Kaiten Sushi Ginza Onodera Houston — Restaurant in Houston

I REALLY should stop doing sushi in Houston.

So let's start from the basics. Why "Kaiten Sushi Ginza Onodera"? Ginza Onodera is a Michelin-starred sushi restaurants chain that started in Ginza (duh?) and since developed both Edomae and Kaiten locations. "Edomae" is basically traditional omakase stuff. As for "kaiten", it means "going around".

No, it does NOT mean conveyor belt, and while this could be implied in a sushi context, the word "kaiten" really doesn't denote any sort of machinery. All the other reviews complaining about the lack of a true kaiten option - where random pre-made dishes of feesh are paraded around the restaurant and you can pick off any one you want - are perfectly valid. Ginza Onodera's sushi might be served on a conveyor belt, but it's not kaiing any ten so far. It's very much okonomi ("as one likes" - asking the sushi chef directly which piece you'd like and he'll serve it to you right then and there, contrasting with "omakase" or "up to you") with extra steps.

Extra steps that are made even more confusing since sushi and not-sushi are served on two different belts, the former of which is VERY easy to miss, especially to East Asians who tend to have a shorter frame, ironically enough.

As for the food, it's decent enough but the restaurant is still fundamentally confused whether it wants to be casual like a kaiten or posh like an omakase. Besides the killer chawanmushi (great kamaboko and the orange peels really appreciate the dish!), anything that is good is also wildly expensive. Other highlights of the dinner were the botan-ebi (basically "proper" ama-ebi with a fuller, sweeter taste than the regular kind) and the fried octopus. The botan-ebi was like $8 a piece. The nama-tako (raw octopus) was also interesting, but I realized why octopus is usually served boiled after eating the stuff lol. I love "slimy" food and am a haute connoisseur of raw eggs, but even that was a little bit too much for me.

However, what most people come here for are the trios, most of which I found rather underwhelming. I could not even tell which piece was supposed to be the chutoro and which one was supposed to be otoro among the tuna trio, and the shiromi trio likewise didn't have a very clear differentiation of fishes. They don't even list the fishes in the menu, you have to figure it out yourself (or ask one of the many always-too-busy waiters). The bombs were good, but I also thought they were fundamentally uninteresting. It's just aburizushi under a different name. Definitely not flavorful, messy, or complicated enough to be considered a "bomb" in America. For what it's worth, they got the Houston smokiness down right.

Uni is $15 a gunkan but they offer two varieties for the same price: A bafun or a murasaki ("purple" uni). The bafun is your regular foie-gras-ish uni, whereas the murasaki has a lighter, smoother taste and is the objectively better choice. Now, let me preface this by saying that $15 uni is not unheard of. Top omakases in New York or Chicago can easily fetch that price. But this place is not top nor is it an omakase, so I don't know what that price tag's doing here. $15 is very comparable, ballpark, to a piece of uni at Kyoten Next Door and that uni wouldn't even want to breathe the same air as this version. This is average grade ("nami") uni at best and doesn't taste particularly interesting either if you've had good uni before.

One thing I was explicitly asked to mention: They don't split and itemize the bills for you even when LITERALLY MOST OF THEIR MENU IS 1-PIECE NIGIRI (and I don't know how you feel about so-called "Southern hospitality" or Michelin-starred etiquette, but not everyone wants to treat all the other people in their party to dinner). They can only split it "evenly". In an offshoot of a Michelin-starred restaurant. In a place that at least should start to pretend to have good hospitality.

TL;DR Either commit to poshness and go to Aiko, or have a casual meal at Sushi Kura. Don't try to be both at...

I normally never give bad reviews, but I was just so disappointed.

