in a new wave of modern, upscale Japanese cuisine in Tampa Bay. That restaurant relocated to a much larger space at Tampa’s Water Street development and the couple launched Koya, a nine-seat tasting menu restaurant that was among the first omakase restaurants in the area and the first to win a Michelin star.
Their latest restaurant, Kinjo, opened in 2025 with a focus on “wafu” Italian, or “itameshi,” cuisine — a hybrid of Japanese and Italian cooking that instantly wowed diners (and this critic) and garnered a Michelin recommendation in its first year.
Eventually, Fralick and his team will expand Kinjo into a larger space inside the same Hyde Park building where live jazz, an expanded menu and a full cocktail program will be offered.
Fralick is still in the process of hiring for Toro, and building out a full menu, but said the spot could open in October.
We’d love to know where you go for sushi and ramen. Tell us in the comments.
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AloJapan.com