Sushi Dojo at 450 NE 20th Street serves a 12-course omakase for $65, and it serves it at lunch. The counter seats guests from noon to 3 p.m. and again from 5 to 9 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Takeout runs from noon to 9 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. Chef David Bouhadana's earlier omakase room downtown was built around evenings. This one opens at midday, which turns a tasting menu into something that fits a Wednesday.
The formal grand opening is Thursday, October 22. The restaurant is already seating guests now. On October 12, OpenTable showed tables for October 13 at noon, 1, 2, 5 and 6 p.m.
A Noon Seating Changes What Omakase Is For
Omakase in Boca Raton has mostly meant dinner. Boca Magazine covered Sushi By Bou when it opened at Royal Palm Place in 2023, and its listed hours were Tuesday through Sunday, 5 p.m. to midnight. At the time it offered a 12-course omakase for $60 and a 17-course "Bou-gie" upgrade for $125. Those figures come from that Boca Magazine review and reflect 2023. Today's offering there may be different.
Sushi Dojo's format, according to its own posted schedule, looks like this:
| Service | Days | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Lunch omakase | Tuesday–Saturday | 12–3 p.m. |
| Dinner omakase | Tuesday–Saturday | 5–9 p.m. |
| Takeout and delivery | Tuesday–Sunday | 12–9 p.m. |
The headline price matches the evening menu. The Dojo Omakase is listed at $65 per guest for twelve courses, including nigiri, Chef David's signature roll, and fish flown in from Japan. OpenTable files the restaurant under "$50 and over" and tags it a "neighborhood gem" and "good for special occasions," a fair label for a place that does both. Twelve courses at noon is the same meal at a different hour. Sunday is takeout only. The counter is closed that day, but the kitchen keeps filling orders.
The address matters too. The restaurant calls itself "an intimate and energetic omakase experience in East Boca Raton." For anyone in the waterfront streets of east Boca, it sits away from the Mizner Boulevard corridor, and its own listing for the grand-opening event promises free parking.
The Chef Has Worked a Short Loop of Boca Addresses
The hours make more sense once you see where Bouhadana has cooked. His Boca story begins before New York. He told the Boca Raton Tribune in 2021 that he grew up in Boca Raton and found sushi at 18:
"I was eighteen years old and I got a job at Yokohama Sushi down the street, which is still there. And my first master, he's was the one that changed my life when I was 18 years old."
Pieced together from local press and the restaurant's own account, his Boca addresses run in this order:
- Yokohama Sushi, his first sushi job at 18, by his account to the Boca Raton Tribune.
- Sunset Sushi at 2433 N Federal Highway. The Tribune profiled it in July 2021 with Bouhadana as owner.
- Sushi By Bou at 409 SE Mizner Boulevard in Royal Palm Place. Boca Magazine named him a partner there in October 2023 and described him as a Boca Raton resident.
- Sushi Dojo at 450 NE 20th Street, Suite 103. Its own page describes it as his return to the city "where his story with sushi first began."
The Tribune article also gave a reason for the first homecoming. Bouhadana said he and a friend spent five months living on a boat they were repairing, watching sunsets and spearfishing, and that experience became Sunset Sushi. "I was instantly hooked back into Florida," he told the paper. Those comments are from 2021. The sources here don't confirm Sunset Sushi's current status or his present role at Sushi By Bou.
Between the first job and these Boca rooms came the career that made the name. His chef biography says he trained at the Sushi Chef Institute in Los Angeles under Andy Matsuda, then studied in Japan. In New York he worked at Morimoto, Hatsuhana, 15 East and Sushi UO. His original Sushi Dojo in New York drew attention from The New York Times. Zagat named him one of its top chefs under 30, and he later hosted Shokunin, Eater's Emmy Award-winning series.
That New York restaurant closed. According to the restaurant's own account, Bouhadana took the Sushi Dojo name back ten years later and brought it to Boca Raton.
Why the Room Has Classes and a Pro Shop
The biography gives a reason for the extra rooms. Before Bouhadana left for Japan, Matsuda told him, "What you learn in Japan, come back and teach others." The restaurant says Bouhadana dedicated the new Sushi Dojo to his teacher. It also describes the Dojo as a place to teach aspiring chefs as well as serve guests.
That explains why the place goes past the counter. The homepage lists four things a guest can do there without booking a meal:
- Sushi classes and culinary experiences, from hands-on classes to Japanese cooking sessions.
- Professional chef training, listed as its own program.
- Sake Society, which offers guided tastings, seasonal pairings and visiting producers.
- The Dojo Proshop, which sells Japanese knives, professional tools, specialty ingredients and Shokunin-branded products sourced from Japan.
OpenTable's listing sums it up as dining, Japanese culinary culture, workshops and retail "all under one roof." Combined with the noon seating, that makes the restaurant useful on ordinary days: buying a knife, taking a class, or picking up an order on a Sunday when the counter is closed.
The room also hosts private events, including private omakase, corporate gatherings and celebrations. That covers the occasions a downtown reservation used to handle.
October 22: The Ribbon, the Mayor and the Tuna
The public grand opening is set for Thursday, October 22, 2026, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. The Eventbrite listing lays out the evening:
- 5:00 p.m. Meet and greet
- 5:30 p.m. Ribbon cutting with the mayor, followed by a celebratory toast
- 6:00 p.m. Live whole-tuna cutting led by Chef David
The ticketed part is small. Seats cost $125 per person, and only 25 are available. The price includes all-you-can-eat freshly cut tuna, house sake, passed appetizers and small plates, and assorted rolls and nigiri. Tickets must be bought in advance and are nonrefundable. They can be transferred to another guest if you notify the restaurant before the event. The event is for ages 18 and up.
Twenty-five seats for a tuna cutting is a small run. Tuna cutting is also one of the restaurant's ongoing event formats, next to Sake Society, so the October 22 seats aren't the only chance to see one.
For anyone planning the rest of the fall in east Boca, the city's own calendar lists Halloween by the Sea at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center on Sunday, October 18. It also lists the next Night Market at Sanborn Square on November 5. Neither event conflicts with the tuna cutting.
The Practical Details
- Address: 450 NE 20th Street, Suite 103, Boca Raton, FL 33431. The event listing gives suites 103–104.
- Phone: (561) 961-0476
- Reservations: through OpenTable
- Takeout and gift cards: ordered through the restaurant's website
So far the press record on this opening is mostly the restaurant's own. The local coverage that exists is older and covers Sunset Sushi in 2021 and Sushi By Bou in 2023. The October 22 ribbon cutting is likely to be the first public moment for the Dojo itself.
Relocating clients often ask us what weekday dining looks like in east Boca once the tour is over. A $65 omakase lunch on NE 20th Street is now part of our answer. If you're weighing a move to the waterfront neighborhoods around Lake Rogers and want a sense of what's nearby, Pink Palm Properties, LLC would be glad to walk you through it. Schedule a private consultation.