I went on opening weekend with high hopes given the background of the chef along with the praise from local Houston food influencers. I waited over 3 and a half hours before I was seated, and I did not mind waiting given the high expectations. However, one thing about the waiting process really upset me. When I got to the front of the line, instead of seating me, they seated the group of 2 people behind me in line instead. I would completely understand maybe if it was a table for 5 or 6, but seating a table of 2 who had come after me?? It is unacceptable, rude, and very disrespectful to someone who got here early only for them to seat people who had come later simply because I didn't have 1 extra person come with me. It wasn't for another 30 or 40 minutes when another table opened up for me. I really felt so disrespected because this tells me the management did not value each individual customer and was only looking to maximize their sales on the first day. ANY respectable restaurant should always seat on a first come first serve basis for tables of similar size. There were NO reservations available so I came 10 minutes before the table behind me and waited an additional 30-40 minutes. For a restaurant commanding such a high price, I would have expected each customer to get the respect they deserve, especially if they went out of their way to come earlier. Doing priority seating for tables of 2 over those who came alone completely ignores the purpose of doing walk-in only - rewarding the people who come early to try to enjoy the food. To me, every customer should be treated fairly, and I simply felt incredibly disrespected. Now onto the dining experience. I will give credit where credit is due - this truly was some good sushi. Let's start with the unsung hero, the rice. The rice was interesting as it had a nice almost al dente bite. The rice was certainly better than 90% of sushi places that really just pack the rice together into a tight blob, but it was a touch dry. Though I understand since they weren't using white rice. The fish was of excellent quality, and the silver-skinned fish options in particular were nicely cured with robust umami and salty flavor. The different types of white fish sushi were nice and clean and had a nice bouncy texture as well. The various tuna sushi was good, but I wouldn't say they had the unique flavor profile the other types of fish gave. The uni was exceptionally fresh, but honestly paying $25 for 2 pieces of uni was overpriced. This brings me to the major issues with the dining experience: the price and the service quality. By the end of it, I spent over $120 not including tip. For a lot less, I could go to somewhere with comparable quality like Akiko or Uchi, or I could've paid a bit more and gone to a nice omakase restaurant. It really is expensive for what you're getting. The service really did not deliver at the price point either. The female manager at the front, who I assume was brought in from Japan, was very pleasant and nice, but some of the other servers showed indifference. I had to cancel my order for my eel sushi because I didn't receive this single piece of sushi after over 1 HOUR of waiting and after letting 2 servers know. Not a lot of friendly faces and not even coming in to check on food and experience. I know it's conveyor belt sushi, but at this pricepoint, I expect a little more than refilling water. So why the 2 stars if the food was good? At this price point, it's about the experience. No way could I accept getting here first and having 2 people seated before me. Unacceptable, disrespectful, and greedy. Food was good but service wasn't up to par for a place charging on avg $5 for 1 piece of sushi. So so disappointed. I wanted to love it. I really did. But at this price point, I will not be...

My wife (who is Japanese) and I just reallocated to Houston from south FL. People would often ask us 'why would you leave Boca Raton for Texas?!?' and one of the reasons as strange as it might sound is that there is much more access to decent Japanese food. Where we lived we had to drive 45 minutes each way just to have decent Izakaya and while Omakase places have opened up we both feel paying $150 a person for just ok sushi compared to what we have when we go to Japan is obscene. But Houston offers a lot of very good sushi and ramen places as well as a Japanese market (SEIWA) and when we heard Kaiten Onedera was opening we were really excited. Our first visit in December was great. The chawanmushi was delicious and each piece of sushi was memorable. We had no problem spending nearly $200. Our next visit in April was not quite as good and the next we noticed the chawamushi while still delicious was a smaller portion and the rice disappointing. We have made several visits subsequently last night being the latest and we were really dismayed. We see they have added 'fun' rolls which is fine- we support anything to keep the serious sushi going if not enough customers for that otherwise but not if the quality declines. The rice was really poorly seasoned and overcooked. The sushi was tasteless and one of the rolls was inedible. It really pains us to say this but it seems it is failing. Maybe it was because it was a Sunday but really thats no excuse-if you are open everyday needs to be as good as any other. We will try again but if like last night that will be it for us. If we can find the same or better quality downtown where we live why drive out there? Please recover your original level of quality! We are rooting for you and know it must be challenging in this environment. . Gambate...