Uchi spawned its third iteration in Dallas several years ago and is now giving baby Uchiba a whirl in Austin (the word means, literally, Uchi bar). It’s less a restaurant than a casual cocktail lounge with tasty Japanese-style nibbles, including the memorable Tsukiji sushi list. A crowd pleaser, Uchiba has no sharp edges, from the rounded bar corners to the window arches. It’s located on the ground floor of the new Google “Sail” building on West Second Street, featuring a large patio adjacent to the sidewalk and interior seating arranged along the bar. We might become regulars for two favorites, the unstuffy hot chicken sandwich and the shochu-based paloma. Continuing our light dinner, we tried and liked the salmon belly sashimi and found the grilled scallop and beet-topped oysters even more memorable. Thin slices of rutabaga under a creamy layer of Gruyère cheese sauce, punctuated with crispy chicken skin bits, were novel and umami-laden. Whiskey is as well represented as sake on the drink list, and the bartenders are both skilled and easygoing, with a bit of cheekiness. Reservations are not easy to come by while the place is still so new, but you can also walk in during the easygoing happy hour.
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