OPENINGS
It’s KBBQ & Shabu Shabu — Haltom City, TX
It’s KBBQ & Shabu Shabu is now operating in soft opening at 3940 NE Loop 820, Suite 550, inside the rapidly filling H Mart-anchored development near Loop 820 and North Beach Street. The restaurant’s own site now labels the Haltom City location “Now Open,” making it the concept’s second Dallas-Fort Worth-area restaurant after Grand Prairie.
The format goes well beyond a standard Korean barbecue room. One AYCE setup combines tabletop KBBQ, shabu shabu hot pot, a conveyor belt and a self-serve buffet, with more than 60 cook-your-own items. Current adult pricing is $20.95 for weekday lunch, $30.95 for dinner and $39.95 for the premium menu; combining shabu shabu and KBBQ adds $5. The surrounding center is becoming a dining destination in its own right: Fort Worth Report says 22 of its 45 tenants are now operating, with another 23 still to come.
Glass Box — Las Vegas, NV
San Diego sushi bar and Asian kitchen Glass Box will open its first expansion Saturday, Sept. 26, at The Bend, 8670 W. Sunset Road in southwest Las Vegas. The approximately 75-seat restaurant adds a large bar, an open kitchen and a 500-square-foot terrace while carrying over the glass-walled sushi-bar presentation that helps define the original Del Mar location.
For Buffet Authority purposes, the bigger development is the menu: Las Vegas introduces all-you-can-enjoy lunch and dinner alongside a separate omakase experience. Reported AYCE selections reach well beyond basic rolls, with hamachi crudo, yellowtail kama, a bluefin toro-uni roll, baked lobster roll, Wagyu tataki, crab fried rice and robata-grilled skewers among the items highlighted ahead of opening. It is an unusually premium list for the category, and a notable first move outside Southern California for the brand.
COMING SOON
Fogo de Chão — Omaha, NE
Omaha may be next on Fogo de Chão’s expansion map, although the Brazilian steakhouse chain has not announced the market. Grow Omaha reports that a pending City of Omaha building permit filed Sept. 18 identifies the former Kona Grill at 295 N. 170th St. in Village Pointe, while RED Development leasing material independently names Fogo as the occupant of the roughly 7,800-square-foot building.
That makes the project considerably more than a stray rumor, but it remains an early development signal. Fogo does not currently list Omaha among its locations or coming-soon restaurants, and no opening date has surfaced. Grow Omaha places the chain at 128 restaurants in 29 states and 11 countries; the nearest current locations are in Kansas City and Minneapolis. If Omaha moves forward, it would continue a period of aggressive growth for the continuous-service churrasco brand while giving the former Kona Grill building another restaurant life.
Nigori Sushi & Grill — Haltom City, TX
The same H Mart development that has just added It’s KBBQ also has another AYCE concept on deck. Nigori Sushi & Grill’s official website continues to list the restaurant as “Coming Soon” at 3980 NE Loop 820, Suite 200, and Fort Worth Report identifies it specifically as an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant among the center’s 23 tenants that have yet to open.
The project has been in the pipeline for some time. A Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing registered in August 2025 describes a $600,000 first-time interior restaurant buildout at the address, with an original projected completion date of June 15, 2026. That date has passed, and no public opening date is currently posted. Once it arrives, Nigori will give the H Mart center a second distinct AYCE format alongside the new KBBQ-and-shabu operation.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Lefty’s Oyster & Seafood Bar — Sarasota, FL
Lefty’s has added a straightforward new reason to make Wednesday an unlimited-dining day: all-you-can-eat fish and chips for $20, served all day every Wednesday with crinkle-cut fries and housemade coleslaw. The Sarasota restaurant announced the recurring offer Sept. 22.
Lefty’s is not otherwise an AYCE restaurant. The independent seafood and oyster bar opened in January 2025 in Sarasota’s Rosemary District and operates primarily as a conventional polished-casual seafood restaurant. That makes the Wednesday program a useful example of a broader kind of AYCE growth: established à-la-carte restaurants using a recurring unlimited offer as a distinct weekly draw. No end date has been announced, so for now Wednesday comes with refills.
