Yuji Haraguchi

The Climb

In 2009, the work began on the supply side, where quality is judged before a dish is ever plated. As a sales representative at True World Foods in Boston, Haraguchi learned the language of consistency, provenance, and trust from the point where ingredients enter the market. Moving to True World Foods in New York as marketing manager brought him closer to the handoff between Japanese fish and the chefs who would shape it in service, a position that sharpened the practical instincts behind his later restaurants. Today, the roles run in parallel: founder and owner of OKONOMI / Yuji Ramen, Osakana Brooklyn, and Osakana East Village, with Haraguchi also serving as chef of Yuji Ramen. Across those businesses, the emphasis stays on Japanese food handled with precision and made approachable without being loose. The arc is straightforward: from moving fish to building rooms and menus around how that fish, and the traditions attached to it, should be used.

Today

At OKONOMI / Yuji Ramen in New York City, the menu reflects a point of view that values structure as much as flavor. Yuji Ramen carries that same focus into a bowl-centered format, where clarity and comfort sit in the same register. In Brooklyn, Okonomi is built around Japanese-style breakfast, a daytime service that gives the meal its own rhythm and places early-hour cooking on the same level of attention as a dinner turn.

Signature

Mazemen, Salmon and cheese mazemen, Bacon and Egg mazemen, Ahikotsu / Tunakotsu, and Onaga snapper & Corn shoyu ochazuke define the range here. The noodles lean rich and direct, the breakfast-linked bowls make room for familiar ingredients, and the ochazuke keeps the line on the side of restraint. Taken together, the dishes show a kitchen that moves between comfort and precision without changing its language.

In Their Words Those lines describe a chef who first learned the path ingredients take through trade, then stepped into the final stage of that chain. The work shifted from distribution to authorship, but the logic stayed the same: know the product, know the user, and keep the relationship between them clear.

Recognition

The public work is easy to name: Yuji Ramen in Brooklyn and the daytime Japanese-style breakfast at Okonomi. Together, they show a narrow but durable thesis for Japanese food in New York City—one that can be exacting without becoming formal, and familiar without losing discipline.