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    New Restaurant Controversy

    Top Houston restaurant embroiled in wheelchair access controversy: Chef disputes Houstonia mag's account

    Eric Sandler
    Oct 3, 2013 | 11:12 pm

    Oxheart — the much-acclaimed, nationally-recognized Houston Warehouse District restaurant — is suddenly getting some unwanted publicity for being unable to accommodate a wheelchair diner and considering charging the man a $200-plus cancelation fee after he couldn't get his chair into the small restaurant. Houstonia Magazine features editor Katharine Shilcutt — who planned to dine with the wheelchair-bound man — first brought the incident to light.

     

    Shilcutt portrays Oxheart as essentially indifferent to the requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act and almost cruel in its decision to consider charging the cancelation fee. Oxheart chef/owner Justin Yu, who reluctantly agreed to talk about the incident, paints a different picture.

     

    Yu tells CultureMap the would-be diner made a reservation online and noted that he uses a wheelchair and would need to be accommodated.

     
     

      "People are going to say, 'Of course he’s sorry it happened because he got bad publicity.' That’s not the point." 

     
     

    "Generally when someone makes a reservation like that, the first thing we do is note it as soon as (possible)," Yu says. "We noticed it at least a week out . . . We tried to call him at the very least three times. It’s possible even four times . . .

     

    "At the very least to let him know what our accommodations would be. We’ve done that with every single person who’s been in a wheelchair here.

     

    "I remember talking to my front of house manager during lineup that day that we hadn’t been able to get in touch with the gentlemen regarding what we could offer him as far as accessibility. We’ve had wheelchairs in here five or six times. They’ll come up the ramp. We’ll wheel them in. There is sidewalk accessibility."

     

    Yu says that Oxheart's staff has even "moved a table out of the dining room to make someone be more comfortable in a wheelchair" in the past. Shilcutt's friend reportedly found the temporary ramp offered to him inadequate and not navigable for his type of wheelchair.

     

    Yu points to one of the comments on the Houstonia piece from a wheelchair-using diner named Amerigo who's visited Oxheart three times.

     

    "He came here for his birthday," the chef says. "He let us know the first time. We wheeled him up the ramp." While the ramp may not have been specifically designed for wheelchair access, Yu says it's the one he used to install a 500-pound stove into Oxheart during construction and notes it had been reinforced prior to the diner's visit.

     

    As pictured above, Oxheart now has a new wheelchair ramp that it ordered. Yu says it was ordered before the diner's visit. If the man looks at the new ramp and thinks it would work, Yu says he would welcome his return.

     

    As for the cancelation fee, Yu wants to make one thing clear. "It was never charged. (The article) makes it sound like I decided yesterday, because an article came out, not to charge him." Yu says that when he spoke to Shilcutt the day immediately following the incident he wasn't sure what to do and that nuance wasn't reflected.

     

    Asked whether he's sorry about what happened, Yu says "Sorry that it happened? More than anything I’m sorry there was a breakdown in communication. I’m just running it in my head. People are going to say, 'Of course he’s sorry it happened because he got bad publicity.' That’s not the point. I’m sorry it happened because more so than anything I wanted (the wheelchair-bound man) to come in.

     

    "I own a restaurant because the fundamental aspect of going out and dining is my favorite thing in the world, being with your friends. Hopefully the food’s nice and hopefully you have a good time and you remember it forever.

     

    "That’s why I own a restaurant."

    Prior to the night in question, Oxheart had ordered a new wheelchair ramp. Yu displayed it for this story.

    Oxheart wheelchair ramp October 2013
      
    Photo by Eric Sandler
    Prior to the night in question, Oxheart had ordered a new wheelchair ramp. Yu displayed it for this story.
    unspecified
    news/restaurants-bars

    roll out

    Self-taught chef slices into Houston with high-quality sushi to go

    Eric Sandler
    Jul 17, 2025 | 5:57 pm
    Kaisen Sushi Houston nigiri
    Courtesy of Kaisen Sushi Houston
    Each order of nigiri comes with a house made sushi sauce.

