Hando — Restaurant in Houston

Parking is pretty limited here; there are dedicated spots in two parallel rows but they are few and very very close together. Be careful when you're backing out as you'll have to do an 11-point-turn in order to avoid hitting any other vehicles especially if you have a larger car.

The walls are all windows and it makes for a nice view in from the outside (not so much from the inside b/c all seats are facing towards the center of the restaurant). Once you enter, there is a host podium directly in front of you. Here is the slightly confusing part, they then tell you to walk down the hallway to your right and pick up a menu that's on the wall there then wait for the bartender to give you directions. I felt confused as to where I should stand or who the bartender (there were many people in the bar area) was to look to. Eventually someone caught my eye and waved me over to a seat. As people started to pile up I could tell they didn't know where the line should begin or end - I think a sign in this case would be useful; or maybe just actually utilize the host podium at the official waiting area?

The restaurant is a giant square. One side of the square is the kitchen, the center is the bar where they make drinks but also where they set your food - the table you sit at is one long continuous square (well, 3 sides of it, one side is the kitchen). You sit on the outside perimeter of this square that is a bar/serving station facing inward. All the seats are bar stools; they are comfortable but without back support I have to wonder how well more elderly people will do in this restaurant. There are hooks underneath the table for your purses and such but I also wonder in the winter months what people are supposed to do with large coats or scarves and such as there's no chair to hang them on.

Once you sit down on the table is a plate with a napkin and a set of chopsticks with a cute saying. On the raised portion of the table further in front towards the bar side of the table is a wooden sushi plate, and a small white sauce bowl with a tiny white pill that says 'towel'. They come around and pour hot water from a teapot onto the tiny white pill and it balloons up into a towel! What a cute novelty. The one odd thing is that the soy sauce bottles are intermittently placed so you have to share with others not in your party (although I suppose it would be hard to put one at every seat as well).

When they bring out the hand rolls they place it on the wooden sushi plate and state which one it is.

Salmon Handroll (salmon, sesame seeds, nikiri) Perfectly seasoned; not too much soy sauce. The salmon quality is excellent; tastes fresh and buttery. The handrolls are maybe 3x1" each and they are wrapped in the back so that filling does not fall out the back while eating. The nori is crisp and great quality as well so for the first bite is not too chewy and hard to bite into but when you get into the 2nd and 3rd bites the warmth of the rice has started to pour into the nori making it harder to bite cleanly, but such is the nature of handrolls.

Blue Crab Handroll (blue crab mix, yuzu tobiko, micro-cilantro) This is a work of art. The blue crab is so SO fresh and the flavors really come through with the creamy sauce they've added to it. The yuzu and cilantro are in just the right very small quantities so that you get hints of interesting flavors are you bite in but it's not overpowering.

Chips and Dip A strange combination of sesame seed paper chips and avocado dip. The sesame seed chips are very very hard, the actual sesame seeds themselves are even harder and when you accidentally bite directly onto the seeds can be almost painful. The avocado dip is very heavy and thick like a paste rather than a dip; the creme fraiche really doesn't come through. The other flavors like the cilantro and edamame don't really come through either; they might be served better by adding perhaps some cream cheese.

The wasabi and ginger is supposed to be brought to you before you eat but they don't seem to be...

Hando is the 2nd temaki sushi (hand roll) establishment to make its way to the Heights. Having been wowed by Handies Douzo, located a few blocks away, my significant other and I really wanted to try Hando. When we arrived, we liked that the restaurant had a private parking lot (although the spaces were quite narrow).

As we walked inside, we were warmly greeted and told to pick up a paper menu and pencil to fill out exactly what we wanted before being seated. The menu is quite simple with hand roll sets, individual hand rolls, and appetizers (which they describe as "not hand rolls"). We wanted to try the most, so we went with the 5-piece hand roll set which consisted of toro, yellowtail, scallop, crab, and shrimp katsu for $25. I also ordered a hot green tea for $2.

Hando has large windows that lets in a lot of natural light, and it has only bar seating. It is small with around 20 seats total, so you may need to wait if the restaurant is full. Each seat at the bar had a little saucer with a little white circular mint-looking thing. The hostess said it was actually a towel to clean your hands as she poured water over it. It indeed was a towel as it expanded rapidly when the water touched it. My hot green tea was then brought out. It was honestly disgusting. It tasted like dirty water, so I would highly recommend avoiding the green tea here at all costs.

The sushi chefs then brought out the hand rolls one-by-one. I don't want to sound like a psychopath and go into detail about each one, but generally, every single hand roll was just "ok." None of the seafood blew me away. Hando uses some premium type of seaweed, but I actually hated it because it was very hard to bite through. The seaweed was thick, and I felt like I was basically chewing on it without much progress. So, if you like to chew on seaweed-flavored gum, come to Hando. After we finished the rolls, we were given tamago with "HANDO" etched on the top of it. This was ok too. It seems like Hando is all about looks without substance.

Overall, I was disappointed with Hando. Having experienced Handies Douzo (the first original hand roll restaurant in the Heights), Hando was a complete letdown. The hand rolls were ok, and the seaweed used sucked and was too chewy. The hot green tea was awful. If you want to experience a quality temaki sushi restaurant in the Heights, do yourself a favor and go to Handies Douzo...

I can see how many people like it. There is a cocktail bar you drink and while you wait for your seats to open up which can be nice. The menu is very simple but can also be a little misleading. The music is overly load in the dining bar area, so loud you can barely hear the server spekaing to you and if you come with someone you better start shouting to hear. Seems more like a club more than anything not sure if this is what they are going for but thats what it feels like it. Maybe others like this type of ambiance but it isnt for me. I came for dinner and ordered a few things. The first order was toro sashimi, theblue fin was really good especially with the dragon fruit took my by surprise but Ive never eaten sahimi where they only give you 3 thinly slices of meat along with 3 very thinly slices of dragonfruit. I feel they were going for a fancy look and preperation of the food but defintely not worth the price. Next up ordered the Brussel Sprouts, again a little disappointed I thought i was going to receive brussel sprouts and instead i received bruseel sprout leaf flakes. I wish that was detailed in the menu, again not worth the price. Basically what they did is they took one or two brussel sprouts and took the leafs off and made the very small dish. The handrolls are actually cylinder shaped vs cone shape which i liked a lot since everything is evenly distributed. I beleive the seaweed id roasted has a crispier and tastier flavir definitely liked it. I had the handroll set of the Spicy tuna, salmon, blue crab and fried oyster. They were all very good no complaints. The servers were qorking very quickly and very attentive. I also had the eggplant agedashi which was very good. I think the rosemary soy incorporated in it brought the flavors together very well. Overall this place isnt as cheap as most would say, its ok at best but I can see how people are attarcted to it. If you like loud clubby music with coctail type atmosphere and you like your food in small portions while presented in a fancy decorative way this might be your spot. Just remember it might not fill you up so be prepared to get a burger or tacos afterward.

PS the little complementary dessert they give at the end is pretty tasty. Its like an egg based dessert. I forget...