Oku Restaurant

Set inside a Spanish Colonial Revival-style building near the waterfront, Oku is a lively restaurant serving California-Asian cuisine and a full sushi bar. The building's cream stucco walls, terracotta barrel-tile roof, and a square corner tower with an arched opening and pyramidal tile cap give it an old Santa Barbara silhouette, while string lights, pink uplighting, and a spotlit Oku wordmark sign carry the energy into the evening. A full outdoor patio, shaded by umbrellas and warmed by freestanding heaters, keeps the dining room spilling out onto the street after sunset, with mountains visible in the distance.

Inside, the mood shifts to something sleeker: clusters of mirror-polished copper globe pendant lights hang over a dark wood-slat room divider, a violet-lit glass wine display glows near a dining booth, and dark booths in a leaf-patterned fabric offer a quieter corner for dinner. Polished concrete floors, a wood-paneled sushi counter, and a wave-textured accent wall washed in pink light keep the space feeling current without losing its warmth.

We worked on the buildout of Oku's dining room, bar, sushi counter, and kitchen, balancing the character of the existing Spanish Colonial Revival structure with the finishes a modern waterfront restaurant needs. From the patio to the sushi bar, the space was built to handle a full house every night while still feeling like somewhere worth lingering.