Dallas Sushi Tour - Kona Grill

We went on a sushi tour to check out the best sushi restaurants in Dallas Texas.  We only had time to check out the top three.  We perhaps picked a poor weekend for a sushi tour, but we had a great time.

Our first stop was to take N17979 (Tammy Lamb) from Wichita to McKinney Airport on the outskirts of Dallas.  We had a rental car waiting us, so we went car to car with no TSA involved.

From McKinney we headed for Kona Grill.  We had a reservation through Open Table for 1200.  We really didn't need a reservation, but we should have.  Kona Grill was outstanding.  The restaurant is in a mall and has an outside seating area.  The seating was very nice.

We were impressed from the beginning when we could order saki bombs from the menu.  They were Kirin and Kirin light in 22 oz. bottles each with a small container of hot saki.  Talk about a great start to lunch.  The Kirin was chilled nicely and the saki was heated well.  In an open courtyard seating under the trees, the spot was idyllic.

The menu at Kona Grill is a mixed polopolesian and sushi.  I chose the restaurant because of its ratings and because it was the only nice place with sushi open for lunch on the 4th of July.  Kona Grill isn't rated in the top five or ten for Dallas, but it should be.  For the purist, Kona might not be the best, but we had a taste of Southwestern shashimi that will bring us back next time.

We were sharing shashimi and sushi for the weekend, so we tried the jalapeno yellowtail and the jalapeno salmon from the shashimi menu.  We also ordered spicy tuna hand-rolls, and tuna and eel nigiri. 

The shashimi was excellent.  It wasn't classic, but the fish was fresh and the spices were natural and not overwhelming to the fish.  The yellow tail had a piece of jalapeno and cilantro on top.  It was excellent.  The salmon had a puree of jalapeno on top and something tasty in the middle.  The presentation was beautiful.  The nigiri was classic.  The spicy tuna hand-rolls were pretty typical.  They were surprisingly not too spicy.  The birth-day girl is on a search for the perfect spicy tuna hand-roll.  To her, that means chunks or slices of tuna with hot sesame oil and other spices--she'll know it when she tastes it.  It was the way one of our favorite sushi places did it before it shut down.

Kona Grill was a great start to our Dallas sushi tour.  We will return.