Kokoro Restaurant announced this week that its final day of business will be Sunday, August 30, ending a 12-year run at 3298 Greyling Drive. According to the restaurant, the closure comes as Ishito retires after a lengthy culinary career that included approximately 15 years working as a sushi chef in Los Angeles before his 12 years at Kokoro in San Diego.
"With heartfelt thanks to all our guests," the restaurant wrote in its closure announcement. "After 15 years in Los Angeles and 12 years in San Diego as a sushi chef, TAISHO Ishito is retiring."
The restaurant thanked customers for their "support, kindness, and the many memories we've shared over the years," adding that Ishito and Akane are beginning a new chapter.
The announcement closes the book on a restaurant that never relied much on location, spectacle or trendiness to attract customers. Tucked inside an unassuming Serra Mesa shopping center, Kokoro built its following around traditional Japanese cooking, carefully sourced seafood and Ishito's omakase menus.
Kokoro opened in May 2014, with contemporary coverage describing Ishito as an established Japanese chef arriving with considerable experience from both Los Angeles and San Diego. Eater San Diego reported at the time that Ishito had previously owned a restaurant in Los Angeles and served as head chef at San Diego's Robata-ya Oton before opening Kokoro.
But Ishito's restaurant career stretches considerably further back. According to Kokoro's own biography of its executive chef, Ishito initially came to the United States as a student before returning to Japan. He eventually decided to pursue his dream of living in America and turned cooking into his profession, spending his first 12 years training at various restaurants.
A pivotal stop came at upscale Fountain Valley sushi restaurant Kasen. Ishito later opened his own restaurant, Sekitei, in Monterey Park in 1995 before launching Kappo Ishito in Los Angeles in 2003. He relocated to San Diego in 2010 and became head chef at Robata-ya Oton, which earned a Silver Fork Award from San Diego Home/Garden Magazine during his tenure. Four years later, he opened Kokoro.
From the beginning, the restaurant was positioned differently from many of San Diego's more Americanized sushi establishments. Kokoro emphasized kappo-style Japanese cooking, a broad culinary tradition centered on a chef preparing a progression of dishes directly for diners rather than simply serving sushi rolls and sashimi.
The restaurant says it has sourced fresh ingredients both locally and directly from Japan while emphasizing traditional Japanese cuisine alongside sushi made without imitation crab. Ishito's omakase required reservations several days in advance, allowing the chef to personally select and prepare each course.
That approach gradually earned Kokoro a reputation as one of San Diego's more under-the-radar Japanese restaurants. A 2016 San Diego Reader review described customers making reservations three days ahead for Ishito's omakase menus, which at the time ranged from $45 to $85. The meals extended well beyond raw fish, incorporating dishes such as skipjack tataki with yuzu ponzu, braised spinach with enoki mushrooms, clam dumpling soup, duck and grilled salmon before progressing into sushi. The Reader described Kokoro as a restaurant diners deliberately sought out despite its inconspicuous Serra Mesa location, noting that Ishito said many Japanese customers specifically traveled there for his cooking.
That reputation endured. As recently as 2025, Eater San Diego included Kokoro among its selections for the city's best sushi restaurants, characterizing the restaurant as a quiet, minimalist destination for Japanese kappo cuisine and highlighting Ishito's traditional approach. Eater also included Kokoro among its recommended Japanese restaurants in San Diego, specifically pointing diners toward its omakase and nigiri.
The restaurant's relative obscurity was part of its identity. Kokoro wasn't in Little Italy, Convoy, La Jolla or another neighborhood normally associated with destination dining. It occupied a modest storefront in Serra Mesa, yet developed the kind of following that could persuade serious sushi diners to seek it out. That makes its closure another notable loss for San Diego's increasingly mature Japanese restaurant scene, particularly as a generation of veteran chefs who helped establish the region's reputation for traditional sushi and Japanese cooking reaches retirement age.
The restaurant's announcement prompted immediate disappointment from longtime customers, with commenters recalling favorite dishes and meals accumulated over its dozen years in business. One called the impending closure "truly a loss," while another singled out Kokoro's mackerel nigiri as the best they had ever eaten.
Unlike many recent San Diego restaurant closures attributed to rising costs, declining sales, landlord disputes or other financial pressures, Kokoro has given a straightforward explanation for its departure: its chef is retiring. And after a career stretching from Japanese kitchens to Fountain Valley, Monterey Park and Los Angeles and finally San Diego, Ishito leaves behind considerably more than another neighborhood sushi restaurant.
For 12 years, Kokoro offered a particularly personal version of Japanese dining built around the judgment and experience of the chef behind the counter. In a restaurant industry increasingly dominated by expanding hospitality groups, elaborate dining rooms and concepts engineered for replication, Kokoro remained decidedly old-school: one chef, one small restaurant and customers willing to travel to Serra Mesa because of what he could put on a plate.
Kokoro Restaurant will permanently close after service on Sunday, August 30. The restaurant notes that reservations for August 28 through 30 are not available through Tock and customers seeking reservations for those final days should contact the restaurant directly.
Kokoro Restaurant is located at 3298 Greyling Drive, Suite B, in San Diego's Serra Mesa community. For more information, visit kokoro-restaurant.net.
Originally published August 20, 2026.
