5Kinokawa — Restaurant in Houston

This is easily one of the best dining experiences for us hunting for food in any style, any price, any settings, any star, any country, any continent. Certainly, we do think very highly of the out-of-the-world kaisekis in Japan that costs an arm and a leg. But we sincerely find the omakase at 5Kinokawa every bit as enjoyable. $150 per person is no small expense. But it is probably worth every penny for such a mind-blowing culinary experience --- for people who seek out such experiences. Many chefs really try very hard to come up with something good. In Mr. Kin’s case, I believe he actually succeeds. His creations simply work. Through the decades of food tasting, I have distilled my uneducated judgement to a simple test: when I put the food in my mouth, does it make me smile involuntarily? In this case, yes. Every single bite made us go “Wow … … …”, followed by a long silence in which we just want the darn bite to linger and dance on our taste buds for as long as biochemistry would allow. By chance, we once get to dine in a tiny, remote restaurant whose chef’s had graced the front page of magazines such as Bon Appétit. And we get to dine there many nights over a two-year span. The owner/chef himself cooked. And the nights that someone else cooked, the difference is stark. Master Chefs execute at a completely different level of mastery --- bold, assertive, free, yet controlled --- and everything just comes together. Every pinch of salt makes a huge difference. Every second of heat makes a huge difference. At 5Kinokawa, you get to eat straight off the hands of a master, in front of your very own eyes and nose. Pictures can do absolutely no justice here. You have to be there to experience with all 5 senses in the flesh. I imagine Mr. Kin’s work is at its prime --- he is doing everything he wants to do, the way he wants to do them --- like a boy playing with this toys with no adult supervision. If he has more peaks to scale, more power to him. But, if you want to try, do go now. And, oh, the night we went, Mr. Kin was flanked by Sasha and Lawrence who were both just phenomenally pleasant. We wish Mr. Kin and his team great success for all the years to come. Thank you for doing what you do,...

One of the most offputting and bizarre dining experiences I've ever had. Something must have been very off when we visited 5kinokawa.

For starters, we had reservations for the 7:30 seating but the 5:30 seating was not done. We didn't get seated until a little after 8pm. The whole 7:30 dining group was just standing outside the main part of the restaurant for half an hour.

Once seated, we were introduced to chef Billy. His stories were hard to parse, his "jokes" mostly consisted of humble brags or immature humor, and his answers to questions were deflective. His speech pattern and mannerisms seemed to deteriorate as the night went on.

The timing of the meal seemed to be a big problem. We received our second dish from the kitchen just as chef Billy was handing us our third dish.

The night continued with a lot of weird occurrences, such as someone from the kitchen staff coming out to cut mushrooms for the chef.

Finally, near the end of the meal, chef Billy announced that he would be giving us 50% off our meal so we would only be charged $75 instead of $150 for the omakase due to the weird pacing.

When the bill came, we saw that this was not the case. They had instead halved the remainder of our bill after deducting the $50 reservation deposit. Meaning the omakase was $100 and not $75 as was promised. We pointed this out but did not want deal with the hassel at this point. (There was another party who stayed after we left and was arguing their case. I hope they got the promised discount!)

The food was okay. Unfortunately, nothing was a standout. The best dishes were the uni pasta, the toro (which is hard to mess up), and the dessert (which was out outsourced).

The whole omakase had a SINGLE PIECE of fish nigiri. We're still not sure if this was because we didn't get all the dishes we were supposed to or if that's just the way the menu is. In the end I was hungrier when I left than when I got there.

On a positive note, the three servers who were helping out chef Billy were incredibly nice, accommodating, and knowledgeable.

I keep seeing 5kinokawa on several "best" lists so I guess this was just a really...

I waited over a week to see if the restaurant would reach out to apologize or make up for the experience.

I felt disrespected at how uninspired the Omakase was.

My wife and I went with my best friend and his wife. We were taking them to their first omakase. I wish I had waited to show them their first experience somewhere else.

Started out with drinks offering with nothing to see on paper. Just basically picked one that sound familiar to drink which had ‘topo chico’.

When first dish came out, really no guidance on how to eat it. Tasted like tuna in a can on seaweed salad with vinaigrette. Weird.

3rd dish was paper thin sliced octopus. LITERALLY paper thin. All the chef can talk about is how different restaurants massage the octopus to make it tender and he believed he massage his better. Just awkward.

There was an egg dish that came out nicely plated with some caviar on top. Taste just like a plain egg to me.

The straw that broke the camel back for me was his 10th dish was basically a ‘miso soup’ with some ‘expensive mushrooms’. I had side soup elsewhere that was more flavorful and filing then that.

Desert was basically a smore with a twist.

Good dishes I recall? Fatty tuna sashimi, wagyu meat sashimi with him burning it a bit on top, ONE river crab (you can get these at any high end sushi restaurant)

My bill for 4 people with some drinks came to over $900. We left uninspired and hungry. I hope the Chef show more effort in future for...