    The ghost kitchen phenomenon may have diminished somewhat since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the idea of a delivery and to-go-only restaurant still draws talented chefs who want to focus on food at a lower overhead than a traditional brick-and-mortar. One of those chefs is Sunny Bertsch, whose restaurant Kaisen Sushi Houston is already drawing buzz from inner loopers looking for a more affordable, at-home sushi experience.

    Located at the Blodgett Food Hall in Third Ward, Kaisen Sushi serves typical nigiri, maki, and temaki (hand rolls), along with a steak bowl. Prices are a little lower than what someone would find at a typical sushi restaurant, with an eight-piece nigiri set priced at $18.99 when ordered through the Blodgett Food Hall website (expect to pay more if ordering via a third-party delivery service such as Uber Eats or DoorDash).

    While Bertsch’s food may be familiar, his story is not. The diners who’ve rated Kaisen with 4.9 stars on Google may be surprised to learn that he’s only been cooking professionally for two years. As Bertsch tells CultureMap, prior to becoming a professional chef, he worked in fields as varied as aerospace and dog walking.

    “I’d always been interested in cooking,” he says. “I was blessed to be born into a great Korean American family. My dad and my grandparents always cooked great food. I learned by osmosis.”

    Bertsch began his career as a private chef by working for friends. He built his business by catering lunches to powerhouse law firm Vinson & Elkins. Eventually, his clients asked for private sushi dinners, and he had to figure things out.

    “I got an opportunity to do a sushi omakase. It was brutal. It was messy. But I knew once I did that, I wanted to dedicate my life to sushi,” he says. “Since then, I have studied and practiced. I threw a lot of money and time and fish at it.”

    Bertsch improved his speed and knife skills by taking a $13-per-hour job at Japanese grocery store Seiwa Market. While there, he says he made thousands of pieces of nigiri, rolls, and sushi bowls. That experience, along with meals from similar to-go-only concepts in New York and San Francisco, convinced him to open Kaisen as a ghost kitchen.

    “So far, I’ve spent $90,000. That’s more than the average investment for a food hall kitchen,” Bertsch explains. “I’m a clean freak. I’m a technology freak. I’m an authenticity freak. I outfitted my kitchen in the way I thought was necessary for long-term success.”

    Just as he spared no expense in specing out his kitchen, Bertsch puts thoughtful touches into his food, too. For example, every order of nigiri comes with a dipping sauce Bertsch makes himself from low sodium soy sauce, kombu, vinegar, and sake.

    “It’s a complex sauce that’s less salty and tastes good,” he says. “You know when you don’t have it and you’re given cheap soy sauce.”

    Similarly, his California rolls use imitation crab (as do most restaurants), but it’s seasoned with a housemade, Japanese-style kewpie mayo, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and sesame oil for more umami and less sweetness. Since the chef uses more crab mix than other restaurants do in their rolls, Kaisen’s California roll not only tastes better — at $11.99, it’s a better value, too.

    The chef showcases Japanese techniques and Korean influences with his $25 steak bowl. A USDA Choice ribeye or strip is cooked sous vide with a marinade made from garlic, tamari, and seasoning salt. Once a diner orders the entree, the steak is seared in a pan, basted with Kerrygold butter, seasoned with furikake and sesame oil, and served with short-grain sushi rice and microgreens from local farm Zero Point Organics.

    Word of mouth has been building. Even though it’s only been open for a month, Kaisen already has over 2,000 followers on Instagram. Once he’s able to hire a full roster of cooks, Bertsch plans to expand the menu and offer lunch service. Despite some challenges, he’s pleased with the restaurant’s progress.

    “The support I've gotten on social media has blown me away,” he says. “It’s been amazing. I could not have done it without Instagram. It blows my mind.”

    Kaisen Sushi Houston nigiri
      

    Courtesy of Kaisen Sushi Houston

    Each order of nigiri comes with a house made sushi sauce.

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