Kura Revolving Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Fort Lee

I've been to Kura several times and it's definitely worth a visit. Kids will love taking food from the conveyor belt, earning toys and getting drinks delivered by a robot. Interaction-averse adults will also like the convenience of ordering directly from the touchscreen menu. Watch out, however: your bill’s bottom line can quickly climb due to their amusing ordering incentives.

Food - As plates of two to four pieces go passing by, you lift the cover and un-clip the plate. Although the sushi is usually good, some of it could be better, some of it is better made elsewhere and you'll occasionally get a stale plate (which is probably to be expected of sushi on a conveyor belt). Finished plates are plunked into a slot and the system tallies it up along with orders for side dishes, like ramen and tempura, soups and drinks.

These side dishes, soups, hand rolls and desserts can be ordered from the touchscreen and are delivered via another conveyor belt that stops directly at your table.

All of this is somewhat pricey as plates are $3.55 each. Sides can go over $11 for relatively small servings. Your bill can steadily increase because Kura game-ifies your meal. This is how they get ya: for every 15 plates you finish, a capsule containing a trinket drops from an overhead vending machine (aka "gachapon"). At intervals, cartoons will appear on the screen to goad you towards that goal. Your kids will love this. Your wallet will not.

Service - When you go off-peak hours, you can be seated pretty quickly. Staff will ask if you've visited before. If not, they'll give some quick instructions on how to un-clip the plates from the belt, which can be tricky for youngsters, as well as ordering from the touchscreen. You can also call a server from the screen, and they've always come promptly for us.

As for everything else, it's somewhat automated: If you don't see your favorite sushi arriving on the belt anytime soon, you can order it. I've noticed that these custom requests, including sides, arrive to your table in about 10 minutes.

Drinks are delivered to your table via robot! This cool-factor is always smile-inducing.

When arriving at the restaurant during peak hours, you may find a line at the door. In this case, you have to download the app in order to put yourself on the waitlist.

For my family, Kura is a novelty, a treat for the kids - we don't come too often: each dish is priced a bit higher for what it is and Kura's gamification strategy often, if not always, compounds the situation, causing our bill to inflate.

Despite this, I do think Kura is worth dropping by to check out the novelty of the conveyor belt and delivery-bot. Do keep a close eye on your plate-count, though! It's all too easy even for adults to be taken in by plunking plates down the chute and the urge to reach the next...

This is my second time coming to this restaurant. The first time I went it was splendid and I really enjoyed my time there.

Normally this place is jampacked but today it was empty so I decided to go. My first Plate was the negitoro Which was amazing, followed by the Hokkaido scallop which was also amazing. After that, I picked up two plates, which was the American Wagyu nigiri and the Uni (sea urchin). I was really excited for the sea urchin since it’s one of my favorite seafood but i guess the one I got tasted very different from what I have ate before.

The sea urchin is normally sweet with a taste from the ocean. I got the complete opposite when I ate the sea urchin. It tasted and left a bad taste in my mouth. I had to spit it out because I am consuming raw seafood, and if the raw seafood does not taste right, you shouldn’t swallow it in my mouth with this weird taste very unpleasant.

I called the server and explain to her about my experience with the sea urchin a situation like this wasn’t handled property, and she basically tried to argue with me that the sea urchin was good that her manager tried it. I did not want to cause ruckus and eventually they took off that plate out of my bill I explained to her i mostly came for the sea urchin. If it would of been another restaurant my bill would of been compt. She perhaps did not believe that i havent had my fair share of sea urchin because of my race and perhaps insinuated that I was lying and that I did not find it good.

After the sea urchin proceeded to eat the American Wagyu nigiri come on it is Wagyu not beef jerky it was tough and cold. I did not want to continue to bother I ate one more plate and proceeded to checkout I was disappointed.

I am writing this review 45 mins after i left the place and my tongue still has the same weird feeling it had when i tried to consume the UNI. It had like an almost amonia bitter taste.

Nonetheless, if you take out the Sea Urchin, the American Wagyu, the lake of comping my bill, the lack of trust my word and the feeling of being the only non asian at the restaurant I had a pleasant experience especially with the hokaido scallop and the negitoro.

I am still indecisive whether i should try it out again but best believe you wont be seeing me picking up those two...

Kura review: Kura has quickly become one of my all-time favorite restaurants over the last two years. It's a part of my restaurant rotation when I'm craving sushi. Don't let the conveyor belt turn you away or turn you off. It's clean and well-maintained. And the sushi is still fresh regardless of it cycling around the room. I'm a sushi snob so I was suspicious at first. I wasn't sure how fresh the sushi would be. But I can tell you it's fresh and it's delicious. My best recommendation is to go around 6:00 for dinner. It's not too busy at that point, but it's also not dead. You do NOT want to go at 3 PM when the lunch rush is over and the same sushi has been cycling for an hour. It's worth the wait to go during a lunch or dinner rush. If that's not good enough for you and you still don't want to touch the belt, then order sushi or any other hot foods from the touch screen at your table. Kura is perfect for sushi lovers or your friends who don't love sushi yet but are willing to try it out. Since each plate is only ~$4, you can try so many different options without spending $10-$20 on a roll (and then you wind up hating it.) Some of the food pictured: Bluefin toro (literally the reason I go), negitoro, garlic pepper tuna, salmon crunchy hand roll (don't sleep on the hand rolls!), japanese donuts, etc.

Fort Lee-specific review: I've been to all the Kura restaurants in NJ, as well as one on Long Island and one in Washington DC. Fort Lee is superior. There is something about the Fort Lee location that feels better. I know it's always clean. And I know the fish always tastes the best there. I would say the ONLY downfall of this location is the outdoor waiting area. The building is in a bad spot so there's a tiny sidewalk and then a busy parking lot. There's no safe space to wait. There's no room inside the restaurant to wait. And the doorway is... complicated. But don't let that steer you away. Use the Kura App to join the waitlist on your ride over so that you can get seated as soon as you park. It's worth it. (And for those folks who have been going to Kura for a few years now, the waitlist app now allows you to "reserve" on Fridays and Saturdays. They used to not let...