Photography by Lauren Allen.

It’s a Friday night and there’s only room at the table for eight.

Mabo, an intimate dining experience new to Preston Center, creates a sanctuary for its guests. It’s open five nights a week with only two dining slots, each three hours long.

The restaurant follows an omakase approach, a Japanese phrase that simply put means: “I’ll leave it up to you.”

Here, guests trust chef Masayuki Otaka to decide where the night goes.

“I don’t think there’s a place like this in Dallas or anywhere,” Otaka says. “If you go to another yakitori place, they will have cold chicken, but they won’t have steak or sashimi. I think it’s unique to this country.”

For $200 each, guests sit at a long table while Otaka cooks through an elaborate menu. Mabo blends traditional Japanese yakitori-skewered grilling techniques with the refinement of Kappo-style dining. Kappo, which translates to “cut and cook” emphasizes the chef’s role. It peels back the curtain, turning the chef’s counter into a stage rather than Otaka acting as the man behind the curtain.

What sets Mabo apart from other restaurants is its combination of Kappo dining with yakitori, adapting Japanese street food for Dallas’ high society.

Otaka has been a chef in Dallas for over three decades, first opening Teppo in Lower Greenville in 1995 with his close friend chef Teiichi Sakurai. The two met while Otaka was in high school in Amarillo. While studying chemical engineering in college, he worked in restaurants in Amarillo, Plano and McKinney before making his way to Dallas.

When Sakurai was in the stages of opening Teppo, he gave Otaka a call.

“He asked me to join and I said, ‘Of course, let’s go,’” Otaka says.

For over 25 years, the two became known for their yakitori-style menu, roasted chicken and vegetables on skewers, and sushi bar. When Teppo closed in July 2022, it wasn’t the end for Otaka. Mabo, which opened on February 23, 2024, in the former Rock ‘n Roll Sushi space, had been in Otaka’s back pocket for 10 years.

“I wanted to make yakitori upscaled and in a different way,” Otaka says. “In Japan, there’s many upscale yakitori concepts but they only serve chicken. I didn’t think that was a good idea here and in this space of Dallas. I wanted people to have more variety and enjoy more parts [of the chicken and proteins].”

The menu rotates à la carte dishes, highlighting the season’s freshest ingredients along with yakitori skewers featuring all parts of the chicken.

Guests might start with chicken liver paté, asparagus cream soup, seafood appetizers or sashimi. Other proteins could include duck and Wagyu beef. Meals typically end with a rice dish and dessert, such as chocolate mousse or hojicha crème fouettée (green tea).

While waiting, guests can take a look around the speakeasy-like dining room, darkened by black interiors that highlight the chef’s counter.

“I’m excited to try this style of yakitori and not just in the food, but also the ambiance, the service and the setup,” Otaka says. “I’m really happy and also nervous because no one else has done this. But that’s what keeps me going.”

So, if anyone has a free night, a couple hundred dollars and wants to try something new — try Mabo. We leave it up to you.