After years in the works, Japanese steakhouse/sushi bar chain Wu’s House has opened a new location in Naperville.
But it’s not the only new addition to the city’s restaurant scene. An Indiana-based coffee shop is settling into town after opening a Naperville cafe earlier this fall while Lisle has welcomed a new sandwich spot.
Wu’s House now open
Wu’s House has opened at 2703 Beebe Drive. The Japanese restaurant chain, which also has locations in Orland Park, Evergreen Park, Mokena, Palos Park and Merrillville, Indiana, officially launched its first Naperville location on Dec. 13, according to owner Michael Wu.
Open for lunch and dinner, the restaurant offers a wide-ranging menu. Patrons can order everything from Hibachi-style meals and sushi rolls to noodles and fried rice.
Wu’s House started seeking city approvals to expand into Naperville just over two years ago. It broke ground on Beebe Drive in 2023, Wu said.
Its hours are 11:30 a.m to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 9 p.m. Sundays.
MOTW Coffee & Pastries
MOTW Coffee & Pastries is nearly two and a half months into launching a Naperville franchise at 4931 Route 59. So far, the shop has exceeded expectations, company owner Sajjad Shah said.
“Naperville is obviously a very affluent and diverse community,” he said Thursday. “There’s a lot of different people that live there, so there’s this nice little melting pot of customers.”
Shah, 33, launched MOTW Coffee & Pastries in Indianapolis in 2021. After opening three more locations in Indiana, MOTW Coffee began to expand into Illinois earlier this year, starting with a location in Lombard.
Naperville is MOTW Coffee’s second Illinois cafe. Two more are planned for Skokie and Schaumburg, Shah said. The former is expected to open early next year, while the latter should open in about three to four months, Shah said.
The company stems from an Instagram page that Shah started in the wake of 9/11 called “Muslims of the World.” Inspired by Brandon Stanton’s “Humans of New York,” Shah’s page was created to combat Islamophobia by sharing the personal stories of Muslim people on social media, he said.
His page grew to amass hundreds of thousands of followers and even landed Shah a book deal. But there was more Shah wanted to do, he said. The missing piece was a physical component to the brand he’d built. So MOTW Coffee & Pastries was born.
It serves specialty lattes — biscoff, vanilla coconut, peanut butter and cardamom, for instance — as well as traditional lattes, refreshers, espresso, hot tea and chai. MOTW Coffee’s Naperville cafe is open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays, 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturdays and 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays.
SubKO comes to Lisle
Gourmet sandwich shop SubKO is now serving up Philly cheesesteaks, meatball subs and other savory selections at 1600 Maple Ave. in Lisle.
SubKO officially opened on Dec. 20. Its operating hours are 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. daily.
