Japonais OUT at The Mirage

Say so long to Japonais at the Mirage. The Japanese sushi restaurant and robata grill shutters on May 1 to convert into Otoro Robata Grill & Sushi.

Back in December, Fernando Sposato came on board to be the executive chef of Japonais. The former executive chef of Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas plans to continue his menu of rock shrimp tempura, Chilean sea bass, oysters, sushi and more.

Outposts of Japonais in Chicago and New York City closed in recent years. Back in 2014, Masaharu Morimoto planned to open his first Las Vegas restaurant in the Mirage space, only to head to the former Shibuya space at MGM Grand last fall instead. For years, the Mirage sported signs promoting the Iron Chef’s move to the resort until the move to the MGM Grand happened.

Japonais remains one of those restaurants where it’s great to sit at the bar, play table games, watch sushi made and chat with the bartenders.

The restaurant was originally designed by Jeffrey Beers. House specialties include crispy shrimp and salmon roll, spicy chicken robata with shiso buds, and "The Rock" with thinly sliced marinated New York strip steak cooked on a hot rock at the table.

Otoro plans to be open from 5 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5 to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.