Sushi restaurant and sister concept, NAM, both swimming with the fishes.
MF Sushibar has closed its Midtown location, according to Lisa Schoolcraft with the Atlanta Business Chronicle (ABC).
The sushi restaurant’s last day open was Wednesday, according to the report.
Plans to close the restaurant located at 265 Ponce de Leon Avenue have been in the works for eight months, Alex Kinjo, co-owner of MF Sushibar, told the ABC. The restaurant’s upscale counterpart, MF Buckhead, will remain open.
This is the second restaurant the Kinjo brothers have closed this year in Midtown. The other was NAM, a Vietnamese restaurant.
No word on what will replace MF Sushibar.
12 Responses
I found it interesting that the owners cited the deteriorating condition of Ponce as their reason for closing in this article – . Are things really going downhill that bad?
Hey Caleb,
There is a piece about the closing by John Kessler in the AJC. The owner was quoted as saying that with the downturn of the economy and the Ponce area getting run down were the main reasons for closing. They are consolidating locations…just running the Buckhead location now.
Ponce has been a dump for decades. I don’t believe its getting worse, it was never all that great to begin with!
Sounds like an excuse to me.
The MF restaurants – both of them – are pretty damn poor to begin with. The food is mediocre at best, and the environment at the Buckhead location just feels like it’s trying to hard. It has that, “it looks fancy, so it’s gotta be”, aura to it. Of course, it’s Buckhead, so it probably works.
overpriced, mediocre = failure
where do you recommend for good sushi in atlanta? i always thought the sushi was pretty good there but maybe not for the price you pay.
i also lived in that camden apartment complex above and across from mf and thought that mf (attempted upscale dining) always seemed out of place in that location. not to mention that restaurant space next to mf is cursed and can’t keep a tenant at all. the valet parking completed negated the point of valet… you had to walk from the parking deck to the restaurant anyway!
that strip of ponce was never good, but it is getting worse with the vacant spaghetti factory and now mf plus the space next to it.
Why do I bother calling up people when I can just read this!
Where do you recommend for good sushi in atlanta?
Cheap and OK, RuSans
More money and better, Rain or Nakato
Tomo is probably the best sushi I’ve had in Atlanta.
RuSans is probably the worst. In addition to having really poor sushi, they’re environment makes you feel like you’re at a 12 year old’s birthday party in a diner.
Ra is not bad for middle of the road Sushi either.
Better MF? Sushibar, Buckhead, or DOOM?
This is very unfortunate. The sushi was high grade. The concept was great. Alex Kinjo’s brother left SF to help him design the interiors and they both got their’ mother’s restaurant, nam off the ground together. The city never rose to the challenge that these guys set forth. Hey, Atlanta, we are putting a top of the line business down in the heart of midtown. Could you maybe do something about the halfway house across the street, the bums, the check cashing dives? So sad. This is why development WORKS up North. Cities partner with businesses to help them survive. Here is all hands off. That is why only bland chains can make it here.