Las Vegas’ Akira Back’s Seoul restaurant awarded Michelin star

Chef Akira Back has received a prestigious Michelin star for his Seoul restaurant, Dosa.

The South Korean native and former professional snowboarder, who currently calls Las Vegas home, is best known locally for the Japanese cuisine he offers at Yellowtail in Bellagio and Kumi in Mandalay Bay. He returned to his hometown of Seoul in the spring of 2016 to open Dosa in the Cheongdam-dong neighborhood of the city’s Gangnam district. It marked his first restaurant specializing in modern Korean cuisine.

Contacted in Seoul, via text message, Back offered the following message to his local fans:

“Family, Friends, Partners, Employee and Customers,

We finally did it. Without all of your support, love and encouragement, this would have not been possible. It has been a lifetime dream of mine to get a Michelin star from where I was born and raised in Seoul, Korea. Its truly an honor to bring this back home to Vegas.

Thank you and love you all.”

Back’s growing worldwide culinary empire currently includes restaurants in New Delhi, Jakarta, Singapore, and Toronto, with additional locations planned in Dallas, Dubai, Bangkok and Hanoi.

Michelin publishes restaurant guides to select cities around the world, with the best of the best receiving awards of one, two or three stars. In its 2009 Las Vegas edition, the last for this city, only 17 local restaurants received stars.

Contact Al Mancini at amancini@reviewjournal.com.