Sarasota has opened a slew of Japanese restaurants of late, each with a sushi-forward cold menu accompanied by hot bar food-style snacks common in informal pubs in Japan called izakaya. Most notable among these openings: University Town Center’s Zōtō, owned by the Gainesville-based Bento Group. Graduates of the University of Florida will remember Bento as a fast-casual restaurant chain serving low-cost sushi and Asian-inspired noodle and rice bowls that came to Sarasota in 2021. It never found its footing here and closed in 2025.

The company shifted its focus from the fast casual model with its restaurant Kō, in Tampa, whose small 10-seat omakase (multi-course prix fixe sushi) speakeasy Kōsen received a Michelin star in 2024. And, fortunately for Sarasota, Bento maintained its leased space at UTC and has brought a high-end Japanese experience there in Zōtō.

The restaurant creates a feeling of intimacy courtesy of its mahogany-toned wood walls, lightened by rectangular white sheets of linen, called noren, dangling overhead. From the outset, the relationship between dark and light evokes a yin and yang that carries through to the menu.

Hot food is divided into four categories. Zensai dishes are meant to be enjoyed as starters, and include garlic edamame ($9), curry corn ribs ($12) and an incredible, rich wagyu fried rice ($30) in which bite-sized pieces of gloriously indulgent wagyu steak bejewel short-grained stir-fried rice. It’s simple but addictive.

Agemono (deep-fried) dishes showcase a myriad of tempura-coated offerings like chicken ($14), shrimp ($18) and maitake mushrooms ($16). The mushrooms are served with a trio of salts. One is a chile blend called togarashi, another is flavored with matcha powder and a third is smoked, all meant to be sprinkled individually as a choose-your-own-adventure experience.

Kishuyaki dishes are an assortment of skewered and grilled meats and vegetables with options like shishito peppers ($9) and pork belly ($12), but don’t leave without ordering the miso black cod ($12). Its strong miso flavor could almost be considered too umami until you’re hit with a bright punch of lemon that tempers that earthiness.

The final category, ryori, are larger dishes like fried pork or grilled chicken with dense udon noodles ($24). Forgo the temptation that is a bowl of noodles, or you won’t have room for sushi.

The cold side of the menu is where the restaurant shines brightest. There are only eight sushi rolls, the best among them the “UTC Roll” ($24), made with spicy tuna and asparagus and topped with paper-thin slices of sweet seared scallops. You’ll still find a few of your favorite rolls on the truncated menu, like a “Rainbow Roll” ($22) and a “Dynamite Roll” ($20), but leave room for at least one of the sliced raw crudo dishes. These include sea bream with Asian pear, salmon with truffle ponzu (citrusy soy sauce, $24), and an incredible dish called “Hirame Usuzukuri” ($19), made with kombu (seaweed) cured flounder and pickled radish. There’s also a selection of sashimi, including fatty tuna cuts like chutoro and o-toro, a rare find ($20 for three slices). It sounds expensive, but when compared to other restaurants offering fatty tuna, it’s a surprising and reasonable price.

A sizable selection of sakes is available to complement your meal, and your server will walk you through what goes best with what and what you may enjoy most, depending on your preferred flavor profiles. You can grab a glass for $14-$18 or splurge on a bottle with some price points exceeding $200 (don’t worry, there are affordable options, too). If sake doesn’t suit your palate, Zōtō has plenty of craft cocktails like “U[me] Against the World,” flavored with ume plum ($18), or “Livin’ la Piña Loca,” made with rum and pineapple-coconut cordial ($21). The “Cordial Affair” mocktail, however, is the best drink on the menu, and perhaps the best non-alcoholic beverage in all of Sarasota. In it, carbonated lychee and yuzu (a lemony Asian citrus) harmonize with coconut foam in a libation so rich in its complexity that you don’t miss the customary buzz that spirits bring to the table. It’s extraordinary.

Zōtō | 190 N. Cattlemen Road, Unit 5, Sarasota, (941) 359-9517, zotosushi.com