Kura Revolving Sushi Bar — Restaurant in North Bethesda

First time going to a revolving sushi bar and their was a lot to be desired.

First the positives:

The robot server with our drinks was adorable and made me feel like we were in Japan. The atmosphere gave you the feeling of being in a Japanese sushi bar with the colors and the Pikmin characters. The conveyor belts are really efficient and the tablet does give you wide variety of sushi to pick. At the end of the meal, you even get a Pikmin book magnet for the dispensary above the table, pretty cool.

Now for the negatives:

Firstly, our table was not fully set up. They needed to refill our soy sauce dispenser and give us more pickled ginger when we ASKED THEM on the tablet. Our servers only came by once to check in and see how we were doing, and if we needed something, they took forever to get to our table.

The sushi was okay at best. The salmon skin roll (my personal favorite) was somewhat lacking. There was no crunch to the salmon skin and more veggie and rice than normal. The spicy tune roll was not spicy at all. Another roll (I forget the name) came topped with bonito flakes, but it was covered with the flakes and it made me feel like I was eating sawdust on what is supposed to be a delicacy. Some of the rolls were lacking in the protein and were mostly rice. The nigiri especially had thin slices of protein which makes it underwhelming. All choices of sushi should be balanced in all aspects.

I also got mochi for the dessert. I asked for the mix (strawberry and matcha tea flavored), but I only got strawberry. While the mochi was good, I wanted a variety of both flavors. Very disappointing.

Overall, not the best experience for a revolving sushi bar. There are a lot of issues that need to...

Reminiscent of Japan for me! Tomago, warabimochi, Japanese soy sauce dispenser, the soothing female Japanese PA voice on tablet, the bowing emojis, designs and decor, etc…. Never have I had such a vivid flash back to Japan than here; there’s really no other place I’ve been to that invokes an authentic feeling of Japan for me.

In Shibuya (before Shibuya Incident RIP Nanami) the locals came into the revolving sushi bars to grab a solid filling meal and a beer before going back to work or back home, def not a luxury vibe. Maybe there are some but I have never been in one. Kura sushi was a bit more upscale than the other ones I’ve been in. Kura has really solid sushi but don’t expect high end, because that doesn’t seem like the ethos of revolving sushi.

Some people complain about the lack of taste, I just wanted to address that there’s a significant difference between AMERICANIZED sushi and Japanese sushi. Americanized is heavy on the sauces (to be cheap, go figure) but Japanese is more focused on texture and a balance of flavors. I thought Kura reflected the Japanese style more with a little bit of Americanization sprinkled in. Pleasant sushi that keeps it light rather than heavy.

No problems with getting the rolls we wanted, saw all items from apps to entrees to deserts, and no problems with service. How do people complain about service??? It’s a robot that brings drinks and a belt that brings your food lol if you can’t handle tablet ordering in this day and age…. Idk what to tell you! Download the app to get in the waitlist. We arrived and were seated 5 minutes later bypassing the line outside.

Very enjoyable and we will be back. Oh and Sapporo on...

This was my first time at a revolving sushi bar and it was awesome. It was just my wife and I so we were seated immediately, even midday on a Saturday. We had an issue ordering drinks on the tablet but one of the staff was happy to take our drink orders, no other issues after that.

You have the choice of grabbing whatever you want from the revolving bar, but there's also an option to order on the tablet and have it delivered via conveyor belt directly to your table. We ended up using this option most of the time because the revolving trays would often be empty by the time it made it to our table, but we didn't have to wait long for it to be delivered so it wasn't a big deal, just something to be aware of.

When you're done with plates you deposit them into a slot at your table, and it tallies how many you deposit to determine your bill. Every 5 plates you insert, a cute animation plays encouraging you to insert more, and once you hit 15 you get a little prize from a dispenser above the table. We got a keychain; nothing crazy, but fun!

The whole place is quite lively with all the moving conveyors, including the stacks of plates circulating the kitchen that seem to be intentionally raised up just to add to the effect. There are also robots that deliver drinks to the tables. They play pop music but it's not insanely loud, and the layout and shape of the table furniture keeps noise to a minimum, so you can easily have a conversation with others at your table. Oh, and they have the fabled smart toilets too. Do with that information what you will.

Tl;dr: Highly recommend, it was a great...