Uchiko Plano

Uchiko is the Austin sibling of Uchi, and its Legacy West dining room brings the same farmhouse-Japanese format to Plano. Like the Uchi group's other Texas rooms it treats zero-proof drinking as a full category rather than a courtesy, printing three separate sections: zero proof cocktails, zero proof wine and zero proof beer. Splitting the offer into three headings rather than one is not cosmetic — it means someone has thought about the fact that a person who has stopped drinking has not stopped wanting different things on different nights.

The cocktails are built on real non-alcoholic distillates. The mitsu mitsu uses Ritual Zero Proof gin with rosemary and a yuzu honey; the akabanaa runs Ritual's agave spirit into a hibiscus-lime agave; and the tsuchi mule is built on Feragaia, the Scottish botanical spirit, which is an unusually adventurous choice for a suburban restaurant and the clearest sign the list was assembled by someone who tastes widely. A zero crush made with Crodino and non-alcoholic sparkling covers the aperitivo end, and a tinto de verano combines Oddbird's GSM with Feragaia.

The wine section is what makes this worth a detour for anyone who has given up alcohol but misses wine with food. Oddbird's dealcoholised blanc de blancs, white blend and GSM are poured by the glass alongside a Wölffer Estate sparkling rosé — a proper by-the-glass programme rather than a single token bottle, at a restaurant where the sake and wine lists are central to the experience. Pairing across a tasting-style Japanese menu is precisely the situation where a lone mocktail fails and a range of wines does not. Service runs from 4pm daily, to 10pm most nights and 11pm on Friday and Saturday. Note that Uchi Dallas, listed separately in this guide, is a different restaurant in a different city; this is the Plano room.