You know a dining trend has landed when it shows up in Fort Worth. The Fort Worth Report just took a look at the omakase boom happening across the city, and I read the whole thing with the specific envy of someone whose last sushi order was hastily chosen from a laminated menu at an airport.

If you haven't done it, omakase basically means "I leave it up to you" in Japanese. You sit down, the chef decides what you eat, course by course, and you surrender the wheel entirely. No substitutions, no agonizing over the menu for twenty minutes while your companion silently loses the will to live. The chef reads the room, works with whatever's best that day, and builds the meal around it. You can't scroll your way to this decision, which I find kind of refreshing.

What I love about the Fort Worth piece is that this isn't one fancy counter doing it. It's popping up in multiple spots around the city, sometimes as one-off dinners, sometimes as a full multi-course format. These are often single-night events, which means the meal exists once and then it's gone. If you were there, you were there. If you weren't, someone will describe the third course to you in excruciating detail for years.

I've done omakase exactly twice. The first time I panicked and told the chef I'd eat "basically anything," then spent the first course doing my best poker face over something I still can't identify. The second time I relaxed, admitted what I didn't love, and got one of the best meals of my life. Turns out it's a conversation, not a hostage situation. Chefs genuinely want you to enjoy yourself. Saying "I'm not big on uni" is not an insult, it's useful information.

And there's a practical angle for travelers here, because I can't not mention that. Fort Worth doesn't get the food-tourist love that Austin or Houston hoover up, which means you can actually get a reservation. A chef's-choice tasting in a lot of cities means booking six weeks out and remortgaging something. In Fort Worth it means keeping an eye on local restaurant announcements and moving fast when a one-off pops up. Follow the restaurants doing these dinners on whatever platform they post to, because the one-night format sells out quickly and quietly.

The multicourse format also fits something I keep noticing everywhere: people want dinner to be an event again. I wrote recently about the vanished rituals of the golden age of going out, and omakase is basically the opposite of QR-code ordering. Someone stands in front of you, makes decisions on your behalf, and hands you food they're proud of. There's theater in that, and a person in it, and honestly that's worth paying for.

Prices vary, so check before you book, and know that a longer omakase can run a couple of hours. Go hungry, go curious, and go ready to eat something you can't pronounce. If you're in North Texas this fall, this is your sign.

Me, I'm already checking flights to Dallas. Every place has something, and right now Fort Worth's something is a chef deciding dinner for you.