Oklahoma’s first onigiri-centered concept restaurant specializes in the Japanese rice ball dish.
Oni OKC, a small business based in OKC, opened in September of 2021. Owner and founder Ivy Tran evolved the business from a food prep service to a specialized onigiri concept menu.
“We’re pretty new, so any news you’ve heard is probably just word of mouth,” Tran said.
Tran posts the menu every Thursday to Oni OKC’s Instagram, @onigiriOKC, and accepts orders via Instagram direct messages. The menu updates week by week on Instagram. Tran said customers pick up their onigiri order at the beginning of the week and eat it throughout, a method inspired by the restaurant’s original meal prep service.
“People have gotten used to (the setup) and love the idea of having this at the beginning of their week,” Tran said.
Upon ordering, Tran sends the location for pickup and payment instructions, which are through Venmo. Tran said she will switch to a ticket payment service on a website soon.
Tran’s business started as a meal prep service with a rotating menu, transitioned to a special menu, and then landed on a menu centered around onigiri. Tran introduced onigiri to her food service menu one week and said it was a success.
“When I was doing these rotating menus, I had to get really creative because every week was a different menu and a completely different recipe,” Tran said. “Onigiri just blew up and I realized I was onto something.”
Alongside different flavors of onigiri, Tran offers special dishes, such as japchae, a Korean noodle dish with stir-fried veggies and tteok-bokki, a Korean rice cake dish.
“I have some rotating menu items, but the core of our brand is really the onigiri which people really, really like,” Tran said.
Tran pulled inspiration from her boyfriend who studied abroad in Japan. She said he would eat onigiri often, and she was intrigued by the dish. Tran also enjoys watching anime and was inspired by seeing onigiri as a common meal.
“I was just so drawn to them and would imagine what they would taste like because it looked so fun to eat,” Tran said.
Tran got in a car wreck in June of 2021, resulting in a broken wrist and fractured arm. Unhappy with her job at the time, she took it as a sign to follow her dream.
“When the wreck happened, I had time to sit and think about what it is that I want, like any business ideas,” Tran said. “If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have been able to start this (business).”
Tran said she has never worked in the service industry and this restaurant is a brand new endeavor for her.
“The whole point of what I’m doing is that I’m trying to take everyone with me to do what they love doing most, whatever that may be,” Tran said.
Tran also has a pop-up with a local brewery, Lively Beerworks, and said that in the future Oni OKC will have a food truck and potentially a restaurant.
[https://www.livelybeerworks.com]
To order from Oni OKC, follow its Instagram, @onigiriokc, for menu updates and pick-up.
