Domo Serves Northern Japanese Cuisine with a Side of Zen

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Denverites have mourned the closure of one of the city’s most charming Japanese eateries multiple times. Domo Japanese Country Foods Restaurant, housed in a custom-built farmhouse just blocks from West Colfax Avenue, shuttered for a few months at the onset of the pandemic. Then it lived an on-again, off-again existence from early 2022 through late 2023 after a viral TikTok video in summer 2021 showing the restaurant’s interior and garden resulted in more attention than the small business could handle. But chef-owner Gaku Homma turned Domo’s stoves back on this past fall—hopefully for good—with plans to reintroduce his brand of Japanese fare to diners who’ve been swimming in Denver’s endless sea of nigiri-slinging hot spots.

Homma, 74, has helmed Domo’s kitchen since the venue opened in 1996, and he’s also responsible for creating the eatery’s Zenlike ambience, inside and out. Homma transported almost all of the mingu (everyday tools and objects) that decorate the rustic restaurant from his native Japan, including fans, bottles, abacuses, and dishes. Large sections of a more than 200-year-old cottonwood tree, flagstone tabletops, and thatched roof are among the many features and materials salvaged from the property’s construction process or other places in and around Denver (think: City Park and a junkyard). The beautiful garden, where patrons can dine alfresco, has a stream, bridge, and cherry trees.

The result is an atmosphere that is much more Japanese countryside than Tokyo, and the food befits the setting. This isn’t another trendy izakaya serving inventive dumplings and gussied-up sushi rolls with names like Orgasm and Dynamite. Domo’s menu is instead full of the specialties Homma grew up eating in Akita: curry, dipping udon noodles, okoge, and katsudon.

Japanese curry has been on the menu since day one. Recipes vary across the country, and Homma makes a northern Japanese style by cooking down ginger, chile paste, garlic, and curry powder for 30 minutes and letting it sit for three hours. Creamy, rich, and loaded with potatoes, carrots, and the protein of your choice, the stew is soothing and mild in flavor. It dances between sweet and savory depending on where it tickles your tongue.

That curry is even better when deployed in the nanban udon, where soft, slick noodles, ribbons of cabbage and seaweed, and chunks of chicken thighs swim in a curry-tinged dashi. Dashi—a soup stock so complex and umami-packed that it’s considered the heart of Japanese cuisine—is the foundation for most of Domo’s dishes. Like the restaurant, dashi is not loud on its own but is subtly powerful, enhancing the beauty and flavor of the ingredients it supports, including those in the fragrant bowl of noodles I eagerly slurped up.

I also reveled in the flavors of the beef okoge, a generous pyramid of thinly sliced beef, red bell peppers, onions, and zucchini in a soy-, sake-, and mirin-based sauce set atop burnt rice. I couldn’t stop eating the peppery beef in that just-sweet-enough sauce—Homma says apples are the secret ingredient—but I wished the burnt rice was more, well, burnt. Flattened and grilled on both sides, the exterior was chewy rather than crispy.

Domo does offer raw fish dishes, but Denverites won’t find plates of sushi rolls here. Instead, they can dive into something different, such as the salmon namasu appetizer, a refreshing starter that comes with four chunks of sugar- and salt-cured salmon nestled inside a salad of thinly sliced, pickled daikon. The sweet tang of the rice vinegar is lovely with the generous bites of salmon. The restaurant has sashimi, too, but the six giant pieces of raw tuna or salmon are a thicker cut than the meager slivers most restaurants serve, and they rest on one massive mound of rice. Everything is gently seasoned with mild chile sauce and sharp ginger, and the dish tastes like a brighter and fresher riff on a poke bowl.

My biggest quibble with Domo is that service can be slow. Because Homma has a small staff, there’s a good chance you’ll have to flag someone down to order tea or bring the check, so it isn’t the place to hit if you’re on the clock for lunch. It also closes early for dinner—7 p.m., as of press time—so be sure you stop in on the early side.

Then again, the pace is part of the serene, unhurried charm. The restaurant represents the tranquil countryside, not the hustle and bustle of a 24-hour city. For 27 years, Homma has given us his take on Japanese food at a sanctuary in the heart of Denver. What he offers may be unfamiliar, but maybe that’s exactly what we need. 1365 Osage St.

In Summary

• The Draw: A gardenlike setting inspired by the Japanese countryside, with food to match (most entrées are $16.95 and include multiple sides)
• The Drawback: Diners looking for alcohol or a fast-paced dining experience should go elsewhere
• Noise Level: Low
• What To Order: Nanban udon curry, salmon namasu, Japanese curry

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