RESTAURANT NEWS | NEW JERSEY
Butterfish Is Opening an Omakase Restaurant in Princeton
Former L.A. chef Jeffry Undiarto will oversee the New Jersey restaurant’s second location.
By Maria Rodriguez
6:18 a.m. ET, Aug. 25, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: With a day job that requires constant travel, Maria Rodriguez is likely a regular at your favorite restaurant. She’s reviewed restaurants since 2007 in magazines from Spain to Seattle.
Princeton is a town where dinner reservations can be made to discuss quantum physics, public policy, or the future of higher education before dessert. Now, the New Jersey college town is preparing to add a more elaborate option: an omakase from a chef with experience in one of the country’s most acclaimed Japanese kitchens.
Rutherford’s Butterfish Sushi & Omakase will open its second restaurant in Princeton. Owner Sherif Salib founded the original Butterfish in 2024 with chef Jeffry Undiarto, who previously worked at n/naka, chef Niki Nakayama’s two-Michelin-starred kaiseki restaurant in Los Angeles.
Salib had already spent a decade in the restaurant business when he stepped away from it in 2014. His return took time. Butterfish spent three years in development, including a year of construction that turned a former dentist’s office into a dark, minimalist restaurant with orange booths, custom artwork, and a black marble wall. Sushi eventually replaced the examination chairs, surely an improvement for everyone involved.
The restaurant keeps its kitchen storage intentionally limited, with fish arriving regularly from Japan, Boston, and elsewhere. Its menu includes à la carte sushi and several levels of omakase, moving through appetizers, nigiri, and hand rolls. In Rutherford, that progression can include salmon with truffle, unagi with foie gras, A5 Wagyu, oysters, toro, and blue crab.
Butterfish has released few specifics about Princeton. The restaurant has not announced an opening date, seating count, prices, or whether its new menu will match the one in Rutherford. It also remains unclear how often Undiarto will work in Princeton.
The first Butterfish took years to build around a small kitchen and frequent seafood deliveries. Less than two years after opening it, Salib and Undiarto are carrying the idea south to a town better known nationally for Nobel laureates and eating clubs.
Princeton already has sushi. Butterfish intends to give it ceremony.
