Kira — Restaurant in Houston

I'd describe Kira as a fresh spin on japanese that surprises in the best way Walking into Kira, I wasn’t sure what to expect, and that turned out to be a good thing. This place takes Japanese cuisine and gives it a modern, playful twist that caught me off guard in the best way possible. The vibe leans intimate, with everyone seated around a sleek sushi bar that holds maybe 14 people tops. Apparently I was really lucky to walk in and snag a seat. You’re shoulder-to-shoulder with your date or whoever’s next to you, which amps up the cozy, almost private-dinner feel. Yet, the loud-ish, upbeat music keeps the energy buzzing, like the restaurant’s hedging its bets between date spot and lively hangout. It works.

I kicked things off with their non-alcoholic “non-ale,” a hoppy, crisp drink that hit like a craft beer without the buzz. Fresh, clean, and honestly better than most NA options I’ve tried. Solid start. It looked like they had plenty of alcohol options, I just don't drink.

Then came the hand rolls (temaki), which are a whole experience. The servers kindly suggest popping it straight in your mouth for the freshest bite, as the chef hands them directly to you across the bar. Not a rule, more a nudge to get the full effect. They give you a small plate to catch any strays, but these rolls are wound tight, so no mess here. Sitting side-by-side at the bar makes it perfect for a date. You could lean over and hand-feed your partner a roll, sharing a laugh in that close-knit setup. It’s flirty, intimate, and leans right into the sushi bar’s charm. I tried two rolls, starting with the spicy bluefin tuna. It was tasty, clean, fresh fish with a subtle kick. It didn’t exactly rewrite my worldview. Good, not life-changing. I make that distinction, because the next one was.

Next, I took a chance on the maitake hand roll, featuring hen of the woods mushrooms. I’m not usually one to go vegetarian, but I’d heard about this mushroom enough to be curious, and holy smokes, did it deliver. The brown butter emulsion was the star here. Rich, decadent, and just fancy enough to make me feel like I was in on something special. The chef helped with that too, as he confirmed that the Maitake was in his opinion, the most flavorful bite on the menu. I’m a sucker for bold flavors, and when you start getting creative with butter, you’ve got my number. It was so good I ordered another. The second one didn’t quite have the same punch,I think maybe the other chef dialed back the emulsion just a touch, but it was still damn good.

For the main event, I went with the A5 Donburi, a rice bowl topped with sous-vide-then-torched Wagyu, a horseradish crème sauce, and garlic chips. (Probably some sort of greens, but I don't exactly recall) Having scarfed down a big bowl of brisket fried rice from Brisket & Rice earlier that day, I had a point of comparison. Kira’s version was like the upscale cousin, same soul, but elevated. The beef was tender, sliced thin, and while I wouldn’t say it “melted” in my mouth, it didn’t require much effort either. The rice was flavorful on its own, and the horseradish-beef combo was a classic done right. The garlic chips brought the crunch and saltiness, layering in texture like a pro. It tied the whole dish together.

At $100 for the experience l, it felt worth every penny. The staff didn’t just go through the motions, they were friendly, attentive, and seemed genuinely invested in making sure I had a good time. And I did. Coming from North Dakota, I don’t get to Houston often, but when I’m back, Kira’s getting another visit. It’s the kind of place that surprises you, sticks with you, and leaves you planning your next trip before you’ve even...

Maybe we went on an off night, maybe they need some time to figure out what they want to do with Kira, but I must say that I felt quite underwhelmed in my experience.

The food was interesting, but almost everything was over salted, and for the price you are paying, one should expect a better balanced meal. We started the night with the tuna crudo, the textures and flavors were creative. A fun start to the night. After that, we had four hand rolls and three out of four were waaaaay too salty. I suspect it had something to do with the rice, as near the end of our experience we noticed the rice we had been served for all our hand rolls and donburi was taken to the back in a hushed and hurried manner and quickly reset with fresh rice. Again, this happened AFTER we had been served all our food that involved rice. Was it on us to speak up about the salt levels? Would we have been listened to? I don’t know. The lobster hand roll was the highlight, that hollandaise sat on our palate in a sensual and delicious manner for a long time after finishing the roll. After our hand rolls, we were served a surf clam sashimi and I just don’t think the flavors were there for me. The individual components were good, the clam was fresh, we loved the texture of the sea grapes, but as a whole the dish just did not come together and sing the way I hoped it would. I would say that it was the most underwhelming dish of the night. The uni and ikura donburi was fine. It did its job, honestly putting together that decadent of a rice bowl is hard to mess up but, once again, it was just too salty. Honestly, the best thing we ate was the raspberry kakigori. Everything harmonized in that bowl.

The service was another big hold up for us. It seemed they’re still figuring out how to most effectively run everything. Our server seldomly checked on us, but other staff were quick to replenish our water and replace plate ware and utensils. It was hard to decipher whether the best point of contact was our chef, our server or any other staff on the floor. We didn’t feel completely ignored and when we were interacted with, the service was friendly and helpful, but we just didn’t feel like everything was there yet. Also, having to crick your neck around to look the server in the eyes was just weird.

The food here is good, but far from great. The service here is good, but far from great. The vibes of the space are great, except when the staff is preoccupied with service and can’t make it to the record player in a timely fashion, so you end up in a liminal state for thirty seconds or so every fifteen minutes.

Kira, for us, was not an experience worth $300.

You are better off going to Handies Douzo any day of the week - it’s half the price, has more balanced flavors, better service and knows what it’s trying to execute. Oh, and the seaweed is consistently...

I went to Kira for Happy Hours as a walk-in and managed to get a seat! There is nothing bad to say about the service honestly, the chef was friendly and easy to talk with, the staff is incredibly helpful and attentive to feedback! The setting is pretty much similar to other elevated sushi places with bar seating, utensils and table set are more fine dining than casual, very cool decor, pretty dark inside. Now the food. I can definitely tell the materials are incredible, super fresh and buttery seafood. Everything melts in your mouth and you can definitely taste how refreshing and nuaced and rich every piece of seafood is. This is among the very top tier places in Houston for this price range for this quality, and the price is VERY fair for the quality of the materials they work with. Notably, the chuutoro I had was probably among the very best pieces of chuutoro I have ever had. They look great and they tasted fantastic, definitely among the best pieces of sashimi I have had in general. They also use real wasabi and everything, and I like the fact that they hand you the handroll so the nori is still incredibly crispy. The thing is, for my personal taste, I wish they had gone a little lighter on the sauce/additional flavors on the temakis to allow the proteins to shine. All the sauces tasted great by the way, lots of nuances and interesting combinations, but usually there were too much of them. The smoke sauce on the trout was very smoky with a nice depth but with the amount given, it was a little overpowering. Same as the lemon/yuzu on the scallop, despite the fact that the scallop was amazingly refreshing & buttery, there was too much of the lemon/yuzu so it was pretty sour. Same with the maitake & the scarlet crab, the butter sauce was great, very fragrant, but it was a little too much. I wish the proteins didn't have to compete with all that amount of additional flavors, despite them being very good. I also wish I had asked for some wasabi to cut through some of the fat in the sauce + protein and balanced it out a bit. The hirame sashimi was a little sad that day, though it was refreshing. I was not a big fan of the pickled cauliflower, also too sour for me. Overall, I had a great time at Kira and I would love to come back for an omakase experience or something else that focus more on the raw proteins, their donburis look great! Didn't get to try their kakigori so I will definitely have...