Torii Japanese Inspired — Restaurant in Katy

Let me start off by saying that this review isn’t meant to tear down a business and just totally dump on a business. It’s meant to point out some things that need to be addressed that could take the business to where it’s expected to be at.

TLDR version: waited about an hour and thirty minutes for 4 pieces of nigiri and never got the rest of our order. The 4 pieces were excellent. Service was poor. No one to check on us or look into what happened to our order until we did ourselves. Time wasted, but bright side the 4 pieces were comped. Honestly I cared more about my time wasted than getting comped. Read on for more detail.

My wife and I had dinner here on a Sunday night. We came on the recommendation of a friend who said there Kinoko nigiri being very similar to Uchi. We also heard the chef was Uchi alum. That was enough get us there. Where we live, it’s a bit of a food desert so having a high end sushi place relatively close by got us excited. It’s still early when we place our order. The restaurant wasn’t full just yet. We end up waiting a while to get any food. But we notice the table next to us are waiting a while to get food as well. Not a big deal, we’re willing to wait for premium sushi. The wait staff brings us a bowl of edamame because we’ve waited so long for food and that was nice. But we didn’t start getting food from our order until probably 30 min after ordering and it was 4 pieces of nigiri. After that, wait staff coming to check on us disappeared. No one coming to see how everything was, or to apologize for the wait for the rest of our order or offer up an explanation. While waiting, we had to place an order for food at another restaurant because I had a feeling that this wasn’t gonna work out. Seemed like everyone in there was eating but us and we got there before they did. What was the last straw for me was when another couple who came well after us and placed their order over 30 minutes after us, got more food than we did the hour and thirty-ish minutes we waited. After that, asked an employee to close out our tab for our 4 pieces of nigiri and explained what happened. That person happened to be the manager. She was very apologetic and nice and gave me a reasonable explanation as to why we never got our order. But man, after sitting there and having waitresses come fill up our waters multiple times, you would think one would ask if we’re waiting for anything else from our order. She did comp our 4 pieces of Nigiri which was nice. She did offer to make it right for the next visit, but didn’t attempt to take down any of my info. I asked for some pen and paper twice to write it down for her but never got pen and paper. So who knows.

Parents would agree that sometimes it’s hard to sneak off and have a nice dinner without the kids so that time is valuable to us. This date was an epic fail, but at least we got to spend that time together and have a story to tell.

This experience makes me feel like high end restaurants like Uchi, Uchiko, Katami, MF couldn’t exist in the suburbs. The level of wait staff and service is just on another level to what we got here. Not to say that Torii is trying to be like those restaurants but I believe they very well could be in terms of their sushi offerings. The four pieces we had were great. Good fish to rice ratio, served at the right temperature, pre dressed by the chef so no need for soy sauce. This place truly has the potential to be at that level. But service is holding it back. If someone took the initiative to look into what was going on with our order it would’ve changed the...

Tu! My boy! (in the video) made our anniversary and birthday one for the books.. let me begin by saying that I've been all over America and I've been to thousands of restaurants. Many of which were Japanese. I've spend hundreds and sometimes thousands for just a few pieces of sushi. None of them have come close to the flavor profiles that I've had tonight for the service and price. Granted I've never left America but don't hold that against me. The simplicity of the menu was my first clue that this was going to be good. Firm believer that you do a few things perfect than a lot of things good. The house was clean, the music selection was classy, lighting was well lit, and staff was extremely tennative. Not one complaint the service was perfect the entire night. Our water was never below half full. Our saki never ran dry either. Tu the acting head chef not only made sure we were taken care of (his closest guests by proximity) but other guests as well. He always kept an eye out for everyone making sure his staff was on top of their duties. A true artisan he made sure the menu was understandable for someone like me who might have missed something. Suggestions were spot on especially the duck liver. I've never had it prepared like that before so I'm really glad he suggested that for us. Not once did I feel neglected or needed to ask for anything. I wasn't overly payed attention to either so the balance of wait and wait was perfect. I don't like to be ignored but I don't like to be bothered either so for him to look at my glass of saki and see it was low and then look at me like "you need more" without asking me was really nice. Yes sir I do want more thanks for noticing that I'm almost empty. If I'm the owner I'm proud of my staff for these small details being payed attention to. Every time he served us he made sure to explain exactly what it was that we were eating. That level of professionalism warrants the level of praise that I'm currently giving him. We'll don't sir! When I make a review you are either are 5 stars or you are a 1 star. If you made it this far in my review thank you for reading and I now demand you go here with $200 plus a $100 tip and treat your taste buds and your mental health to a magnificent experience. Thank you to the owner, chefs, front and back of the house. We'll...

Today, Feb 1, 2024 is a lucky day for me! I was checking out this restaurant last night only to know that they are open for dinner only. BUT today when I drove past the restaurant, I saw the big banner hanging outside with the words “OPEN FOR LUNCH”! I was ecstatic!!

The restaurant is pretty small. The largest group seating is for a party of 6. However, there are a good number of bar seating. The decor is clean and warm. The ambiance is good.

The lunch menu is only one page with very limited choices. However, there are some special items on the chalk board behind the chef counter. I ordered chirsashi bowl with miso soup, and sashimi special with salad. The miso soup was ok. The salad was in 2 bunches of variable vegetables, seasoned in salt and pepper on top, and sesame dressing at the bottom of the bowl (salad wasn’t drench in the dressing). The sesame dressing was salty. Eating the greens with salt on top together with the sesame dressing was way too salty for me.

I was then served the sashimi special which I throughly enjoyed. The crudo was kanpachi with Asian pear in ponzu sauce. The roll had king salmon in it. The salmon sashimi was lightly smoked, and the rest of the sashimi pieces were as per usual. After some wait, I got my Chirashi bowl. There were plenty of seasoned raw fish in the bowl. All the sashimi pieces were fresh and seasoned perfectly. I had some uni in my bowl too! The best item in the Chirashi bowl was the well-seasoned rice!

There was some waiting time in between the courses despite only having 3 customers in the restaurant. But good things come to people who wait. So to me, it was worth the wait. I hope they will increase the...