Sushi Tour KC

Here's the dirt on the 2016 sushi tour.  This time we went to KC.  We were supposed to fly, but the weather was poop and supposed to be poop for the entire weekend.  We drove out on Saturday to KC and the Ambassador Hotel.  I wanted a Ritz-Carlton, but there aren't any in KC anymore.  The Ambassador is supposed to be the best in KC, and I think it might be.  Everyone greeted us with a smile.  The staff were all friendly.  The rooms were similar to the high end hotels I've stayed in Europe and Asia.  The Reserve restaurant is excellent.  They will give you a ride from the hotel to anywhere important in KC.  They say five miles, but they took us to the Plaza and back as well as the Art Museum and the WWI Museum.  The Ambassador is middle priced but top end for amenities.  It really is a boutique hotel.

The first step on the sushi tour was Mr. Le's.  This comes up as the number two sushi spot in KC.  I'd say it is the number one for quality and price.  It's a hole in the wall on Parvin.  The service was good, the location isn't for any special occasion, but the sushi makes the trip worthwhile.  We had spicy tuna hand rolls, the combination of nigiri and shashimi, and their yellow tail carpaccio.  Hot sake of course.  The shashimi was in large chunks, and the nigiri was very nice with a classical but nice flavor to the rice.  Everything was tip top fresh.  Try it--it is likely the best sushi in KC.
 

We went to the WWI Museum in KC.  History buffs you gotta visit.  It is supposed to be the only WWI museum in the USA.  Really good bargain and museum.

Next on the Sushi tour was Nara NeoJapanese downtown.  The Ambassador gave us a ride to the restaurant.  The atmosphere is modern and the feel is metropolitan.  We had their vegetable rolls,  special roll, some Nigiri, and spicy tuna hand rolls.  The service was good but a little busy.  I made reservations with open table.  I recommend reservations.  They were busy and others had to wait--we didn't.  Nara didn't really have anything special that the Neo kind of promised. The sushi was excellent and fresh.  hey handled our requests.  The sushi rice wasn't standard.   wouldn't call it number one, but it i definitely a hopping place and a fun restaurant.  No negatives and the prices were good.  They have Saporo on tap.
   

We went to the Art Museum the next day.  Highly recommended.

For lunch, I had open table reservations for Kona Grill.  This is a chain, but we found it an excellent restaurant during our Dallas tour.  It didn't disappoint.  They have perfect sake bombs with the big Kirins, light or regular.  We ate the yellow tail carpaccio and the tuna tower.  The yellow tail is one of their signature small plates--you gotta try it.  It is wonderful.  The tuna tower is excellent and slightly neutral.  Kona Grill is a perfect lunch venue.  The service was excellent.  No disappointment and very flavorful.  The sushi quality was excellent.


Dinner was at Drunken Fish. This is also a chain.  We walked from the Ambassador.  Drunken Fish is in the Power and Light District of KC.  I had Open Table reservations and we came late, but got right in.  I had the Teriyaki Beef with fried rice.  The fried rice was my request. At first they balked, but the server made the restaurant a "yes" experience by figuring out how to make it happen.  We also had a spicy tuna hand roll and a Drunken Fish roll.  They threw in another spicy tuna roll--impressive.  They also have Sake bombs, but more like Irish bombs.  We had the Saporo, also on tap, and the Nama cold sake.  The place was metro and upscale but not fancy.  Food quality was good and the sushi was great.  I'd go again.  The server made the experience very good.

All in all, we had a great sushi tour.  All the places we visited had great to excellent sushi. No complaints.

By the way, shopping at the Plaza was fun--lots of guy and gal places to check out.  Oh, I should mention, we had drinks with some friends at Reserve--they make a mean martini.

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.