After 18 years downtown, this Fresno restaurant is opening a second location. Here’s why
Spicy crispy chicken just came to north Fresno.
Kikku Kitchen has opened at Palm and Nees avenues, next door to Eureka! restaurant, bringing its most popular dish with it.
It’s a second location for the owners of Kikku Japanese Food, which has had a location on Tulare Street between M and N streets for 18 years.
The downtown location isn’t closing. The customers there gave the restaurant’s owners, Silvia and Andri Wahyudi, the courage to open a second location, she said.
“Numerous customers have asked us, ‘Hey, your food is so good, how come you don’t open another one?’” she said.
They decided to do just that, keeping the new one open longer hours and more days of the week than the downtown one. They’ve actually been looking for a spot for a couple years, but held out for just the right place. Northwest Fresno and the former KoJa Kitchen restaurant, which closed earlier this year, are it, she said.
“We waited 18 years,” she said. “I think we’ll be OK. Let’s do this.”
It’s not the only downtown restaurant to expand north recently.
Chicken Shack, which has a restaurant on Fulton Street downtown, opened a new location in July at 7675 N. Blackstone Ave. near Red Robin. However, downtown has also lost a few restaurants in recent months, like HoP PK and Just the Tip.
The menu
So that spicy crispy chicken? It’s probably the most popular dish on Kikku’s menu.
The menu at the new restaurant is similar to the downtown one, but with some changes. Here, customers pick their protein and two sides, including white or brown rice, salad or vegetables. The plates range from $9.50 to $12.75.
The menu features proteins “from the farm,” like teriyaki beef, ginger chicken, teriyaki tofu and plain grilled chicken for people on the Keto diet. “From the sea” options include teriyaki salmon, shrimp tempura, seared ahi and tuna and salmon poke.
This location serves beer, like Japanese Sapporo beer and Firestone Walker’s 805 blonde ale. And since beer is available, the owners decided to add chicken wings to the menu to go with it. You can get the Kikku wings (which uses a brown sauce similar to the spicy crispy chicken) or the garlic-pepper wings.
Udon noodle soups, pot stickers and kids’ meals are also on the menu.
As for the restaurant itself, Kikku didn’t have to change much when it moved in. The restaurant now has its own style, with orange walls.
One wall, which used to feature a mural with a tiger, has been replaced with a giant mural of koi fish.
